Movies on Patriotic theme
The economic downturns of the Great Depression contributed to the county's fascination with gangster genres. As Americans lost their jobs or saw their farms foreclosed on by the once admired establishment or banking system; with public endorsement gangsters descended in spirit from America's frontier outlaws such as the James Gang, and led by desperadoes like Pretty Boy Floyd, Baby Face Nelson, and Machine Gun Kelly--rose up to assault the system. Because of Prohibition, the Great Depression and World War II, gangsters became the modern gunslingers and outlaws. The gangster saga replaced the Western as the American myth. It told the story of modern America. Young Americans enjoyed watching gangster films during the 1930s. Before President Roosevelt's New Deal, gangsters were without doubt the American cinema's most striking heroes. The film industry's love affair with members of criminal gangs was only natural, they were colorful, violent, and charismatic men and women whose law-breaking activities were followed by millions of law abiding Americans. But when brought to the screen, gangster films more than any other Hollywood genre created problems not only for the usual censorship lobbies but also for judges, lawyers, teachers, po
licemen, mayors, newspapers, and local councilors. Many respectable citizens believed that gangster films based on the lives and activities of Prohibition-era criminals, led to an increase in juvenile delinquency and accused Hollywood of delivering impressionable youth into a career of crime. The harmful effects of fast-moving and exciting gangster films on young cinema patrons thus became a prominent concern of those eager to control and censor this pervasive new mass medium. After a series of sex scandals rocked the American film industry, in 1922 Hollywood's Jewish moguls hired a midwestern Presbyterian gentleman and influential Republican William Harrison Hays, former Postmaster General in President Warren Harding's cabinet, as their front man to clean up the image of the movies. The industry's self-monitoring Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America Inc. (MPPDA) or Hays office in Los Angeles tried a variety of ways to regulate films before adopting a formal code. Written in 1930 by two mid-western Catholics, a Jesuit professor of drama in St. Louis and a lay publisher of trade magazines; the new Motion Picture Code stipulated partly in reaction to the increasing popularity of gangster films, that movies stress proper behavior, respect for government, and Christian values. The Hays Code was made mandatory in 1934, and began with an attack on what was seen as a general tone of lawlessness and on depicting specific criminal methods in recent gangster movies. Criminal acts were "never to be presented in such a way as to throw sympathy with the crime as against law and justice or to inspire others with a desire for imitation." Murder must be presented in a manner that "will not inspire imitation" and "revenge in modern times shall not be justified." Methods of crime such as theft, robbery, arson, safecraking, smuggling, and dynamiting of trains should not be explicitly presented. If these strictures were not met, a film project would no longer receive the code's seal of MPPDA approval (Springhall 137-138). Organized protest against gangster movies reached its height with the publicity surrounding director Howard Hawks' Scarface (1932); in which the versatile Paul Muni overacted as Tony Camonte, another disguised Al Capone figure. This violent and fast paced film produced by millionaire Howard Hughes and scripted by former Chicago newspaperman Ben Hecht, reached the screen a year after Public Enemy but was actually made at the same time. The delay of Scarface occurred because in an effort to appease the movie censors. A subtitle "Shame of the Nation" was added to Scar
Some common words found in the essay are:
Hays Code, Roosevelt's Deal, Decency Legion, Payne Fund's, Nonetheless Hollywood, Warner Brothers, Los Angeles, Shame Nation, Payne Studies, , gangster films, motion picture, hays code, gangster movies, warner brothers, legion decency, federal government, love affair, journal popular culture, municipal censorship, hays office, love affair mob,
Approximate Word count = 1750
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
