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Movies arrive in the US and soon attract large and enthusiastic audiences; critics assail them, including Thomas Edison's landmark 1896 film, The Kiss, as a threat to morality. |
| 1907 |
Chicago enacts the first movie censorship law in America. Cities and states around the nation create local censorships boards in the following years, resulting in a variety of different rules and standards. |
| 1909 |
The National Board of Censorship, representing mainstream Protestantism, is created after complaints about "indecent" films cause movie theaters in New York City to close. By the 1920s, most Protestant critics of movies are calling for federal regulation of the industry. |
| 1914 |
The Women's Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), which in 1906 condemned the influence of movies on the health, well-being and morals of youth, begins to lobby aggressively for government regulation of films. The WCTU claims that films are "addictive," that they glorify war and violence, and that they cause crime, delinquency and immoral behavior. |
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In Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio, the Supreme Court holds that movies are not protected by the First amendment. The ruling allows state and local boards to continue censoring films. |
| 1915 |
The NAACP and others protest against Birth of a Nation, D.W. Griffith's film about the Civil War and Reconstruction, which incites riots in Ohio, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Colorado. It will become the most banned film in U.S. history because of its controversial racial content. |
| 1922 |
The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA), later to become the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) is formed, led by Former Postmaster General William H. Hays. |
| 1925 |
The WCTU decides that movies are the most important cultural influence on youth and that the MPPDA is not doing enough to regulate their content. It forms a Motion Picture Department to press for government regulation. |
| 1927 |
Independent film exhibitors, frustrated by movie studio rules that give them little say over what films they show, create the Allied States Association, and join other critics in calling for government regulation. |
| 1930 |
MPPDA creates A Code to Maintain Social and Community Values in the Production of Silent, Synchronized and Talking Motion Pictures, also called the Production Code or the Hays Code. It condemns movies that "lower the moral standards" of viewers and promises that "the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrongdoing, evil, or sin." Movie producers pay little attention to the Code, however. |
| 1931 |
The sexual innuendo in Monkey Business and other Groucho Marx's films, coupled with his suggestive delivery, was often the target of censors. |
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Like Groucho Marx, Mae West's racy dialog — "Why don't you come up sometime and see me. I'm home every evening" — and cheeky delivery were often the target of censors. They were also partially responsible for the strengthening of the morals-focused Hays Code in 1934. |
| 1934 |
Joseph I. Breen becomes head of the new Production Code Authority, which enforces the Hays Code. Under Breen, who serves for 20 years, the PCA is closely allied with the Legion of Decency. During this period, movie production companies are essentially required to join the PCA, and any company that releases a film without its seal of approval is subject to a fine. |
| 1934 |
The Catholic Legion of Decency is formed. An estimated 10 million Catholics sign a pledge "to refrain from viewing all objectionable movies or attending any theater that showed such films."However, the Legion advocates self-regulation, not government regulation, because of concern for separation of church and state. The risk of Catholic boycotts, however, provides an economic incentive to placate Catholic critics. |
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Censors unsuccessfully demanded changes in the story of the affair between Rick and Ilsa in Casablanca, requiring that Ilsa's husband Victor be deceased, instead of away on business, to remove any suggestion of impropriety. |
| 1945 |
William Hays resigns as head of the MPPDA and is succeeded by former head of the US Chamber of Commerce, Eric Johnston, who renames the organization the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). |
| 1951 |
References to Blanche Dubois' infidelities were excised from the original 1951 version of A Streetcar Named Desire. The censors were also concerned with the moral ambiguity of the characters. |
| 1951 |
Among the many scenes and exchanges that the censors objected to in the classic The African Queen were an "immoral relationship" between a missionary and a hard-edged boat captain during WWI, the "questionable taste" of the sound of stomach-growlings, and the film's depiction of "ridiculed missionaries" which may be offensive "to people of serious religious conviction." Also, kissing should not be "passionate, lustful, or open-mouthed." |
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In Burstyn v. Wilson, the Supreme Court strikes down a ban on Roberto Rossellini's film, The Miracle, which the New York Board of Regents had found "sacreligious." For the first time, the Supreme Court holds that "motion pictures are a significant medium for the communication of ideas," entitled to some First Amendment protection. |
| 1955 - 1956 |
The Legion of Decency and the MPAA begin to clash: The Legion approves Man with a Golden Arm, including a depiction of drug use, but the MPAA does not, while Elia Kazan's film Baby Doll is approved by MPAA but condemned by the Legion for its erotic content. |
| 1956 |
MPAA initiates a review of the Production Code, which results in loosening its prohibitions on the portrayal of drug use, abortion, miscegenation, prostitution, and abortion. The revised code added a prohibition on blasphemy and ridiculing the clergy. |
| 1958 |
It was not so much the graphic portrayal of sex in Louis Malle's Les Amants (The Lovers), since the film only shows a glimpse of the protagonist's naked breast, but rather its celebration of adulterous liaisons. Ohio enforced an obscenity law to ban the film, but in 1968 the Supreme Court reversed the obscenity conviction of the Ohio theater that exhibited the film. |
| 1959 |
In holding that the film version of Lady Chatterly's Lover is entitled to First Amendment protection, the Supreme Court finds that its sympathetic portrayal of adultery is not obscene. |
| 1961 - 1965 |
Appellate courts at the state and federal level consistently reject efforts to censor films. |
| 1961 |
In Times Film Corp. v. Chicago, the Supreme Court says that Chicago's licensing scheme, which required film exhibitors to submit films for police review before screening, is not a prior restraint on speech, leaving courts to rule in individual cases whether the result is constitutional. |
| 1966 |
Jack Valenti, former assistant to President Lyndon Johnson, becomes head of the MPAA and immediately begins to revise the Production Code. He creates the category "SMA - Suggested for Mature Audiences" for "blatant" material. Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf is the first film designated SMA. |
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Rather than cut nude scenes from Blow-Up, Michelangelo Antonioni chooses to release it without an MPAA seal. |
| 1967 |
Bonnie and Clyde, released shortly after the end of the Hays Code, was notable for its portrayal of graphic violence. Critics and the general public were concerned that the film glamorized violence because the main characters were highly engaging and likeable. |
| 1968 |
MPAA institutes a nationwide system of voluntary ratings based on the viewer's age, in response to continuing objections to the Production Code, and to court rulings indicating that different First Amendment standards apply to adults and minors. The original ratings are G for General Audiences, M for Mature Audiences, R for 16 and above unless accompanied by a parent or guardian, and X for under 16 not admitted. |
| 1969 |
Midnight Cowboy wins three Academy Awards. It is the first and only X-rated film to receive an Oscar for Best Picture. |
| 1970s - 1980s |
The X-rating, which was not trademarked by the MPAA, comes to be equated with pornography. Newspapers and TV refuse advertisements for X-rated movies, and some theaters refuse to screen X-rated movies. |
| 1971 |
Although Carnal Knowledge explored highly nuanced themes and characters, the censors were blinded by the titillating title and suggestion of sex. In 1972, the film was seized and a theater manager was arrested in Georgia. The Supreme Court eventually overturned the conviction. |
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The Last Picture Show, featuring a scene of Cybil Shepherd skinny-dipping, was banned in Phoenix in 1973 for violating a state obscenity statute. A federal court later held that the film was not obscene. |
| 1975 |
In 1994, the owner and manager of the Pink Pyramid, a small gay and lesbian bookstore in Cincinnati, faced fines and prison sentences for obscenity, after undercover police rented a videotape of Salo, or 120 Days of Sodom. The case was eventually settled when the prosecutor dropped six charges and the store agreed to plead no contest and pay a500 fine. |
| 1979 |
Oklahoma City police confiscated The Tin Drum from video stores, the public library, and private homes in June 1997, in response to complaints from Oklahomans for Children and Families (OCAF). A federal judge held that the film does not contain child pornography, and that it is constitutionally protected because of its artistic value. |
| 1982 |
The Canadian documentary, If You Love This Planet, on the medical and social effects of nuclear war triggered concern because it interspersed short clips from Ronald Reagan movies. After the U.S. Justice Department labeled the film "political propaganda," the film gained notoriety, eventually leading to an Oscar for Best Short Documentary for director Terri Nash. In her acceptance speech, she thanked the U.S. Government for so effectively "advertising" her film. |
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Last Temptation of Christ spurred boycotts over the depiction of a sexual relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Protests outside theaters read: "Don't Crucify Christ Again," "Stop This Attack on Christianity," and "Scripture Not Scripts." |
| 1990 |
The X-rating is replaced by NC-17 to differentiate art film from pornography. Nonetheless, religious activists pressure large video chains and retailers, such as Blockbuster and Wal-Mart, not to stock NC-17 titles. |
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Natural Born Killers's graphic portrayal of seemingly random acts of violence caused Blockbuster, K-Mart and Wal-Mart to refuse to stock the Director's Cut of the film. |
| 2006 |
No film rated NC-17 has been a box office success. While MPAA membership is voluntary, all seven major Hollywood studios submit their films to its rating board. Most multi-mall operators, cineplex chains, retail giants, and home-video chains only show films that have an MPAA rating. Films that are not rated are not shown in any MPAA-affiliated theatres. In many markets, adults have little or no access to NC-17 or non-rated films. |
| To learn more, visit www.aclu.org and www.ncac.org |