Juvenile delinquency (1955)

JUVENILE DELINQUENCY 89 It is not censorship if and when a film prodnoer edits a screenplay for the pur- pose of making it more widely acceptable to the public. The newspaper editor claims a right to exercise precisely the same function in giving ns the news. Many feel that in the.se days certain elements of our free pi-ess indulge their liberties to a point of license, but at least it is never argued that we have a censored pi'ess. In the early 1030's, the American m(jtion-picture industry, through the MPPA, voluntarily adopted a Code of Production Standards. This consisted of a number of rules with given reasons for each rule. Based broadly on the Ten Commandments, these rules defined the moral and ethical principles by which matter involving crime, sex, vulgarity, profanity, costume, racial, and national sentiments should be evaluated and related to screen drama. It is apareut that the current trend toward excessive crime and salacious sex treatment in films is pai-tly attributable to some failure of performance on the part of film jiroducers who are pledged to observe this code and the industry- app(iinted oflSpials wliose task it is to administer it. There is a belief among some film producers that this code, in spirit and effect, is censorious. They comjilain that to observe it, letter and spirit, is to hamper the artistic expression and mature development of the motion picture. Main arguments employed against the code are— 1. That it restricts production of films of adult appeal. 2. That, since TV jiroducers are bound only by token acceptance of prin- ciples and practices emb<»died in the film code and do not maintain an ad- ministration strictly to apply them, TV is correspondingly freer than their movie competitors to engage in sensational appeal to tlie public. ?>. That the Supreme Court has ruled that the screen enjoys the same constitutional rights to freedom of expression as the newspaper press and that tlierefore the pulilic shall have the sole right to decide what is fit and acceptable in movie and TV entertainment. The following counterarguments are offered : 1. The Production Code f)fters no restrictions to those engaged in producing, writing, or' directing films who care to understand and give effect to its moral philosophies and ethical principles. To the contrary, it provides a key to validity in the drama by alining worldly conflicts between good and evil with immutable principles laid down by Judeo-Christian law. There prevails a common mis- conception that "adidt" entertainment involves preoccupation with the sordid side of life. The result is that many so-called "adult" films (including some ex- ploiting juvenile crime and violence) betray, on the part of those responsible for them, a palpably adolescent approach to sex problems and situations. 2. It is true that the TV industry, under its standard of practices and .so-called Television Code, presently fails sufficiently to curb, either in qualit.v or x'elative quantity, its representations of crime, violence, and sexual immorality. The result is fast-growing public resistance and a loss of public following (and con- sequently of partonage for commercial sponsors). o. The Supreme Court has not ruled that the constitutional rights of a "free .screen" or of a "free press" include the right to present any idea that may come to a film producer's or editor's mind. While the Supreme Court has handed down no legal definitions, it has tacitly acknowledged that that which is ob.scene, in- cites to violence, or otherwise jeopardizes law and order is subject to legal re- straints on the screen as in everyday life. FOREIGN COMPARISONS Overseas importers of American films almost unanimously oppose those in which violence and brutality are dominant features. The British Board of Film Censors, a nonstatutory body which commands the respect of the British film industry and the public at large, has recently banned public exhibition of: The Wild One; Cell 245.">. Death Row (based on the criminal case history of condemned kidnap-rapist Caryl Chessman) : Black Tuesday (in which a con- demned gangster escapes from the electric chair, takes hostages and coldly kills several of them) : Wicked Woman; and Cry Vengeance—and Blackboard Jungle has been refused a certificate and negotiatiims are proceeding. Other recent films have been subject to heavy eliminations resulting in dam- age tu. (ir destruction of, story continuity.