Taboo: Boundary and Transgression in American Cinema

3 units

Almost from the first public exhibition of motion pictures in the United States, concerns were expressed about the content of film. Denied the First Amendment protection of free speech by a 1915 Supreme Court decision, movies were repeatedly subject to various attempts at regulating content by government at federal, state and even municipal levels. Trying to stave off government control, Hollywood would eventually institute forms of self-regulation, first in the formation of the Production Code Administration and subsequently in the Ratings system. Control of content in American movies may be seen as paternalistic, a top-down attempt to impose moral norms and standards of behavior on a diverse audience. But it also reflects changing standards of acceptable public discourse, most particularly with regard to violence, sexuality, and race. That topics once barred from dramatic representation by the Production Code - miscegenation, non-normative sexuality and lower forms of sexuality, abortion, drug addiction - could eventually find a place in American movies speaks to changes in the culture at large. In trying to understand these cultural changes, this course will explore films that challenged taboos, films from the early teens that brought on the first attempts to control film content to films released under the Ratings system, which has exerted subtler forms of control over content. Required Screenings.