The term censorship can be defined as the suppression of speech that may be considered sensitive harmful, indecent or inconvenient to the general public as determined by the government or by a media outlet or any other controlling body. There are different of censorship depending on the type of information that’s being censored.
There is the moral censorship which entails the removal of materials that are obscene or morally questionable or illegal for example, child pornography. Another type is the military censorship, where military tactics and intelligence is kept from the enemy. This is done to prevent gleaning of military information. There is also the political censorship where the government holds information from the citizens so as to control the population and avoid the occurrence of a rebellion. Another type is the religious censorship that entails the removal of any material considered objectionable by a certain faith. Last but not least, we have creative censorship which exhibits creativity; censors rewrite texts, giving these texts secret co-authors. This type of censorship has been applied in the novel; nineteen eighty-four.
The New York Board of Motion Picture Censorship was created in 1909 by the People`s Institute. Most producers were influenced by this and agreed not to release any films unless they were approved by this censorship body. This body later changed its name to The National Board of Censorship due to its increased importance and then, in 1915, to "The National Board of Review” the reception of the people was a clear indication of their concerns over the quality of , decency and taste of the films produced in Hollywood. The U.S declared state censorship of motion pictures constitutional. Supreme Court in 1915 and seven states across the country administered movie censorship boards. The Motion Picture Production Code was published on 31ST March 1930.In 1934 the Catholic Church bishop established The Legion of Decency which was a group in charge of evaluating the content of movies and also advised congregations concerning the moral content asked Catholics to sign a pledge that would prevent them from all motion pictures except those which would not offend decency and Christian morality.
The motion Picture production code maintained that there would be production of pictures that lowered the moral standards of the viewers; it also acknowledged that as art, motion pictures were very important. This code provided specific moral obligation, production guidelines and moral principles for the treatment of various plots and their elements.
Genre
Genres are usually formed by conventions and they change over time as new ones are invented and the use of old ones is discontinued. It is a class of artistic endeavor having a specific form, content or technique for example, poetry of artistic.
As the Hollywood system made more and more movies in an increasingly factory-like atmosphere, it turned to the formulaic stability of genres. Some of these different genres that came up in the 1930s include musicals, Westerns, Documentaries, Gangster, Horror and Screwball comedies. The movie industry made approximately 500 movies an year. At this time the movie industry was forced to compete with the growth of television. After the production of the movie “The Jazz Singer” the film industries evolved faster and begun making audio films. It was during this period that the new genres came to existence. In peak years, westerns accounted for as much as 40% of Hollywood’s entire output. The beginning of world war two resulted to the immigration of many Jewish European film makers to Hollywood. Europe lost most of its important and experienced film makers during this time.
The introduction of TVs was a big blow to film industry since it was no longer necessary to watch films from cinema halls. 3D films were incented as a result of this. The new genres of movies acquired great popularity and became very successful. Another successful genre of film was the music videos. This gave cinemas another chance to restore their popularity. Animation films were also another genre that came up an example of this is the toy story or the ice age. These films did not have any real characters. More film series are coming up especially with the invention of the internet which is an important medium to produce movies.
Post Classicism
The 50s was known for a number of things, these include, and the post-war affluence and it was marked by an increased choice of leisure time activities, the rise of modern jazz, the rise of fast food restaurants and drive-ins. In the U.S, the 1942 to 1962, was referred to as the post-classical era of cinema. The cinema was in a state of transition. The American culture was very much alive and was unstoppable and was constantly changing and moving towards a more open society. This era was characterized by the beginning of the breaking apart of censorship within films as they moved towards more open portrayals of realism. This conflict of ideals had different outcomes which included: caustic, explosive period of heightened awareness of violence, sexuality, social problems, and individuality.
The censorship barriers were broken and most or all issues that were forbidden began emerging on the screens this happened as a result of the world war two images and blacks consciousness seen on TV. And mass media. As the focus of the public shifted the movies were liberated. These extra cinematic factors together with the other cinematic factors such as the completion between movies and TVs and the rise of independent producers helped breakdown the wall of censorship that was all round the American cinema.
The period of the collapse of censorship is referred to as the modernist. It was here that the gates of sexuality were opened and can be markedby the introduction of playboy into the market. The movie industry started accepting the lack of seal and a bad Legion of Decency rating. The movies were produced for both the American market and the foreign market. The market comprised mainly of teenagers
Film Noir
This is a cinematic term that used to describe stylish holly crime dramas, it puts emphasis on those that cynical attitudes and sexual motivations. This period in Hollywood is regarded as start from the 1940s to the late 1950s. Film noir is a French word for Black film and it was first used by the French critic, Nino Frank and Jean-Pierre Chartier directed to the Hollywood films this in 1946. Most of the films produced in the 1960s onwards show aspects of film noirs of the classic period, and they often treating noir conventions in a self-referential manner. It encompasses a wide range of plots; this can be in the form of a private eye, a plain clothes policeman, an aging boxer and many more. In the years following the end of world war two marked the start of a crucial phase in the creation, popularizing and definition of cinematic and literary noir.
Several developments there increased production of pessimistic, downbeat crime films, the publication of a new series of crime novels in France among others. The French critics wrote two essays to identify a departure in film making which was referred to as the American film noir. The films that were produced after the world war two appeared to confirm the French judgments since they were different from the usual films; they give an impression of certain disagreeable realities that are existent in real sense. An example of these films is the woman in the window, Ministry of fear, Scarlet Street.The world became a darker place after the ww2 and this was evident in the films in terms of themes and content.A defining characteristic of film noir is fatalism.