Death of the Production Code

Filmmaking has had many memorable moments throughout history. Trying to pinpoint the most important moment in film history is very difficult because there are so many different ways to approach the topic. What is important? Are moments in history more important than others because they happen first? How important is one moment in history if it would have never happened without a predecessor laying the groundwork?

Films have slowly developed over time with new skill by the artists. Man discovered the ability to create film and photographs, and eventually he made moving pictures with stories, adventure, and social commentary.

Film was born into a world with open arms. Now that this new source of job opportunities was created, someone had to decide just what this new art form would be allowed to say and show. Unfortunately someone decided that a Production Code would be needed to protect the public from the horrible and perverse. The Production Code was created to protect the American people from anything that may not be appropriate, but it was also created out of fear of the Communist party.

During the time the Production Code reigned supreme many people in Hollywood were experiencing something many would like to pretend never happened in the United Sates. Filmmakers, actors, producers, anyone in Hollywood seen as a threat by J. Edger Hover was accused of being a communist and a saboteur of the nations society.

The Jim Carry, film The Majestic, is an excellent fictional example of how people were being treated under the rule of the Production Code. It is a story of a filmmaker whom is accused of being a communist. Because of this accusation his current project, an unknown film, is shutdown. He returns later to confront the board members that made this accusation and, in a very similar likeness to a factual moment in history, he declares his patriotism and disgust for the people responsible.

The Production Code would not last. It did finally come to an end during the birth of another time known as the Hollywood Renaissance. Although, many actors like Jimmy Stuart, John Wayne, and many others had great accomplishments during the Production Codes time, the success of films after its death would never be matched. Many would say that the Studio Era was the greatest time of film, and no moment in history compares.

This is arguable because the largest box office smash ever, would be the film Titanic. This film came out long after the Studio Era was dead and at least twenty years after the death of the Production Code. At no point could anyone, during the Studio Era, have believed that a film would ever gross six hundred million dollars. That amount of money would be the equivalent of some one today saying, "I'm gonna make a trillion ga-zillion dollars." It would be considered children's fantasy.

Eventually it becomes apparent, that historically speaking, the death of the Production Code represents more than the birth of the Hollywood Renaissance. The death of the production code is probably the most important moment in film history because it was apart of one of the most important moments in American history. The death of the Production Code was not just the beginning of artistic film, as we know it. It was the start of a greater change that would wash coast to coast across the Untied States. People no longer wanted to live in a 1950's red scare and they no longer wanted to see films that deceived them about the state of affairs in the rest of the world, or in their own government.

The sixties are know as one of the most important times in history. It is often discussed simply as the sixties, but most of what was truly important and what most people discuss when they say "the sixties", happened in the early seventies. In 1974 Vietnam was coming to a close and the beginning of the Hollywood Renaissance was just underway. Mostly the new political commentary would be directed at the war and at the government. Without the death of the Production Code the film industry would be a greater example of a communist country than the proud example of free American enterprise that it is today.

Essentially, film weighed so greatly during the time the Production Code came and went, that it mimicked and predicted the changes that would occur in the United States. The death of the Production Code is the most important moment in film history because it is one of the most important moments in American history. A country that prides itself on the freedoms the citizens enjoy, cannot be represented by films that are chained and gagged by rules and regulations.

The death of the Production Code was not just that, but in many ways it was a return to the Studio Era. It was a return to studios, actors, directors, and the films themselves being the envy of every citizen in the U.S. It was a return to films being a tool of artistic expression as well as experimentation, fantasy, and entertainment. Films had been entertaining before, but to most people the films had always had an underline patronizing patriotic message. Now the films were embracing their audience, society.