Pre-Code Hollywood and Motion Picture Production Code Essay

Pre-Code Hollywood and Motion Picture Production Code - Essay Example Film history suggests that the moment someone observed that the new medium of "moving pictures" could be used to show images that might not be appropriate for all ages and all lifestyles, the movement toward movie had censorship began. This write-up essays the evolution of this censorship in the form of Production Code and the world of Hollywood before the inception of this code, often called the Pre-Code era of Hollywood. The Pre-Code Hollywood Pre-Code Hollywood is the marquee name for a brief period of time in the motion-picture history, 1930-1934 that interfaced between 1930, the official adoption of Production Code and 1934, the rigorous enforcement of the Production Code (Doherty). The four-year interval marks a fascinating and atypical time in Hollywood History, when the censorship was lax and the industry made the most out of it, exploiting all extreme subjects such as sex, vice, violence, and moral meanings forced upon Hollywood. The phrase reminds cinegoers of the time when trigger-happy gangsters, quipping dames, and disruptive rebels of either gender, ran loose in the anarchistic terrain of American Cinema. During this period, Hollywood cinema reached its liberal heights as never before. Women could play imperfect roles and not simply virginal doormats or monstrous vamps; actions could be morally and ethically ambiguous, colored in shades of grey, not just black and white; social and political problems could be discussed without constraints, and sex, seduction and malignity were not taboo subjects (Dohetry). The starting point of the pre-code period in Hollywood has been at the hearth of much discussion amongst researchers. One sect of people consider the onset of sound movies in late 1920s to lead to the commencement of this era while another sect of scholars believe March 31st, 1930 to be the beginning of this era, the date when Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA) pledged to abide with by the Production Code (that was bein g written). Pre-Code in context: It is only logical to look into factors that drove Hollywood towards extremism in their content and nature. To understand the context of Pre-Code Hollywood, it is important to see the other internal and external environments that cusped with this development. It should be noted that at the time of the conception, America was going through The Great Depression, one of the worst years in the history of United States. Ironically, in such desperate times, Hollywood was revolutionized by two media developments - commercial radio broadcasting and synchronized sound cinema. Interfacing issues such as crippling economy, skyrocketing expenses of new sound technology and market erosion by radio brought Hollywood to a desperate state – unparalleled cultural and financial breakdown. As the most noticeable supplier of the national mythos, Pre-Code Hollywood negotiated the cultural disturbances by venting radical bents and reformulating American traditions into DreamWorks and an illusionary seductive world. Though later lauded for forthright sex and bare skin, Pre-code Hollywood was more about economics than erotica. Despite