Religious Epics Religious Epics, Censorship and Ratings

Religious Movies:

Passion Plays- In religious plays of the Middle Ages they reflected the liturgy of the Church.  Based on the final week of the life of Christ.

Image of Christ not shown in the early 20th century since it was deemed unworthy to have someone play the part of Jesus.  He was usually portrayed as a shadow or a voice.

During wartime Religious movie attendance soared.

In the 1950's Religious epics were popular since they were shown in Cinemascope/Panavision to show the grandeur of the epics and scenes of the Holy Land.

In the 1960's there was a decline of religious movie attendence due to anti-establishment sentiment.

1970's-Godspell and Jesus Christ Superstar were made to appeal to the youth with rock music and youthful actors and singers.

REVELATIONS used to scare back viewers to the Church with movies like Rosemary's Baby, The Omen, and the Exorcist.  Since they were written about Revelations they were LOOSELY considered religious movies.

Last Temptation of Christ (1988, Martin Scorcese) was very controversial and not shown in many theaters.  Christ in this movie was given free will, ultimately choosing not to die on the cross, married Mary Magdaline, and lived to be an old man.

With the Y2K scare in 1999 Disney and Stephen Speilberg came out with the Prince of Egypt  using 400 consultants to avoid controversy with political correct-ness.

Passion of the Christ (2004, Mel Gibson) was the first live action religious movie done in the 21st century.  Lack of the use of consultants made this again, a controversial film (anti-Semitism, innacuracy of facts, conjecture, portrayal of violence)

  Production Code (also known as the Hays Code) was a set of industry guidelines governing the production of American motion pictures. The Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association (MPPDA, later to become the Motion Picture Association of America or MPAA) adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1967 in favor of the subsequent MPAA film rating system. The Production Code spelled out what was and was not considered morally acceptable in the production of motion pictures for a public audience.

         Director Cecil B. DeMille

 Censorship and Regulations in movie Industry            The Production Code (also known as the Hayes Code) was a set of guidelines governing the production of motion pictures. The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA, originally called the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association) adopted the code in 1930, began effectively enforcing it in 1934, and abandoned it in 1967 for the MPAA code (rating system: G, PG, etc)

Senate Subcommittee on Anti-American Activities in the Movie Industry(1941)

After The Hays Code:

Enforcement had become impossible, and the Production Code was abandoned entirely. The MPAA began working on a rating system, under which there would be virtually no restriction on what could be in a film. The MPAA film rating system went into effect in November 1968 with four ratings: G, M, R, and X. The M rating was changed to GP in 1970 and to the current PG in 1972. In 1984, in response to public complaints regarding the severity of horror elements in PG-rated titles such as Gremlins and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, the PG-13 rating was created as a middle tier between PG and R. In 1990 the X rating was replaced by NC-17, in part because the X rating was not trademarked by the MPAA and pornographic bookstores and theatres had used the X and XXX rating.

The Viewing Public was governed by the Rules of the CATHOLIC LEGION OF DECENCY:

The National Legion of Decency was an organization dedicated to identifying and combating objectionable content in motion pictures. For the first quarter-century or so of its existence, the legion wielded great power in the American motion picture industry.

The Legion was founded in 1933 as the Catholic Legion of Decency (CLOD) in response to an address given by apostolic delegate Amleto Cicognani at the Catholic Charities Convention in New York City. Cicognani warned against the "massacre of innocence of youth" and urged a campaign for "the purification of the cinema".

Though established by Roman Catholic bishops, the Legion originally included many Protestant and even some Jewish clerics. It was renamed in April of 1934, substituting National for Catholic.

Rating System:

The pledge was :

I condemn all indecent and immoral motion pictures, and those which glorify crime or criminals. I promise to do all that I can to strengthen public opinion against the production of indecent and immoral films, and to unite with all who protest against them. I acknowledge my obligation to form a right conscience about pictures that are dangerous to my moral life. I pledge myself to remain away from them. I promise, further, to stay away altogether from places of amusement which show them as a matter of policy.

In 1938, the league requested that the Pledge of the Legion of Decency be administered each year on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 8).

In a nutshell: Hays code regulated Hollywood  (production).  Legion of Decency regulated the Cathloic viewers.

Modern Rating system:

Motion Picture Association of America

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), originally called the Motion Pictures Producers and Distributors Association, is a non-profit trade association based in the United States which was formed to advance the interests of movie studios. Its members consist of the so-called "big seven" major Hollywood studios: Buena Vista (Walt Disney Company), Sony Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount Pictures (Viacom), Twentieth Century Fox (News Corp.), Universal Studios (NBC Universal), and Warner Bros. Pictures (Time Warner) The organization produces the well-known voluntary film rating system.

Current ratings

The current MPAA movie ratings consist of:

Image	Text
	Rated G—General audiences All ages admitted.
	Rated PG—Parental guidance suggested Some material may not be suitable for young children.
	Rated PG-13—Parents strongly cautioned Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.
	Rated R—Restricted Under 17 requires accompanying parent or legal guardian.
	Rated NC-17 No one 17 and under admitted.

If a film has not been submitted for a rating, the label "NR" (Not Rated) is often used; however, NR is not an official MPAA classification. Films that have not yet received MPAA classification, but are expected to, are often advertised with the notice, "This film is not yet rated."

Religious Epics (doc file)

Religious movie history (doc file)

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