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In the early 1920s, a series of scandals rocked Hollywood and pressured the movie industry to regulate itself. The scandals included the rape and murder of an aspiring actress at a wild party in a San Francisco hotel, allegedly by the party’s host, silent-film comedian Fatty Arbuckle. Concerned that such scandals could turn Americans away from watching movies, industry leaders began putting their own regulations and watchdog groups in place to monitor movies’ content and ensure that industry players (such as actors) had squeaky-clean reputations. These efforts unfolded over the next few decades, and included the formation of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America watchdog group as well as the Motion Picture Production Code. Eventually, the industry also set up a ratings system.

The Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America

In the 1920s, industry leaders hired Will Hays, a former Republican National Committee chair, as president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America (MPPDA). Hays blacklisted promising actors or movie extras who had even minor police records. He also developed a public-relations division for the MPPDA, which promptly squelched a national movement to create a federal law censoring movies.

The Motion Picture Production Code

In the early 1930s, the Hays Office established the Motion Picture Production Code. The code stipulated that “no picture shall be produced which will lower the moral standards of those who see it. Hence the sympathy of the audience shall never be thrown to the side of crime, wrong-doing, evil or sin.” The code also dictated which phrases, images, and topics producers and directors had to avoid. For example, “excessive and lustful kissing” and “suggestive postures” were not allowed. The code also prohibited negative portrayals of religion or religious figures.

Almost every executive in the industry adopted the code, viewing it as better than regulation coming from the government, and it influenced most commercial movies for the next twenty years. Things changed in 1952, when the Supreme Court decided in Burstyn v. Wilson that New York could not ban the Italian film The Miracle under state regulations barring “sacrilegious” films. The Court had decided that movies were an important vehicle for public opinion, and put American movies on the same footing as books and newspapers in terms of protection under the First Amendment.

The Rating System

In the wake of the 1952 Miracle case and the demise of the production code, renewed discontent over sexual language and imagery in movies pushed the MPPDA (renamed the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA) in the late 1960s to establish a movie-rating system to help concerned viewers avoid offensive material. Eventually, G, PG, R, and X ratings emerged as guideposts for films’ suitability for various age groups. In 1984, the MPAA added the PG-13 rating to distinguish slightly higher levels of violence or adult themes in movies that might otherwise qualify as PG (see Table 14.1).

The MPAA trademarked all rating designations except for X, which the porno-graphic film industry gradually appropriated as a promotional tool. The MPAA, to avoid inadvertently supporting pornography, stopped issuing the X rating between 1972 and 1989. In 1990, however, filmmakers protested that some movies containing adult sexual themes were not necessarily pornographic and called for a new rating to distinguish such films. The industry copyrighted the NC-17 rating—no children age seventeen or under. But many theater chains avoided showing NC-17 films, fearing these films’ strong content would drive customers away. Lacking support from theaters, few NC-17 films have succeeded commercially.

Source: Motion Picture Association of America, “What Do the Ratings Mean?” accessed May 1, 2009, www.mpaa.org/FlmRat_Ratings.asp.