Motion Picture Code Assignment/Theatre into Film

Date due: February 22, 2015

Length: Two pages or longer.
Watch a television show or a film (or more than one), and explain in
detail how this entertainment breaks the rules of the Motion Picture
Code . . .or doesnt.
For example:

Sex
The sanctity of the institution of marriage and the home shall be upheld.
Pictures shall not infer that low forms of sex relationships are the accepted or
common thing.
1. ADULTERY, sometimes necessary plot material, must not be explicitly
treated, or justified, or presented attractively. Out of regard for the
sanctity of marriage and the home, the triangle, that is, the love of a
third party for one already married, needs careful handling. The
treatment should not throw sympathy against marriage as an
institution.
2. SCENES OF PASSION must be treated with an honest
acknowledgement of human nature and its normal reactions. Many
scenes cannot be presented without arousing dangerous emotions on
the part of the immature, the young or the criminal classes.
a. They should not be introduced when not essential to the plot.
b. Excessive and lustful kissing, lustful embraces, suggestive postures
and gestures, are not to be shown.
c. In general, passion should be so treated that these scenes do not
stimulate the lower and baser element.
3. SEDUCTION OR RAPE
a. They should never be more than suggested, and only when essential
for the plot, and even then never shown by explicit method.
b. They are never the proper subject for comedy.
4. SEX PERVERSION or any inference to it is forbidden.
5. WHITE SLAVERY shall not be treated.
6.MISCEGENATION (sex relationship between the white and black races)
is forbidden.
7. SEX HYGIENE AND VENEREAL DISEASES are not subjects for motion
pictures.
8. SCENES OF ACTUAL CHILDBIRTH, in fact or in silhouette, are never to
be presented.
9. CHILDRENS SEX ORGANS are never to be exposed.
The TV show Scandal would break many of these rules. South Park
would break others. Try to actually watch the film or TV show you are
writing about so you can take notes, although you can refer to past
shows and films.

Also, argue whether the Motion Picture Code was a good idea. Does
entertainment shape behavior? Were you shaped by what you were
exposed to?
The last page should be the works cited page. You can quote sources
here.
Samples:

Works Cited
"The Blessing Way." The X-Files. Fox. WXIA, Atlanta. 19 Jul. 1998.
Television.
Little Miss Sunshine. Dir. Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris. Perf. Greg
Kinnear, Steve Carell, Toni Collette, Paul Dano, Abigail Breslin,
and Alan Arkin. Fox Searchlight, 2006. DVD.
The Usual Suspects. Dir. Bryan Singer. Perf. Kevin Spacey, Gabriel
Byrne, Chazz Palminteri, Stephen Baldwin, and Benecio del Toro.
Polygram, 1995. Film.
Also note the proper heading.
Justin Bieber
Prof. B. Judell
Theatre into Film
22 February 2016
Also number your pages.
Bieber 1