Get Hold Of Hollywood V. Hard Core: How The Struggle Over Censorship Created The Modern Film Industry Constructed By Jon Lewis Shared As Booklet

unimpressed, especially as much of his reportage bounces around between decades when looking at court cases, He doesn't really succeed in stating his thesis, instead producing a tract about censorship efforts and Hollywood studios rather than demonstrating how hard core films and Hollywood intersected in any kind of struggle I find the repeated claim that Hollywood benefited from the suppression of porn to be fairly specious.
That a concerted and futile effort was made to crush porn out of existence is undeniable the effort failed because American society wasn't generally on side with the idea, as was demonstrated when video rentals and sales began and were promptly driven by porn.
He does make the case, albeit inadvertently, that Hollywood improved its product, though he doesn't note that the presentation of said product was also gradually improved during thes improvements to cinemas, the introduction of Dolby technology, and more, along with a renewed blockbuster mentality that became the standard after several films such as The Godfather, Jaws, Star Wars, and Close Encounters Of The Third Kind.
Lewis's exhaustive history of censorship in American motion pictures starts off with a bang as he traces how the fledgling Motion Picture Association of America allied itself inwith the House Committee on UnAmerican Activities to increase its power.
The

truth of the Hollywood adage "when they tell you it's not about the money, . . it's about the money" is repeatedly confirmed as Lewis demonstrates how the MPAA, which is supposed to serve as a watchdog for parents, really functions to promote big Hollywood business and discourage upstart independents.


Lewis's chronicle of prominent skirmishes with the MPAA censors begins in the 's with "The Moon Is Blue," "Baby Doll" and "Tea and Sympathy" and continues into the 's, when an X rating didn't necessarily indicate pornographic material "Midnight Cowboy," A Clockwork Orange," "The Killing of Sister George", before moving into the present day "Eyes Wide Shut," "Showgirls".
The MPAA doesn't come off as an evil censor so much as a moneydriven business concernunlike Ted Turner, who apparently sabotaged the release of his own company's "Crash" and "Bastard Out of Carolina" because of his distaste for the projects.
Only a fraction of the book covers the few years in the earlys when Hollywood was actually threatened by the popularity of hardcore films like "The Devil in Miss Jones" and "Deep Throat.
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If there's a problem with Lewis's investigative report, it's that it is exhaustively complete: there is no detail too small to trace back a century, making it an outstanding reference but too detailed for most general readers.
A tale of censorship and regulation at the heart of the modern film industry



In, The Godfather and Deep Throat were the two most popular films in the country.
One, a major Hollywood studio production, the other an independently made skin flick, At that moment, Jon Lewis asserts, the fate of the American film industry hung in the balance,

Spanning theth century, Hollywood v, Hard Core weaves a gripping tale of censorship and regulation, Since the industry's infancy, film producers and distributors have publicly regarded ratings codes as a necessary evil, Hollywood regulates itself, we have been told, to prevent the government from doing it for them, But Lewis argues that the studios selfregulate because they are convinced it is good for business, and that censorship codes and regulations are a crucial part of what binds the various competing agencies in the film business together.


Yet betweenandHollywood films were faltering at the box office, and the major studios were in deep trouble, Hollywood's principal competition came from a body of independently produced and distributed filmsfrom foreign art house film Last Tango in Paris to hardcore pornography like Behind the Green Doorthat were at once disreputable and, for a moment at least, irresistible, even chic.
In response, Hollywood imposed the industrywide MPAA film rating system the origins of the G, PG, and R designations we have today that pushed sexually explicit films outside the mainstream, and a series of Supreme Court decisions all but outlawed the theatrical exhibition of hard core pornographic films.
Together, these events allowed Hollywood to consolidate its iron grip over what films got made and where they were shown, thus saving it from financial ruin.
Jon Lewis is the Distinguished Professor of Film Studies and University Honors College Eminent Professor at Oregon State University and the author of Hard Boiled Hollywood, and several other books on film.
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