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this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2026
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Art
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Genuinely forgot not everyone knows what im on about at all times lol.
The single most important 'rule book' in cinema history, the limitations of which led to the creation of genres and tropes and the pushing of which allowed some incredible artistic movements to flourish.
I think cinema is better off for having had the hays code for a while. (Potentially controversial take)
I think cinema is better off for having had the hays code for a while.
Thats a blazing hot take, but I can see the logic. You have to be a lot more creative when working with a limited palette.
I think I disagree though. I find pre-code movies to be far more entertaining. Cinema should reflect the society that made those movies, and overbearing censorship undercuts that and presents that society as far cleaner and more upstanding than it actually was.
But are those very rules not a reflection of the society they emerge from. And isnt the pushing of those limits not the revolutionary act we see within art then. And that to me is a good reflection of society.
I dislike hyperrealism. Hell, I despise it.
People critiquing, 'oh but that gunshot was so unrealistic' etc piss me right tf off.
Fhe message underneath the text can be parsed through art no matter the restrictions. And these formal restrictions allow creativity. Just as the limitations of the medium itself does.
When we look back at cinema of that era, we analyse it knowing the hays code existed, not in a vacuum.
But are those very rules not a reflection of the society they emerge?
they're what informs the reflection that a specific segment of society wants to emerge, yes. they aren't what society actually is like. saved by they bell and fresh prince are not what high school was like in the 80s and 90s in california, but they are a reflection of what society wanted to imagine going to high school in the wealthier parts of california was like.
it's like running everything past the fox censors first. you'll get a perspective, but it won't b the director's. it'll be fox's
We don't get to see the films that would have been made but for the Hays Code, which is what makes the logic of your take so seductive - where's the comparison? You'd have to look abroad, and too few do.
THOU SHALT NOT TOMMY GUN
Tommy gun? I hardly know the gun!
Could only have been better if she immediately kissed a black woman while clergymen did comedic slapstick to stop it.
Yes, I very much read that wiki article, I thought it funny you can't make fun of clergy specifically, lol.
It's a good shot.
I think my favorite thing about this picture is that the shot had to include a tommy gun and a pointed gun, but having the character point the tommy gun? Too easy, too predictable. Just have the tommy gun posed atop the dead cop. How did it get there? Dunno, guess our murderous sexy femme fatale put it there, for fun lmao
it looks like the tommy gun got photoshopped on top by a panicky subordinate about to turn it in as they read the last line
I’d watch that movie
Such a compelling image and backstory, I was not familiar with the Hayes Code. I find the desire to break rules compelling. So much of our own lives are brushing up against electric fences checking for weaknesses in the boundaries, and then an artist comes and says "let's break every rule" flagrantly. Does this thrill and this compulsion exist in the absence of rules? I don't think so. We're just hard-wired to be button pushers for some reason.
we want to break rules to see which ones can be broken.
https://pre-code.com/my-list-of-essential-pre-code-hollywood-films/
I have this list on my to-be-watched pile, if I can find them. Might be fun!
Thanks for posting this list! I’ll have to add some of these to my pile as well!
You betcha. I like old movies, and I've never seen a pre-code hollywood movie, AFAIK.
This looks like a better movie than most of what Hollywood has shoved out in recent years.