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Author:

Geltzer, Jeremy, 1969- author.

Title:

Dirty words & filthy pictures : film and the First Amendment / Jeremy Geltzer ; foreword by Alex Kozinski.

Edition:

First edition.

Publisher:

University of Texas Press,

Copyright Date:

2015

Description:

xii, 370 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Subject:

Motion pictures--Censorship--United States.
Motion pictures--Law and legislation--United States.
Motion picture industry--Law and legislation--United States.
Motion pictures--History.
Freedom of speech--United States.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 358-359) and index.

Contents:

Boxing, porn, and the beginnings of movie censorship -- The rise of salacious cinema -- State regulations emerge -- Mutual and the capacity for evil -- War, nudity, and birth control -- Self-regulation reemerges -- Midnight movies and sanctioned cinema -- Sound enters the debate -- Tension increases between free speech and state censorship -- Threats from abroad and domestic disturbances -- Outlaws and miracles -- State censorship statutes on the defense -- Devil in the details : film and the Fourth and Fifth Amendments -- Dirty words : profanity and the patently offensive -- Filthy pictures : obscenity from nudie cuties to fetish films -- The porno chic : from Danish loops to Deep throat -- Just not here : content regulation through zoning -- Is censorship necessary? -- The politics of profanity.

Summary:

From the earliest days of cinema, scandalous films such as The Kiss (1896) attracted audiences eager to see provocative images on screen. With controversial content, motion pictures challenged social norms and prevailing laws at the intersection of art and entertainment. Today, the First Amendment protects a wide range of free speech, but this wasn't always the case. For the first fifty years, movies could be censored and banned by city and state officials charged with protecting the moral fabric of their communities. Once film was embraced under the First Amendment by the Supreme Court's Miracle decision in 1952, new problems pushed notions of acceptable content even further. This book explores movies that changed the law and resulted in greater creative freedom for all. Relying on primary sources that include court decisions, contemporary periodicals, state censorship ordinances, and studio production codes, Jeremy Geltzer offers a comprehensive and fascinating history of cinema and free speech, from the earliest films of Thomas Edison to the impact of pornography and the Internet. With incisive case studies of risqu©♭ pictures, subversive foreign films, and banned B-movies, he reveals how the legal battles over film content changed long-held interpretations of the Constitution, expanded personal freedoms, and opened a new era of free speech.--Adapted from back cover.

ISBN:

1477307400
9781477307403
1477307435
9781477307434

OCLC:

(OCoLC)905700050

LCCN:

2015010217

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)