Dirty Words & Filthy PicturesDirty Words & Filthy Pictures
Film and the First Amendment
Title rated 3 out of 5 stars, based on 1 ratings(1 rating)
Book, 2015
Current format, Book, 2015, First edition, No Longer Available.Book, 2015
Current format, Book, 2015, First edition, No Longer Available. Offered in 0 more formatsFrom 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 risqué 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.
Title availability
About
Subject and genre
Details
Publication
- Austin : University of Texas Press, 2015.
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
There are no quotations from this title
There are no quotations from this title
From the community