Now THATS interesting. I knew they avoided swearing but illegal? Thats unconstitutional...

Frankly, my dear, I don't give a hoot......LOL.



@gillian

I wish I had kept the article about the seven dwarfs, when I read the names
they had given them I was doubled up with laughter.


David

Not illegal; disallowed by the industry's own organization. (There's no legal obligation to pay fines to them, but they can kick you out of the club.)

More recently, the comic-book industry has also had a self-imposed "Code", which became controversial because some authors find it too limiting and even pretentious... as a result of which, they've started writinig comic books that defy the Code. Those within the industry who imposed the Code in the first place claimed that it was to obey government censorship laws, but it wasn't true; Code-defying issues are sold perfectly legally. They just can't have the little Code approval logo on them.

One of Arthur C. Clarke's books referenced people whose job it was to remove all the cigarettes from old movies.

I think it was Ghost from the Grand Banks, and specifically mentioned the removal of all smoking from A Night to Remember.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

According to the Supreme Court, the movie industry does not qualify as art and therefore isn't afforded "free speech" privileges. (Hey, I don't make 'em up; I just report 'em.) As has been pointed out, it wasn't technically a legal issue, but if they hadn't self-policed, it was pretty strongly implicated that the government would step in. Same situation with the comic book industry, really.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

I don't know if that is disturbing or not.

Its quite backwards actually. Nowadays, movies seem pretty bent on making statements that clash the conservative way of thinking. Wild affairs glamorized etc, not only is swearing allowed but anything that "sticks it to the man" is shown as glorious...YET at the same time they are censoring out stogies from OLD movie images?

<Sets up the transmitter and hits the red button>

Its clear that the time has come. They are on the way... We have lost our collective minds...

You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile...

seanf wrote:

Exactly right; I'd forgotten about that. I remember reading it and finding the very concept awful. I wonder if it was his way of poking fun at 'colorization' of old B&W films.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

I thought it was a ridiculous exaggeration when I read it. Science fiction writers sometimes have some crazy ideas. Though looking at the original post...

Still, we have very little background concerning this story. Do we know for certain that the retouching was done for reasons of "decency"?...

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

According to IMDB, the Selznick fine for using "damn" in GWTW is a legend: "Although legend persists that the Hays Office fined Selznick $5,000 for using the word "damn", in fact the Motion Picture Association board passed an amendment to the Production Code on November 1, 1939, to insure that Selznick would be in compliance with the code. Henceforth, the words "hell" and "damn" would be banned except when their use "shall be essential and required for portrayal, in proper historical context, of any scene or dialogue based upon historical fact or folklore . . . or a quotation from a literary work, provided that no such use shall be permitted which is intrinsically objectionable or offends good taste." With that amendment, the Production Code Administration had no further objection to Rhett's closing line, "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn."

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There's room for all God's little creatures -
right next to the mashed potatoes

I heard that that is why the word "give" was emphasized, to de-emphasize "dam" - and that that's how that particular speech pattern got started. Is that true?

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There are 10 types of people in the world. Those who understand ternary, those who don't, and those waiting for a bus.
If logic doesn't work, then surely it does.

An excellent use of censorship IMO.

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Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by ignorance or stupidity.
Isaac Asimov

"A picture in the nude" is a prudish exaggeration. You can't see any of his dangly bits.

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"All your bias are belong to us." Ara Pacis
"A witty saying proves nothing." Voltaire

The special release DVD of the movie disagrees.

Either way, it doesn't actually matter, since the original phrase doesn't have "damn" in it at all. The original phrase is "I don't give a tinker's dam," which is a small piece of clay used to prevent the metal used to repair a pot from going all over the place. At least, that's what the etymology I've read on the subject says. It's just that nobody but etymology freaks knows that.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

The Word Detective says it's probably not true, that "give a tinker's damn" (or "not worth a tinker's damn") is actually just a variation of the simple "give a damn."

I highly recommend that site for etymology freaks, by the way.

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SeanF

"Ask to understand, but don't challenge unless you have the knowledge."--NEOWatcher

The contents of this post are ©2008 by SeanF and may not be copied or retransmitted in any form without the express written consent of SeanF

Either way, frankly, I don't give a tinker's damn.

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The Devil offered me power. I told him I preferred aperture.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I don't think so; Rhett was awfully classy.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Yeah, I guess you're right. I was going more for the rhyme than the connection.

Al probably wouldn't even make a good butler. Just think, one hand holding the serving tray, the other in the usual spot.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

Whether out of "political correctness" or political propoganda, there will always be those who want to change what happened to match their view of what should have happened (not that recorded history necessarily tells the whole story of what actually went on).

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
Illuminati's Razor-The most complicatedly evil answer is usually the most correct answer. - Fazor
"Every book is a children's book if the kid can read." - Mitch Hedberg
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

There's no doubt that history is constantly being re-written. But *usually* it's to incorporate new findings. That is, to make it more accurate. Ok, that's the idea, anyway.

But deliberately eliminating something that was demonstrably there is flat wrong.