Juri responded to a comment about the Hollywood Production
Code forcing filmmakers to be more artistic:
"This is a usual comment made on the Hollywood production
codes. It's commonly thought that the Hays code in the
thirties helped the Hollywood classicism to develop
itself."
Indeed it is. Gore Vidal states much the same in Celluloid
Closet, a documentary on the depiction of homosexuals. And
someone or other is quoted as saying something similar in
just about every article and/or book I've read about the Hays
Office. Frankly, I don't buy it as a global statement. Sure,
some artists came up with more artful ways of saying things,
but others were hindered in presenting their material. Just
think of all of the false, tacked on "crime doesn't pay" or
happy endings (oh yeah, I believe it that Richard Widmark is
going to succeed at going straight at the end of Pickup on
South Street, sure I do) there were in the '40s and '50s as
artists were forced to be positive by Joe Breen and
company.
The whole idea is based on nostalgia and a feeling that the
best art is subtle, makes the audience work for it. I
recently heard the exact same argument about rap music, again
-- there's no art to it because the rapper just flat out says
it, it's too explicit, no subtlety. What crap. What was it
Chandler said about Hammett, that he gave murder back to
those who killed for a reason? Well, in that case, shouldn't
the statement of those actions and the reasons for them be
equally blunt?
Now I'm not making a global statement either. Some writers
are at their best when subtle, others are best with "just the
facts," no matter how nasty. It's a matter of style, but I
don't think one's better than the other. The art comes in the
handling of each.
Mark
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