Obscene, Indecent, Immoral & Offensive: 100+ Years of Censored, Banned and Controversial Films

By Stephen Tropiano

This entertaining and insightful book is the first devoted exclusively to the films that have earned a special place in motion picture history by pushing the “cinematic envelope” with their treatment of provocative subjects and themes. Obscene, Indecent, Immoral & Offensive: 100+ Years of Controversial Cinema chronicles the history of Hollywood censorship and the films that were banned, censored, and condemned by the Production Code Administration and the Legion of Decency. Stephen Tropiano offers readers insightful and accessible analysis of films that were branded “controversial” at the time of their release due to explicit language, nudity, graphic sex, violence, and their treatment of “adult” subject matter and themes.

The films profiled include The Birth of a Nation, Anatomy of a Murder, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Baby Doll, Blackboard Jungle, Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, A Clockwork Orange, Natural Born Killers, Caligula, Rosemary's Baby, Life of Brian, The Last Temptation of Christ, and The Passion of the Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: RowmanLittlefield
• Release date: Jan 1, 2009
• ISBN: 9780879104542

Reviews for Obscene, Indecent, Immoral & Offensive

[devil_llama · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A fun book to read in general. The author details a century (plus) of censorship and challenges for the film industry and the first amendment. He discusses specific films, several of which I've seen, and I think those are the most fun because, well, I've seen them. He is a first amendment absolutist, which becomes clear earlyish in the book. That's fine, I tend that way myself, but I find some of his defenses of the first amendment where it straddles the line (or crosses) between protected, legal, and ethical to be somewhat...well, questionable. He doesn't give much quarter to those who protest against movies that strike at a particular minority group, even defending the showing of Birth of a Nation, which is fine. The problem comes with one particular group, a group of protestors he apparently doesn't like protesting movies. While granting that the LGB community had some reasonable complaints in movies they protested, while still believing in the first amendment, he uses the phrase "ratbag feminists" for those who protested against films objectifying women, glorifying rape, and reveling in the humiliation, harm, and even murder of women. This can leave a bad taste for those who believe women need decent, complex, and well drawn characters to relate to as much as anyone else, including gay men. Other than that, the book provides a lot of details I never knew, and introduces me to some movies I never heard of. But I am wondering how I managed to see a Clockwork Orange at a time he said it was out of circulation and not available? I may have to investigate that further.