{"id":21959,"date":"2014-04-21T16:59:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-21T20:59:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/?p=21959"},"modified":"2014-04-21T16:59:12","modified_gmt":"2014-04-21T20:59:12","slug":"when-moral-codes-codify-immorality","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/slacktivist\/2014\/04\/21\/when-moral-codes-codify-immorality\/","title":{"rendered":"When moral codes codify immorality"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Mallory Ortberg offers a terrific guide to \u201cPre-code Movies Worth Watching<\/a>,\u201d wherein she solidifies her status as one of my favorite people on the Internets with her take on I Am a Fugitive From a Chain-Gang<\/em>:<\/p>\n

My absolute favorite film of all time, bar none. You have to see it.\u00a0YOU HAVE TO SEE IT<\/em>. Oh, God, I want to give away the ending\u00a0so bad<\/em>, but I won\u2019t, even though it\u2019s been over 80 years. It\u2019s one of the most absolutely harrowing endings in film history, and\u00a0completely unthinkable<\/em>\u00a0for a studio film to end on that kind of a note at the time. There\u2019s a hiss and a whisper and footsteps in the dark and an admission of something that\u2019s impossible to believe. Oh, God, watch it yesterday and call me when you\u2019re done so we can talk about it for hours.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The code of \u201cpre-code\u201d was the Motion Picture Production Code<\/a>, a long, \u201ctouch not, taste not, handle not\u201d list of guidelines and taboos from the Hollywood studio censors outlining what topics and depictions were off-limits.<\/p>\n

Ortberg\u2019s survey offers some helpful (and funny) categories, starting with \u201cWorth Watching For Any Reasons\u201d and then descending into others such as \u201cLess Well-Known Remakes,\u201d \u201cIf You Want to Get Into Pre-Civil-Rights-Era Racial Dynamics,\u201d \u201cUgh, If You Must, They\u2019re \u2018Important\u2019 But I Hate Them,\u201d \u201cIf You Want to Take a Deeply Uncomfortable Journey to Another Time,\u201d and\u00a0\u201cWorth It for the Titles Alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oh, those titles<\/em>. Here\u2019s Wikipedia\u2019s long list of pre-code movies<\/a> \u2014 a list that could easily provide all the band names we\u2019ll ever need for the next decade. \u00a0A small selection, just from those released in 1933:<\/p>\n