The old Hollywood Production Code of 1930 will be back, in slightly amended form. Sex and violence, no problem, but smoking, "homophobia", "hate speech", "racism", etc. will be banned from the screen.
It is not the responsiblity of the movie industry to set the moral standard for the country. Until people demand better, they will keep getting the same crap.
There's an interesting SF novel by Connie Willis, "Remake," in which Hollywood is no longer making any more live movies. Instead, they just fiddle with old films, changing them around and putting in animations of old movie stars.
The hero's job is to go through all the old movies and remove all the cigarettes and alcohol, so as to make them politically correct. Edit the cigarette out of the star's fingers, and so forth.
He has a hell of a time with "Casablanca," especially when his boss tells him it needs a happy ending.
Well, you know, all those images of second-hand smoke could, um, cause eye damage.
I HATE SMOKING.
However.
This is just plain stupid.
John Wayne is turning over in his grave about now...
So, if a movie is supposed to be in a NYC restaurant, does the actor smoke?
Jack Valenti is the man who has presided over the long and ugly descent into the present state of affairs with regard to Hollywood movies.
Last week's Star magazine cover had Briteny Spears shown in a piggy back position with her new boyfriend. Both were holding cigarettes. So much for Mr. Valenti's outrage.
I think movies should reflect real life: Some people should be smoking and only 3% should be using Apple computers.
In all fairness, they should ban cokes, fast foods and anything else that is bad for you./sarcasm
BTW, diet will probably kill you before cigarettes. The smoke police should think about that the next time they are stuffing their face at a fast food restaurant.
.aciremA s'tI
Of course these righteous senators mean "smoking tobacco". They wouldn't be speaking up to protest the smoking of marijuana, crack, etc. in movies.
Also they won't actually make a motion to outlaw tobacco itself.
Must be an election year.
I posted an article earlier this year about a movie called "Dig" to the music subsection of chat.
MTV refused to air this documentary about 2 bickering lead singers in part because of all the tobacco cigarettes smoked by one of the singers. Never mind that he reportedly is a heroin addict. The tobacco was what sent MTV into censor mode. MTV the channel that promotes polysexual encounters on programs like The Real World.
The "UNITED STATES SENATE" is threatening to pass a LAW to make depicting someone smoking a cigarette, in a movie, illegal?
The "SENATORS" responsible must be in the last stages of senility or just total morons.
These idiots need to be recalled, impeached, fired, voted out, or all of the above.
Wow. Wyden sure has his nerve.
"I think the ball is in your court, Mr. Valenti," he said. "I guarantee you if something isn't done by the industry, there's certainly going to be efforts" by lawmakers.
Valenti doesnt give orders to the industry. He takes them. He has no such power to tell the studios what to film and what not to film. The only people who dont have the clout to stand up to Vaenti are the independent filmmakers who get an "R" rating, while the major studios get a "PG-13" for filming the same exact objectional scenes.