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The final death of the Hays Code came with the murder of Bobby Kennedy and the anti-violence hysteria that followed.
TV shows dumbed down to kiddie shows.
Pulp Fiction changed to less lurid covers.
Toy Guns disappeared from the stores.
The 1968 Gun Control Act was passed.
A more effete American male became the rage.
Only the movie makers escaped as they said they would “police themselves” with a joke of a “ratings” system.
They then proceeded to turn out the most blood and guts sex filled movies they could make, reshooting scenes to add more sex and violence.
The Hays Code was dead.
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Not really. You’re right about the cultural ideals shifting, but the Hays Code had more to do with sex than violence. Contrary to the article, the Code was not implemented in the “early days” of cinema but decades later in 1934.
The force behind it was the Legion of Decency, a group of Catholic matrons who generally did reflect real middle class societal values. Despite attitude changes in the ‘60’s, the Code lingered in a half-hearted way, with movies flirting on the boundaries.
The Code’s coup de grace was a movie of which I forget the name. David Niven was in it and a young, perky brunette. The girl bluntly asks the question about an unmarried woman, “Is she pregnant?” and the floodgates were opened. When women did not march in the streets or start a letter-writing campaign in protest, Hollywood knew they could now finally get back to the risque scenes and dialogue that were not uncommon in the teens and twenties.