1st Amendment

Scarface, at the time of production, was viewed by many critics as an extremely violent movie. The movie incorporated alcohol, loose girls, incest, and of course plenty of violence. Compared to the movies today, Scarface seems mild, however, during the 30s; Scarface was the first of its kind. Movies were a new form of media in general; the viewing of “immoral” material had been deemed a potential societal problem. Like many new forms of media, such as the Internet, regulation is always a dilemma. The Hay’s Office was simply trying to prevent a moral uprising; however the restrictions imposed limited the freedom to express artistically.  Howard Hughes had to alter the movie to fit a certain moral mold, thus changing his original idea.

 

The First Amendment is in place to prevent undue censorship. Freedom of speech is extended to everyone, if that form of speech does not relay harm. The Hay’s Office confused ‘moral degradation’ with overall harm of the public. Watching Scarface does not harm anyone directly, whether Scarface is okay to watch is up to the consumer to decide.  The Hay’s Office changed the scope of the film, changed the ordinal intent of the film. This form of censorship is illegal, and only forms as a median to preach personal religious beliefs.   

Intorduction

My name is Natasha Barbosa, I am a sophomore, IT major. I am a lifeguard and I enjoy long walks on the beach. Actually, I don’t think that I am very that interesting after all. Honestly, I really enjoy computer’s learning how they work and effect our everyday lives.

Final Paper- Proposal

Child predators truly have become an invisible threat that lurks under every chat room, MySpace page, and music downloads, around the world. Old-fashioned methods of regulation no longer apply, because they are based on obtaining concrete events, evidence, and people. The borderless Internet technology has enabled many pedophiles, to bypass laws inconspicuously because of the lack of regulation. Legislation, specifically dealing with child pornography, over the years, proved chaotic and fails to adopt plans that would target and prevent pedophilia on the Internet. To worsen matters, many computer users lack the information to protect themselves from unwanted intrusion. Securing the Internet service Providers, with sophisticated detection/prevention software, can help monitor suspicious activity, and ultimately aid the fight against child pornography. India, has already begun to test this approach , in their own adoption the Child Exploitation Tracking System, a software program intended to help police track child porn solicitors. The revolutionary program tracks and links evidence through suspicious transactions across their own network.  A program like that of India, more specifically Intrusion Detection technology, can be adopted and manipulation to fit our own lifestyles, to ensure a safer environment for our children.  

 

Scareface- Alternative endings

The film’s many modifications changed the original intent of all three producers, changing the way the American Italian gangsters are and were portrayed. It is understood that the Hay’s office did not want to condone violence and criminals in a time when violence seemed to be the only option. Gangsters made money and had fun, while everyday American’s waited in soup lines.

The alternative endings had changed the view of who Tony was. The original ending painted him as a hero, a man on top of the world. This sent a red flag to the Hay’s office, thus forcing the alternative ending. In the alternative ending, Tony is basically clawing away, trying to avoid the inevitable fate. The alternative ending painted Tony to be a coward, and taught the audience that ‘violence doesn’t pay’.

This alters the original intent of the producers, the movie no longer portrays the life of a gangster, but rather what the Hay’s office deems morally safe.

Tony Camonte

Scarface: The Shame of the Nation (1932) directed by Howard Hawks, chronicles the rise and fall of an Italian gangster, Tony Camonte. Released by United Artists, Scarface: The Shame of the Nation was the most violent gangster-crime film of its time. Howard Hawks depicts violent gangsters as children playing games, having fun, deflecting emotion from brutal violence to easier comedic, ironic or subtle touches. The Pre-Code era film tells the tale of gang rivalry, control over turf, and the interference of the government. This glorification of the “gangster threat” to me was not apparent. However, during the 30’s, the film may have been seen as a glorification of the gangster life. Tony seemed like a nice guy down the wrong path. The film did not actually detail how gangsters truly were at the time.

 

 

 

 

 

Personal Responce

Films during the 30’s were produced and available for all to watch cheaply and frequently; this new median of expression had the potential to change the minds -or so they thought- of anyone who had a nickel and some time to spare.  The Lord-Quigley Code had the difficult task of defining what was morally appropriate for the American pubic to view. The Lord-Quigley Code, understandably, used the easiest reference on the ethically correct: the Bible. Group C, focused on page 305, how the films should portray criminals and the law. The Code enforced that films support the natural law of what is good and evil and the consequences of the two. Good guys should win, and the bad guys should always lose. Evil and wrong doing should be quelled by a righteous, just, and organized law. The Code was simply protecting natural law by rejecting “wrong entertainment” that might �lower the whole living conditions and moral ideals of a race� (Black, 302). The Code, had to deal with what  they t hought was unclean art, instead of censoring form selective audiences, or leaving it up to the American pubic, they blocked everything out completely. This had an immense effect on films created thereafter, deflecting the original intent in order to satisfy the Code. The purpose of the Code is clear, however, the censorship of films for everyone, especially to the extent that the Code brought it too was extreme. The films lost the honesty behind the story, losing the entire point of creating the film in the first place. Group 3 was assigned pg 305; it defined, basically, how films should portray the law and the criminals who break it. The Code stated that the law should not be presented as unjust and the criminals should not be portrayed in a positive light. Many members in my group believed that the Code had reason to enforce this rule; however the public has the right to differentiate what is wrong and right. Specifically to our section, some members believed a story should be portrayed just as the creators intend regardless of whether or not it represents the law or crime appropriately, because there is a difference between media (news) and film. Film is a form of expression, to tell a story, not relay facts.  The public understands this and can make moral decisions based on their own moral guidelines. Two priests cannot dictate what everyone should watch and believe. The main disagreements between our members was whether the Code was needed at the time, our mindsets are far too modern to understand the impact the films may have had on the public in the 30s. After reading the Code many times, everything, during the 30s, seemed to be offensive, however one thing we all agreed on was the Code is simply to harsh to continue to enforce.

Final Paper: In-Class Discussion

My in-class discussion was with Michelle. We discussed each other’s thesis and she told me that I should combine my thoughts to make one complete thesis instead of having to different veiws in seperate paragraphs. Michelle also advised me that I could use more quotes and examples of how gangster films are unsafe in my paper. The advice I gave to her were mostly about her grammatical errors. Her paper had strong statistical information in it and I couldn’t help but agree with her thesis.

Final Paper Peer Editing

My paper was edited by Reaksmey, who is revising his first paper, and so his final paper is on the topic of gangster films in the 30s, and how these films are not dangerous and do not cause violence; his view was that only ignorant people cause bad things to happen, whether or not they claim to be influenced by a film. His paper was very organized and I enjoyed reading it because it was easy to follow and his underlying argument was something I can agree with. After we finished filling out the editing sheets, we talked to each other about what we thought should be edited/revised. I only had a few things to say to him about some of his sentence structuring,  wording, and obscure grammar issues. My main suggestion was that he make his thesis clearer, by bringing his ‘mini’ thesis statements together somewhere in the first paragraph. As for my paper, he told me that it was very convincing for him, but he also had some suggestions for me pertaining to sentence structuring, long paragraphs, and filler words. Because of his suggestions, I was able to take out a lot of unnecessary words and split sentences in half to make them easier to read.

My thesis has not changed, and my paper is coming along with minimal problems.

Final Research paper: in-class discussion

Laura and I discussed my paper on community policing, and her paper on Scarface and the effect the violence may have had on the viewer.  She’s a lot farther along than I am, and her paper was well organized.   I suggested researching for studies on naturally violent children to help her expand on some of the ideas stated in her paper.

I’m a very messy writer, and tend to write in chunks, ignoring parts of the paper until I’m ready to tie them together.   I also do a lot of rewriting, which meant my thesis statement wasn’t even in the paper.  I’d redone it several times, trying to get the wording right, until I gave up and concentrated on other portions of the paper, and hadn’t had a chance to go back and finish it.  (sorry about that, Laura!)  I also hadn’t gotten to my conclusion, but was able to explain to her what I intended to write.  My thesis is essentially that community policing helps reduce crime, but I included so much police history that I wanted to expand my thesis to incorporate it, and explain why it’s taken so long for community policing to become both popular and effective.  I need to write more before I can make that thesis work.

Final Research Paper Proposal- Teresa S.

I changed the topic of my final research paper. Now, I am going to write about the regulation of children’s television and movies. I don’t think that the violence going on among children is necessarily the fault of the televisions shows and directors. I think that instead of blaming the television shows and the directors of films for problems like this, that we should realize that a lot of the problems are started in the home, and that parents nowadays should just have better control over their kids. In this topic, it is just as much the parents’ fault as the directors and the television shows.