The Hays Code Blog

Back in the 20th Century, during the 1920's there was a lot of bad publicity for Hollywood, and this is when the Hay Code came to effect. They wanted to create movies that were not scandalous like the actions that were happening.
One part of the Hays Code says you can not show crimes against the law. I think this is a stupid part of the code because if movies today did not have these actions involved they would not be realistic. So many bad things happen in this world and in order for the films that are produced to seem realistic they should show realistic things. Crimes are sadly part of our daily life. The world is not always happy and "go-lucky", it has a dark side that should be shown to show the true colours of the world. There is a movie called "Spun" that is based on the lives of drug addicts and the things that they go through. As well as entertaining, this movie informs the viewers of the hardships these people go through and without things like this they would be oblivious to things that they would probably get exposed to eventually. They need to know what could happen so they can handle the situations.
There is a part in the code that I believe should still be followed and that is the part saying national feelings should be respected. Everyone has pride in their countries, no matter what goes on there it is home, they don't want people making fun of where they reside. Movies made in Hollywood, Toronto, London or Bollywood circulate around the world for everyone to see; they get translated into many languages and this could cause some very angry citizens of these countries that are being made fun of. The filmmakers should respect that they would not want anyone making fun of their home so do not make fun of others. There is a film "Don't Mess with the Zohan" where Adam Sandler is from a middle eastern country, they make fun of the accent, their rituals and traditions and everything else they could think of. This is not right. The people who comes from those countries should be in an uproar because of this movie, I know I would if i was from there. The modern films should adhere to this stipulation because what they do otherwise is unacceptable.
To finish, the Hays Code had some good ideas and some bad ones, modern films should show modern problems in society as the ones in the 20's were forbidden to do, while they should respect their fellow citizens of the world and their homes.