n of right or wrong in doubt. Films must uphold, not question or challenge, the basic values of society. The sanctity of the home and marriage must be upheld. The concept of basic law must not be belittled or ridiculed. Courts must be shown as just and fair, police as honest and efficient, and government as protective of all people. If corruption was a necessary part of any plot, it had to be restricted: a judge could be corrupt but not the court system; a policeman could be brutal, but not the police force. Interestingly, Lords code stated, crime need not always be punished, as long as the audience is made to know that it is wrong. What Lord wanted films to do was to illustrate clearly to audiences that evil is wrong and that good is right. Therefore Going My Way couldnt pass the censor: they thought priests in a bad light. In Inherit the Wind the whole premise of the film could not be accepted originally because it supposedly slammed Christianity and "portrayed the minister as the villain in the movie (parish the thought no pun intended)." Sunset Boulevard was rejected because Norma's crime of shooting Gillis went unpunished.In 1968 the censorship system was replaced by the rating system. In this system the movie will not be changed only given a letter to represent the content of the movie. One can't help but wonder what movies would have come without the Hays committee. And the truth is that though the influence of this Production Code is fading nowadays, Catholics can see all the movies they like, most of the producers see the code as at best a general guideline for movie morality. In 1995, the Pontifical Council for Social Communication identified forty-five films produced in the United States, Europe, and Asia that, it said, possessed special artistic or religious merit. The list was prepared as part of the Vaticans contribution to the hundredth anniversary of the cinema. For the average moviegoer there were many recognizable fi...
