When did movies become more graphic?

[Lil' Bitch 0]

I remember one time in 8th grade in my English class, our teacher told us back then the movie "Gone With With the Wind" once it was released was controversial during that time only because Clark Gable used the word "Damn" in that unforgettable line.

 

When did movies start to evolve to include more violence, cursing, and nonstop nudity / sex would you say? What movies started the trend to where they are in today's time?

[Ravenbomb 0]

I dunno, 60's and 70's?

[The Czech Republic 0]

Movies became graphic when they incorporated the film aspect.

[Guest El Satanico]

Without a doubt the shift happened in the 70's. Watch anything about the history of Hollywood, and they will always say the big change happened in the 70's.

 

Night of the Living Dead and Pyscho were probably the beginning of the shift, but the shift wasn't complete until 70's.

[NoCalMike 0]

Are we talking american cinema or cinema in general?

[Guest El Satanico]

American Cinema i figure, as the other countries likely weren't as up tight about this sort of stuff.

[godthedog 0]

american movies? probably 'bonnie and clyde'. i can't think of any earlier examples of that much graphic violence, & it was the primary reason for setting up the ratings system we have today. i doubt that stuff like 'the wild bunch' or 'the godfather' would exist without it.

[Guest El Satanico]

There you go, the change for American films started in the late 60's, but really took off in the 70's.

[ArkhamGlobe 0]

If we're talking american cinema, then gtd is essentially right in naming Bonnie & Clyde, as that's the movie that more or less put the final nail in the coffin of the Hays Code. Then again, this all depends on the definition of graphic violence.

[Guest El Satanico]

So what about cinema in general?

[ArkhamGlobe 0]

Well, Un Chien Andalue features an eyeball being sliced open in the opening scene and Eisenstein's Strike features a bull being slaughtered and its blood being poured over a map. Those were in 1928 and 1924 respectively, but I don't know if they signalled in more graphic violence in film or not, but they're early examples.

[Slayer 0]

american movies?  probably 'bonnie and clyde'.  i can't think of any earlier examples of that much graphic violence, & it was the primary reason for setting up the ratings system we have today.

Having read the guidelines of the MPAA system, it seems most of the rating criteria biases sexual content, swearing and even drug references over violence when assigning a rating.

 

 

 

 

EDIT: Having read even more, apparently MPAA raters are not allowed (or do not want) to disclose why a movie is given a certain rating, leaving movie-makers to scratch their heads while engaging in self-censorship... beautiful

[NoCalMike 0]

if anyone has ever seen any of the old vintage porn the b&w stuff, it is basically just as graphic as today's standard, not max hardcore or anything like that, but as far as XXX hardcore stuff, like a Gonzo film.

[The Mandarin 0]

MASH was the first movie to use the "f" word.

[kkktookmybabyaway 0]

Would introducing the PG-13 rating add to this discussion? It gave movie studios a chance to be more violent but still attract kiddies. I think Indy Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first to get that distinction...

[Slayer 0]

if anyone has ever seen any of the old vintage porn the b&w stuff

Yo

[teke184 0]

Graphic violence probably took off around the time Sam Pekinpah made The Wild Bunch in the late 60s.

 

 

The "Tits and Laffs" category probably came the next year when MASH (1970) came out and had the "Hotlips Houlihan in the shower" scene, which eventually lead to Porky's, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and Revenge of the Nerds.

 

 

Gratiutous verbal abuse probably took off around the time of Brian DePalma's version of Scarface (1983), which was written by Oliver Stone. Not so coincidentally, that's about the same time that Eddie Murphy's film career took off as well.

[teke184 0]

Would introducing the PG-13 rating add to this discussion? It gave movie studios a chance to be more violent but still attract kiddies. I think Indy Jones and the Temple of Doom was the first to get that distinction...

Movies like Poltergeist pissed off a lot of people because they were on the borderline between PG and R but went with the tamer PG rating.

 

Around 1984, the PG-13 rating was invented and one of the first movies to use that rating was Red Dawn.

 

 

Indiana Jones, IIRC, was the first huge film to get that rating, mainly due to the heart-pulling scene.

[razazteca 0]

During the 70's when the zombie, cannibal, blaxpoitation movies become popular?

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

Blow-Up was the first theatrical film to show boobs.

[Brocklock 0]

What about Blood Feast in 1963?

 

That has to be the first movie to show limbs being cut off.

[cabbageboy 0]

Actually no, pre code stuff in the early 30s had a lot of stuff in it. The Scarlett Empress (1934) had weird torture montages in it that had nudity. Shocked me when I saw it. And Gable saying damn is a bigger deal in retrospect than it probably was at the time. Watch stuff like Blessed Event (1932) that had the phrase "I'll be damned" or stuff like Hells Angels (1930) which had fighter pilots cussing each other out during the dogfights. Dante's Inferno (1935) is another movie that had nudity during the Inferno sequence but I suppose they got away with that due to its "religious significance" or something.

 

Violence has never been THAT big of a deal to censors. Stuff like All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) had all sorts of graphic machine gun violence, guys getting caught in barbed wire (nice image of a blown up guy's hands being left on the wire), etc.

 

I'm amazed no one has stated the obvious: Films got more graphic when the MPPAA rating system was introduced around 1968. Thus you could now have nudity, swearing, violence, etc. and it would get an R rating.

 

Temple of Doom was actually NOT rated PG-13, but instead PG. Its rating caused controversy and that's what initiated PG-13. It's actually kinda surprising to look at some early PG-13 movies and how graphic they could be. I think The Bride had full frontal nudity in it. Just One of the Guys had nudity and was PG-13.

[Special K 0]

Wild Bunch you fuckers. Just wanted to include prophanity for the sake of the thread. GREAT fucking movie. I would rank it 3rd all time western.

 

EDIT: This movie was crazy violent, and had some whoring. First rated X movie to win awards. See it. It will make your penis grow an inch gauranteed.

[Guest Coffey]

The Omen was the first movie to show a decapitation.

[Toshiaki Koala 0]

Wild Bunch you fuckers. Just wanted to include prophanity for the sake of the thread. GREAT fucking movie. I would rank it 3rd all time western.

 

EDIT: This movie was crazy violent, and had some whoring. First rated X movie to win awards. See it. It will make your penis grow an inch gauranteed.

Yes! The big "director's cut" rerelease in 1994 was thwarted because someone at the studio submitted the film to the ratings board, who rated it NC-17. They eventually won the R rating back by arguing the fact that the same version had received an R in 1969.

 

The final massacre is still among the top five action scenes ever, even after Woo, Scarface, Kill Bill, etc.

 

Interestingly, the Wild Bunch was rated X when first screened by the MPAA in 1969. To obtain an R, the line "her nipple was as big as my thumb" had to be removed.

[Jobber of the Week 0]

I think such graphic gore is rather recent.

 

I was scared by Jason from Fri the 13th as a kid, so today I actually watch them alone for a cheap thrill and provide a running commentary to the TV screen ("Naw, that ain't gonna work" "Hell, now you just gone and pissed him off") and one thing I've witnessed in those is that you often see him take the knife, then get an OMG X-TREME CLOSEUP of the same kind of frabic of that character's shirt and the knife going into it, then suddently cut back to see them slump over dead. The knife looks like it's just stabbing curtains or a couch with that absurd non-bloody closeup.

 

In today's cinema, you pretty much see eviscerations with blood fountains and intestines being strung around. I have no clue when this change started.