Movies are more than just the flickering lights on the screen or just entertainment. Movies are reflections of our desires, emotions, expectations, and boundaries. If they weren’t so intricately fused with our being, no one would have had a reason to try to “mold” them in a supposedly safe and secure manner—that’s just how I am sensitively describing what an otherwise harsh word, “censor,” implies.
If a mention of this word makes you only think of rules, then expand that understanding and add “negotiations” to it. (Again, I am adding a soft word in exchange for “conflicts” and “battles.” I am censoring out the aggression.)
The idea of censoring films was born almost alongside the early cinema. Thomas Edison, for example, was believed to be making “immoral” films. But this early censoring was lax and inconsistent and wasn’t systematically enforced. It fell into the “suggestion” and “criticism” categories. It was in 1907 when Chicago first enforced a major censorship law. Then other cities followed. In 1922, the Hays Code came, which I believe more or less tried to “haze” the movies.
If time is the proof, any form of enforcement is often followed by defiance. The film industry isn’t an exception to this. And at the heart of it is nothing but “differences of opinion.” This battle between creative freedom and moral gatekeeping has sparked some of the most interesting anecdotes in the film industry. Sometimes, the filmmakers fight, and sometimes they use some creative cunning to slip through what they think is the censorship baloney.
Here are nine examples of when filmmakers decided to be creative or right away crafty.
9 Times Filmmakers Outmaneuvered Movie Censors
1. Baby Face (1933)
Written by: Gene Markey, Kathryn Scola | Directed by: Alfred E. Green
A woman from the slums, Lily Powers (Barbara Stanwyck), “powers” through New York’s social ranks and corporate ladder, a.k.a. sleeps her way up, for riches and influence. She uses her charm to seduce and manipulate powerful men to rise literally from the basement to the penthouse apartment.
This character journey was directly in contrast to the moral codes defined by the Hays Code. So, to avoid a total ban, the studio added a “moralizing” ending where Lily loses all her wealth but finds “true happiness” in poverty. It satisfied the board’s requirement that sin must be punished.
2. Duck Amuck (1953)
Written by: Michael Maltese | Directed by: Chuck Jones
Daffy Duck (Mel Blanc) finds himself tortured by the whims of an unseen animator who constantly changes the scenery, his costume, and even his physical form. What follows is a series of surreal and meta-fictional gags that mirror Daffy acting out while his reality falls apart.
You might be thinking, what’s there to object to in this case? The answer is the film’s elements of surrealism and deconstruction. The board thought it was “unhealthy” in a social context—or, clueless people objecting to (or fearing) things they don’t necessarily understand, right? So, what Chuck Jones did was to frame the film’s avant-garde exploration of identity as simple slapstick. Suddenly, all the board saw were the slapstick antics, because (in their mind) scrutiny was reserved for “serious art.” Ironically, it’s their folly that came to the rescue of radical narrative experimentation.
3. The Moon Is Blue (1953)
Written by: F. Hugh Herbert | Directed by: Otto Preminger
Patty O’Neill (Maggie McNamara), an actress, but with a good head on her shoulders, meets a playboy architect, Donald Gresham (William Holden), and his neighbor, David Slater (David Niven). Both men try to seduce her, but soon realize she is more keen on having a frank debate on morality, sexuality, and love.
The board refused to give its seal of approval to this film because it handled the “naughty” subject matter and included words like “mistress.” What Preminger did was quite cool. He just went all “Rhett Butler” on their ass and released the film anyway. That’s not all. He actually marketed the film’s “banned” status, which made people even more curious. The film was a huge hit. What a fun “up-yours” moment!
4. Spartacus (1960)
Written by: Dalton Trumbo | Directed by: Stanley Kubrick
A rebellious slave, Spartacus (Kirk Douglas), leads a massive uprising against the Roman Republic. While the war rages on, the powerful Roman general, Crassus (Laurence Olivier), tries to seduce his slave, Antoninus (Tony Curtis), prompting him to run away and join the rebellion.
Since referencing sexuality, let alone homosexuality, wasn’t an option, the seduction scene used the words “oysters and snails.” Quite a masterpiece of coded language. The intended insinuation wasn’t hidden from anyone, but the board couldn’t prove it was “that.” Yet, the board pressed on, and the scene was initially cut. A few years later, it was restored anyway. It’s a classic example of using culinary talk to bypass sexual taboos.
5. The Graduate (1967)
Written by: Calder Willingham, Buck Henry | Directed by: Mike Nichols
Benjamin Braddock (Dustin Hoffman) is a recent graduate, but he is clueless about what he wants to do. He has no aim. So, it doesn’t take much for Mrs. Robinson (Ann Bancroft), the wife of his father’s business partner, to distract him with seduction and start a sordid, complicated affair.
One of the major no-goes during the Hays Code days (more like their dying days) was adultery. “Sanctity of marriage” was very important to the board. And this was between a middle-aged woman and a teenager. A double-whammy. So, Nichols resorted to portraying this affair as “depressing” through the use of stylized, cold cinematography and heavy silence. Instead of glamorous, he made the characters look miserable. What was the censor gonna say, “Don’t show a failing adultery”?
6. Blue Velvet (1986)
Written by: David Lynch | Directed by: David Lynch
Jeffrey Beaumont (Kyle MacLachlan) discovers a severed ear in a vacant lot and takes it to the police. This entanglement leads him into a dark underworld involving a lounge singer, Dorothy (Isabella Rossellini), and a psychopathic criminal, Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper).
The film depicted violence and nudity, which the board objected to and threatened Lynch with an NC-17 rating. But Lynch used his “final cut” contract as a legal shield and defended the content as “surrealist art” rather than pornography. Somehow, positioning the film as a high-brow psychological study, he convinced the board to treat the graphic scenes more leniently.
7. Basic Instinct (1992)
Written by: Joe Eszterhas | Directed by: Paul Verhoeven
Detective Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) investigates a murder involving a mysterious and alluring novelist, Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone). He falls for her but finds himself getting entangled in a web of obsession, danger, and, quite famously, graphic interrogation scenes.
There is no need to stress how provocative the “uncrossing-recrossing legs” scene is. That, and the film’s general erotic vibe, caused a scandal. The board demanded multiple cuts. Verhoeven decided to give them what they wanted—with a twist. He submitted the movie dozens of times, each time making only tiny edits, i.e., editing out only a few frames. This went on for a while, and the board got so exhausted by the process (or the mind game) that they approved the film. All in all, 35-40 seconds, at most, were cut from the original version, and the overall impact of the controversial scenes remained almost exactly the same.
8. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Written by: Terence Winter | Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a stockbroker who builds a massive financial empire through fraud and corruption. Alongside his associates, he leads a life of extreme debauchery, defined by drugs, sex, and unchecked greed. But his ultimate collapse is as staggering as his initial rise.
A veteran like Scorsese knew what this movie showed and how it would be received by the censor board. So he proactively created a “war of attrition”-like situation. He initially submitted a cut that was intentionally over the top in terms of graphic content. When the board demanded cuts, he “obliged” by editing out the made-up content. The remaining content looked much more reasonable in comparison.
9. Deadpool (2016)
Written by: Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick | Directed by: Tim Miller
Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds), suffering from terminal cancer, agrees to volunteer for an experimental procedure. Unknown to him, the procedure is actually an illegal experiment designed to awaken mutant genes. During multiple days of torture, a regenerative healing factor is accidentally activated, which cures his cancer and gives him miraculous healing powers but also leaves him with a scarred body. Wade then adopts the persona of a foul-mouthed mercenary, Deadpool, to track down the man who ruined his life.
Despite being a superhero film (with the target audience being younger viewers), the film’s expletive-laden, sexual, and violent vibe could have caused problems. So, Tim Miller had an innovative idea. He had the protagonist break the fourth wall and directly talk to the audience about how “edgy” and “R-rated” the movie was. And just like that, the film turned into a meta-joke. This made the gore and profane language feel like a “brand” rather than a violation. The censor went soft by calling it a “satire.”
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