Tuesday, December 22, 2009

A History of Banned and Censored Films - courtesy of UCal Berkeley Library

This filmography created by media librarian Gary Handman has many titles that are also available in the AU collection. It's fun to browse through as it's loaded with notes on where and why a film was banned.

Sample entry:

The Last Picture Show(1973)
Director, Peter Bagdanovich. Cast: Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Ben Johnson, Cloris Leachman, Cybill Shepherd. A bittersweet drama of the social and sexual mores in small-town 1950s Texas. In 1951, high school seniors Sonny and Duane play football, go to the movies at the Royal Theater, hang out at the pool hall and lust after rich tease Jacy Farrow. Following two tragic deaths and with Duane gone to Korea and Jacy to college in Dallas, Sonny is left behind but he is determined to carry on, despite a telling sign of incipient communal disintegration: the closing of the Royal Theater. 118 min. DVD 9115; vhs 999:2325
Credits and other information from the Internet Movie Database

Banned in Phoenix, Arizona, 1973, because of a scene featuring Cybill Shepherd skinnydipping. A federal court later ruled that the film was not obscene.

It's also got a section on landmark films that received X or NC-17 ratings upon their initial release and citations of landmark film censorship cases.

NOTE: The list isn't comprehensive but covers film/videos that are held in the U Cal - Berkeley Library's Media Resources Center. It is still very extensive and should serve as a useful researchers guide for general users.

link

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