Apr 27, 2007

Jack Valenti (1921-2007), R.I.P.

As you probably have heard, Jack Valenti, the retired head of the Motion Picture Association of America, died yesterday at age 85.

He was best known for getting Hollywood to bypass the Catholic-inspired Hays Office Production Code, which for three decades had protected the American public by preventing moviemakers from putting sadism, nudity, filth, hatred of God, etc., in their movies.

At his urging, moviemakers in 1968 adopted a "rating" system that let them make all the evil slime they wanted but sugarcoat it with "ratings" that supposedly informed the public.

The New York Times obituary of him (click on this post's title) quotes him: "I was determined to free the screen from anything like the Hays Code. But I also emphasized that freedom demanded responsibility."

Anyone even remotely familiar with the fountain of filth and slime in movies since then knows that moviemakers have been just the opposite of responsible.

What is more, the ratings have undergone constant "ratings creep" downward, so that more and more evil is allowed in each category, thus deceiving the unwary in the public about the content.

Jack Valenti presided over all this and steadfastly defended the ratings system despite all the filth, nudity, sadism, hatred of Catholicism and of all religion, and other evils it has permitted.

How many billions of mortal sins have people committed during and after watching the thousands of vile, evil movies that Jack Valenti let be made?

So we should pray for the repose of Jack Valenti's soul. We should also, of course, pray for solace and every consolation for his wife and children.

Will Cardinal Roger Mahony issue a statement praising Jack Valenti? Will the Cardinal hold his funeral in the Cathedral?

Will the Cardinal ever denounce movie slime and move to protect his flock, and all America and the entire world, by demanding reinstatement of a movie Production Code? (Tragically, this is only a rhetorical question.)

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home

Site Meter