Its a list of the most “morally bankrupt” movies judged by the catholic film reviewers the catholic “legion of decency” from the 30s until it was folded in with various other groups in the church they’re pretty much the reason for the various rating and censor boards in American films throughout the decades
Even non-Catholics used them to judge "decency and appropriateness " in movies …now if you’re a member you can vote in the poll… but I wanted opinion as to whether the label “morally bankrupt” was warranted
They clearly didn’t like Clint Eastwood (3 leading roles), but surprisingly we don’t see Dirty Harry. I understood that its release triggered a debate about the justifiability of using violence and vigilantism as an instrument of the law.
Its hard to see why some of these were picked while other releases were given a pass.
I guess that they are the in-flight movies on the way to hell. Some great entertainment. I have seen all but 3 of them, so that trip looks like one I will be making.
Maybe because Dirty Harry was a police officer dispensing justice against criminals while the Josie Wales and The Man With No Name were basically amoral outlaws? Just my WAG.
Curious why Spartacus is on that list.
The American Catholic church used to have a database of movie reviews with their own rating system, which was considerably more conservative than the MPAA’s. It was very extensive – rare to not find a film in it – and the reviews were quite accurate, succinct, and clearly written by intelligent literate people. I used it for many years while my daughter was a child and we rented movies to watch as a family (we never had a television). It was a great tool for finding child-appropriate films, or even just good films.
Their rating system was something like “all audiences” “older children” “mature teens and adults only” and “morally objectionable”.
The Morally Objectionable films that I did watch were indeed morally objectionable either on Catholic doctrine grounds – glorifying homosexuality or sex outside marriage for example, but far more often on general depravity/ethics grounds, or because of gratuitous violence. Most films with artistic merit were not given such a rating, just a highly cautionary review.
Gay characters would not cause a bad rating, just a cautionary note, by the way.
I remember The Butcher’s Wife got an M.O. rating. Deserved in my view. The Producers definitely did not.
I disagree with this line of thinking. Were there Catholic priests who either engaged in or covered up pedophilia? Yes. But very few. It would be like saying that when I think of Italians I think mafiosi.
There’s nothing indicating that those are the “most” morally bankrupt movies. It’s just a poll that some random user named urbanemovies put up. So he’d got the hard on for Clint’s westerns, not the Catholic church.
When I was a kid we used to get a weekly Catholic newspaper, The Monitor, which listed the current movies by rating. They went from A-1 (“Morally unobjectionable for anyone”) through A-2 (“Morally unobjectionable for adults and adolescents”) through A-3 (Morally unobjectionable for adults") and A-4 (“Morally unoibjectionable folr adults, with reservbations” as a kid, I thought that meant that if you made reservations to see the movie before you got a chance to read the paper, it was still OK to go) to B(“Morally Objectionable in part for Everyone”) to C (“Condemned”)
It was never clear to me why there was a distinction between B and C. If it was Morally Objectionable In Part, could you still go see it? Did you have to cover your eyes during the Bad Parts? If you couldn’t go see it, why not just lump these films in with Condemned?
As the authors of the book Growing up Catholic pointed out, people paid attention to these ratings. A daring thing to do was to go see the Condemned movie Carnal Knowledge.
I eventually just got annoyed with a bunch of bishops ruling on what I could or could not see, making assumptions about my moral stature and adulthood, and just saw them anyway. Although there are still some Condemned films (like Anatomy of a Murder) that I still haven’t seen.
I remember Parents Magazine used to list current films and the amount of nudity/violence/cursing in them. It was my guide for which movies to sneak into at the mall (that were rated R).
Dirty Harry is still not on that list–1971 saw Billy Jack and Clockwork Orange condemned, but not Dirty Harry. *Spartacus *apparently had some lines of dialog edited out to avoid a condemnation.
It’s just a wikipedia list, and I’m by no means convinced it’s anywhere near complete. It’s a long time ago, but I distinctly remember in the 70s our Catholic church bulletin had a list of movies in the theater and their Legion of Doom rating. There were newly condemned movies nearly every week.
ETA: Some popular 1976 movies not on the wikipedia list that I’m sure would have been condemned.
A Star is Born
Silver Streak
Bloodsucking Freaks
Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw