The original Scarface

Censorship has been around for years now and a great example of early censorship that was pointless was in the 1932 film named Scarface, one of my personal favorites. It is an American gangster film depicting gang warfare and police intervention when two gangs fight over control of the city they're located in. While this seems like a pretty straightforward movie that has great potential for popularity it was banned in multiple states and cities across the United States for "glorification of crime." In reality however it did not glorify crime, but told a story of everyday life for some and also told a story of what happened on the streets on a daily basis back when this film came out.

Instances of censorship like this are absurd. This movie was not overly violent, nor was it gory or obscene. There was no reason this movie should have been banned anywhere at all. Just because people out there are going to watch the story of two street gangs battling for turf doesn't mean that those people who just watched the movie are going to go out, join the gangs and join the fight. The message in this movie is not to get involved with this type of violence, so there is in no way at all any glorification of crime. Instead this censorship was just an attempt by the government to limit exposure for these gangs as well as to avoid the topic of street violence. While it may seem like a good idea to stop films from "glorifying violence" and "promoting gangs", it is also a good idea to make sure that's what the film is actually doing before banning it.