Screens, sins and censors

: an anatomy of moral panic around cinema

Abstract

This thesis examines the history of moral panic around cinema—instances where particular films or types of film have been considered by moral arbiters in society to be dangerous or corrupting—and argues that such moral panics may be best understood as rooted in a fear of the body and the senses. Much existing scholarship considers moral panics around cinema as discrete incidents caused by the moral mores of particular times and places. Here, I recast them as the result of an aversion to the medium’s unique physical and sensory properties. My three chapters examine frequent subjects of moral panic around cinema; the portrayal of violence, sex, and crime. Comparing moral panics from across diffuse national, historical, and institutional contexts, I show how revulsion towards films and audiences perceived as too physical permutates to shape a myriad of outrages.

My method of analysis is two-fold. Principally, I focus on primary sources of these moral panics such as press reports, censors’ reports, and statements from campaigning groups. I analyse the language employed in these documents, showing how ostensibly moral judgements are expressed in a sensorily fraught vocabulary, betraying their roots in a fear of the physical. I support this analysis through close formal attention to the films which were the subjects of moral panic, illustrating how in key scenes they use elements of style to produce a vivid sensory impression; one which corresponds to the corporeally-charged language of their opponents. Through these analyses, I move away from conceptions which root moral panic around cinema in an abstractly conceived decency and form a cohesive picture of how it emerges from an ambivalence towards the medium’s affective capacity—thus also illuminating how moral judgements more broadly are often shaped not by logic or philosophy but a phobia of the physical.

Date of Award	30 Jun 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of St Andrews
Supervisor	Tom Rice (Supervisor) & Lucy Fife Donaldson (Supervisor)