Raymond J. Haberski: Shoot the Messenger!

A discussion about offending in the movies

Do we have the freedom to offend? We do, but we don’t necessarily know how broad that freedom is or what its limits are. A good example of the promise and problems of such freedom is the history of offending in American cinema. Hollywood has grown to its gigantic size by calibrating its public image to the bottom line--to turn a profit requires playing it safe.

Yet, American movies do offend--our standards of taste and art, as well as decency, obscenity, and ethics. What should be done, if anything, when the public or some portion of it, is offended? Should we just remind people that, after all, it’s only a movie? Or is there some obligation to the public? And what is that obligation?

Raymond J. Haberski, Jr. is visiting Fulbright Chair in American Studies at the Center for the Study of the Americas for 2008-2009. He is the author of three books including, It’s Only a Movie: Films and Critics in American Culture (2001), Freedom to Offend: How New York Remade Movie Culture (2007), and most recently The Miracle Case (2008).