Monday, September 4 & Sunday, September 10 | This seminal gangster film, loosely based on Chicago’s own Al Capone (who was rumored to have liked the film so much that he obtained a copy), SCARFACE was produced and filmed during the pre-Code era, when regulations on film content were scant, and released at the outset of the enforcement of the Motion Picture Production Code (also known as the Hays Code). Concerned with the film’s grisly violence and sympathetic portrayal of mobsters, the release of SCARFACE was delayed, and Hawks was required to make substantial edits, including deleting scenes deemed overly sexual. Screenwriter Howard Hughes was even forced to write an alternate ending that condemned gang violence. Retitled as SCARFACE: THE SHAME OF THE NATION (subtle!), the film’s release was further stymied when it was rejected by the Chicago Film Review Board, a department of the Chicago Police Department. This 4K restoration of the original, unaltered theatrical cut is followed by footage that was shot to appease censor boards.

Contra/Banned Series: As a disturbing wave of bans—on books, on bodies, on identities—continues to sweep across the United States, the Film Center declares: get your censorship off our cinema. With Contra/Banned, we present 10 films that have experienced, in varying absurd degrees, their own bans and outcries, their own protests and regulations. The films of Contra/Banned are at times subversive, controversial, taboo, provocative, and shocking. Sounds like a good time at the movies to us. View full series.

The Film Center is ADA accessible. This presentation will be projected without open captions. The theater is hearing-loop equipped. For accessibility requests, please email filmcenter@saic.edu