Most Frequently Challenged Books: 1990 - 2000

Books on Censorship

Banned Books

Ken Wachsberger (ed.)
Facts on File, 2006

Banned in the U.S.A.: a Reference Guide to Book Censorship in Schools and Public Libraries

Herbert N. Foerstel
Greenwood Press, 2002

Banned Plays: Censorship Histories of 125 Stage Dramas

Dawn B. Sova
Facts on File, 2004

Censored 2007: the Top 25 Censored Stories

Peter Phillips & Project Censored (eds.)
Seven Stories, 2006

Censorship

Kate Burns (ed.)
Greenhaven Press, c2007

Forbidden Films: Censorship Histories of 125 Motion Pictures

Dawn B. Sova
Facts on File, c2001

Free Speech

John Boaz (ed.)
Greenhaven Press, 2006

Films About Censorship

1984

1984 is the George Orwell classic about Big Brother and the subordination of the individual to the state. Winston is a good member of the party whose daily work is rewriting history, until he rebels by falling in love. (Multiple versions; 1955, bw, 91m, Holiday; 1984, color, 120m, Atlantic Releasing Corporation, 20th Century Fox Distribution)

Cinema Paradiso

This subtle tale explores the unacceptability of censorship. The "Cinema Paradiso" is the only theatre in a small, suffocating Sicilian village, where the local priest expurgates all the love scenes from the movies, which are hung as strips of film in the projectionist's booth. The projectionist, Alfredo, befriends Toto, a local boy who grows up to take Alfredo's job until Alfredo tells Toto to leave, because "you will never find your life in so narrow-minded a place." When Toto returns for Alfredo's funeral many years later, he receives a gift that Alfredo left for him: a movie reel, on which are all the expurgated scenes from the movies of his childhood: all the censored kisses, passion, and life. (1989, Italy, 155m, HBO/Miramax)

Footloose

Footloose, filled with pop tunes still heard today, details the life of a city boy who moves to a small town where rock music and dancing have been banned; he decides to stand up to the town and rallies his classmates to fight for the right to hold a senior prom with music and dance. (1984, color, 107m, Paramount Pictures)

Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451, based upon the Ray Bradbury novel, depicts a future totalitarian and oppressive society, where books are forbidden and the mission of firemen is to burn books. (1966, color, 112m, Rank/Anglo Enterprise/Vineyard)

Good Night and Good Luck

Good Night and Good Luck depicts the effort by television broadcast journalists Edward R. Murrow and Fred Friendly to expose the fearmongering tactics of Senator Joseph McCarthy. Not only an examination of McCarthyism, it also provides a glimpse into the world of television news in its infancy, before the era of cable news networks. (2005, bw, 93m, Warner Independent Pictures)

The Insider

The Insider, a tale from another era at CBS News, when the network silenced its own producer and Jeffrey Wigand, a former tobacco executive who revealed that the tobacco industry knew that cigarettes are addictive and harmful. The film depicts the pair's attempt to overcome the tobacco companies' and CBS' attempts to silence them. (1999, 150m, Touchstone/Spyglass Entertainment.)