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The Tin Drum |
Case Type: |
Actual.
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Exigence: |
In June, 1997, an Oklahoma judge told police officers that the Academy Award-winning movie "The Tin Drum" was obscene under a law defining that term as: "material or performance [that] has as one of its participants or portrayed observers a child under the age of eighteen (18) or who appears as prepubescent."The ruling was based on watching one scene in the movie in which the main character--a young boy who decides to stop growing in Nazi Germany--is represented as performing oral sex on a teenage girl while under a sheet. Police thereupon confiscated copies of the video from libraries, video stores and at least one home. The ACLU and others then filed a lawsuit asking for damages for unlawful seizures and requesting also that the statute be held unconstitutional. |
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Audience: |
The federal trial court; you, the general public.
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Possible |
Consult the massive archive of material on the controversy maintained--ironically, at State expense--by the Oklahoma Department of Libraries for a complete history of the case, many of the legal documents, and commentary. Shorter summaries (one, two) can be found at the Freedom Forum.
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Decision: |
Late in 1997 the federal trial court ruled the seizures unconstitutional. In further rulings at the end of 1998, the court further found the film not obscene under Oklahoma law, in that it had artistic merit, but refused to find the Oklahoma statute unconstitutional. The damage claims against the police are still pending.
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Related |
Offense Sex Art |
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Notes: |
None.
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For help
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Copyright © 1998 Jean Goodwin. All rights reserved. jeangoodwin@nwu.edu Last updated The Free Speech website, http://faculty-web.at.nwu.edu/commstud/freespeech/ |
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