Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
The Production Code of Hollywood fell apart in 1967, to be replaced by the ratings system we all know and love. The whole purpose of the Code was to regulate the content of films, and, in turn, to hopefully keep the government and other special interests groups off Hollywood's back. By the 1960's, however, the spirit of the Code was no longer important to most people, and the films slowly but surely became more and more risky. Even before 1967, there was content in some of the big films that would have been unthinkable in the 40's and even the 50's. Listen to some of the innuendos in such films as North By Northwest, Some Like It Hot, and others, as well as look at the violent content of Psycho and Bonnie and Clyde. And in 1966, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was released, and its claim to fame and Production Code-breaking was its use of profane language.
The language is not particularly rough compared to today (possibly the worst things said are words like "crap" and "puke", as well as the usual blasphemies like "goddamn", etc.), and would only merit a PG today. Most of the language would even be suitable for American network television. But the movie itself is not sweet or gentle by any means – it is a rather difficult film, and possibly only the presence of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton allowed the film to even have been made.
Taylor and Burton play Martha and George, a married couple who are not exactly in wedded bliss. George is a veteran History professor, resentful of the fact that he never became head of the History Department. Martha is the daughter of the university president, and she wastes little opportunity to rub George's face in the fact that her father expected great things out of him, and was sorely disappointed. As the film opens, the two leave a university party, and have a silly little argument about a Bette Davis picture, before Martha tells a surprised George that they are expecting guests, even though it is two in the morning. The guests are a young married couple. The husband (George Segal) is a biology professor (whom Martha keeps insisting is in the Math department), and is accompanied by his wife, played by Sandy Dennis. During this long all-nighter, all four will drink and drink, and the older couple will make emotional mince-meat out of the younger couple.
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