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The Most Controversial
Films of All-Time Part 8 |
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The Most Controversial
Films of All-Time Part 8 |
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Controversy-invoking films may be from almost any genre - documentaries, westerns, erotic-thrillers, dramas, horror, comedy, or animated, and more. Standards for what may be considered shocking, offensive or controversial have changed drastically over many decades.The voluntary ratings system of the Motion Picture Association of America can influence a film's public showing in a theatre -- an NC-17 rating or an unrated film may often close down a film's screening and lead to commercial failure.
Note: The films that are marked with a yellow
star |
| The
Most Controversial Films of All-Time |
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| Film Title, Director, Explanation | Example |
| Natural
Born Killers (1994) # 8
Oliver Stone's film (from a Quentin Tarantino original script), a modern update and remake similar in theme to Terrence Malick's Badlands (1973), was a visually-riveting (with an eclectic style mix, including MTV-style), controversial, anarchic and brutal film about media sensationalism and obsession, in its story of two serial killer-lovers and white-trash outlaws: abused Mallory Knox (Juliette Lewis) and psychotic Mickey (Woody Harrelson) - inspired by real-life spree killer Charles Starkweather, who went on a violent, cross-country (Route 666) Southwestern random killing joyride. TV tabloid show host/reporter Wayne Gale (Robert Downey, Jr.) made them famous celebrities for his sensationalist "American Maniacs" show. In the shocking ending, the two outlaws shot Gale - broadcast live on camera in a rural setting. The extremely violent film was lambasted as "evil" and "loathsome" for its hypocritical violence-soaked satire on screen violence. It was subjected to numerous edits and cuts (reportedly 150) by the MPAA at the time of release (now restored in Stone's longer 'Director's Cut' version, that was licensed to a third party) to achieve an R-rating from its original NC-17 rating. Its public screening in the UK was delayed, because the film had instigated or 'inspired' murderous copycat shooting sprees in the US (including the Columbine High School Massacre) by those who viewed the protagonists as glamorous and romantic folk heroes -- similar to what happened after the release of Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange (1971). In a failed civil suit, lawyer/novelist John Grisham accused Stone's film of being a 'faulty' or 'defective' product and that there was a 'causal link' between the film and various murders - he argued that Stone was legally accountable for inspiring real-life murders. The parents of paralyzed Patsy Byers, a 1995 victim of teen lovers (Ben Darras and Sarah Edmondson) in Louisiana, took expensive legal action against Stone and Warners, but the case was ultimately dismissed in 2001. |
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Nekromantik (1987, Germ.)
Director Jorg Buttgereit's low-budget, cultish and controversial German gross-out, depraved horror film was reviled and banned in many countries for its depiction of necrophilia - sex with corpses, rabbit cruelty, cat disembowelment, and decapitation by a shovel. In one of the film's final sequences, suicidal and manic-depressive ambulance driver Robert "Rob" Schmadtke (Daktari Lorenz) simultaneously masturbated and committed hari-kiri with a knife - culminating in an orgasmic semen-blood mixed expiration. During a threesome, his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice Manowski) also found pleasure in making love to a rotting corpse with a sawed-off piece of a broom handle (outfitted with a condom) stuck in its groin as a makeshift penis. |
   
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| The Outlaw (1943)
Hughes' picture was notorious for leering camera views of statuesque and formidable Jane Russell's ample, buxom cleavage - displayed to the fullest and greatest effect to anger Hays Code censors. She was often pictured with an oft-unbuttoned, low-cut peasant blouse. The film was denied a Production Code Administration seal for the exploitative use of young star Jane Russell's prominent, bulging breasts and cleavage. One local judge in Baltimore, Maryland was quoted as saying that Russell's breasts "hang over the picture like a summer thunderstorm spread out over a landscape". However, it appeared that the publicity pin-up shots (example to left) were much more revealing, sultry and suggestive than the film itself. The storyline -- the pursuit of Billy the Kid by Sheriff Pat Garrett (Thomas Mitchell), with Jane Russell as Doc Holliday's (Walter Huston) sexy, half-breed mistress Rio -- was considered too racy for contemporary audiences in 1941 when it was screened for the Hays Office. Its original release had to be postponed until 1943 - and then only in very limited release to theatres. After a ten-week run at that time, Hughes decided to shelve the film for three years after which it was finally placed in general release in 1946 (in a cut version) without a seal of approval. |
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| The Passion
Of The Christ (2004) # 1
Co-producer, co-writer, and director Mel Gibson's R-rated, self-financed, independent smash-hit film, a brutal depiction of Jesus' last 12 hours on Earth, stirred up considerable controversy. It was filmed with dialogue in three languages (Aramaic, Hebrew, and Latin) with subtitles, and although Gibson claimed that the account was authentic and 'truthful' - it would be nearly impossible to derive a strict and true historical account of the events from the Gospels. The scourging (a 10-minute sequence) and crucifixion scenes in particular were overpoweringly graphic, bloody, torturous and vicious. Even Gibson admitted that the film was deliberately "shocking" and "extreme" in order to depict Jesus' enormous sacrifice. Even before it was released and viewed, religious leaders were indignant over its Catholic-tinged interpretation of the Bible, its use of extra-Biblical sources, and its poetic license, and Jews protested the film as anti-Semitic - believing that the "obscene" film would blame Jews for the death of Jesus. Even Gibson had difficulty securing a distributor for his film. The film went on to be one of the most successful R-rated films ever, with $370 million US box-office receipts, mostly due to its embracing by evangelical church groups. It became the highest-grossing independent film of all time. An unrated, re-edited re-release of the film (still R-rated), named The Passion Recut (2005), with Gibson's own edits (removal of about 5 minutes of graphic violence) was shown in theatres for a short time a year later. |
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| Peeping Tom (1960,
UK)
Although now widely praised (like Hitchcock's psychological horror film counterpart Psycho (1960) - and the film's thematic counterpart Rear Window (1954)), this chilling and disturbing film about voyeurism, child abuse, and serial murder by honored film-maker Michael Powell was originally widely hated, universally loathed and denounced, especially by British critics. They pronounced it amoral, perverted, necrophilic and trashy. It was called nauseating, depressing, and stench-filled -- and allegedly destroyed the career of its director. It suffered from the devastating reviews and was removed from theaters and excised by its distributor. This censored version was briefly available in trashy US theatres in 1962 and in selected arthouse venues, but then removed. Not until 1979 was a full-length version viewable -- at the New York Film Festival. Over time, it has been critically re-evaluated and vindicated, and is now universally regarded as a masterpiece. It was a twisted portrayal of shy studio cameraman (and morbid serial killer) Mark Lewis (Karlheinz Boehm) who filmed call girls and then killed them with the metal-spiked leg of his hand-held camera tripod (with a mirror attached so that victims could watch themselves dying). In the film's shocking opening, filmed from the point-of-view of the voyeuristic camera's cross-haired viewfinder, a prostitute negotiated, walked upstairs, disrobed, and then gave a look of horror as she was murdered. The infamous film with dark subject matter was criticized for its unsavory view of the perverted crimes perpetrated (and witnessed almost as "snuff films") upon unsuspecting female victims (a prostitute, an actress-dancer, and a nude model). In a subtle way, it appeared to implicate the voyeuristic viewer and force the audience to identify with the awful and perverse crimes committed by the madman. However, it masterfully told the back-story of how the monstrous killer had a very troubled childhood with a sadistic father (played by director Powell in a cameo) who filmed him for his studies on the physiology of fear in children, and contributed to his son's violent and conflicted subconscious (by observing his reactions to a lizard dropped on his bed, his mother's corpse, or his father's new young wife). |
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| Pink Flamingos (1972)
Director John Waters (known as the "Prince of Puke" or "Pope of Trash") produced a unique crop of intentionally bizarre, crude, sexually-grotesque, trashy and bad taste-laden cult films with eccentric oddball characters and harshly-vivid language. Almost his entire filmography is laced with unusual plot lines, freaky casts, larger-than-life performances and extremely grossed-out scenes that could be found nowhere else. Waters faced criticism for pushing conventional boundary lines and exhibiting full-frontal nudity, and his outrageous films led to calls for censorship and outright banning. The sheer repulsiveness and infamy of Waters' films (this film was part of a "trash trilogy" composed of Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble (1974), and Desperate Living (1977)), however, made them campy midnight movie hits, and led to more mainstream future successes such as Polyester (1981) and Hairspray (1988). Waters' unrated seminal film Pink Flamingos was one of the most outrageous and the ultimate example of 'poor-taste' - it contained incestuous oral sex, an illegal adoption ring complete with caged women in the basement during their pregnancies, making love with a live chicken during a copulation scene between Babs' son Crackers (Danny Mills) and Cookie (Cookie Mueller), public urination, the eating of real dog feces, and a close-up of a man's singing (opening and closing) anal sphincter. Animal activist groups protested the revolting film for its treatment of chickens. When this film was re-released in 1997, it was rated NC-17 by the MPAA. It told about an unusual overweight transvestite trailer park matron named Babs Johnson (played by Divine or Harris Glen Milstead) who literally ate fresh poodle-dog feces in a scatological competition to become the 'World's Filthiest Person Alive' in the film's conclusion, among other things. Other characters in her mobile-home trailer included her delinquent son Crackers, her voyeuristic traveling companion Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce), and her half-dressed, mentally-ill, brain-damaged, corpulent, and gap-toothed mother Edie (Edith Massey) who sat in a playpen crib and ate hard-boiled eggs all day long. Shocking sequences included the over-the-top birthday party scene featuring bizarre sex acts, and the murder and cannibalistic consumption of a quartet of policemen (reminiscient of Night of the Living Dead (1968)). Babs delivered a stunning "filth politics" speech to TV reporters: "Blood does more than turn me on, Mr. Vader. It makes me come. And more than the sight of it, I love the taste of it. The taste of hot, freshly killed blood...Kill everyone now! Condone first degree murder! Advocate cannibalism! Eat s--t! Filth is my politics! Filth is my life!" before executing her non-PC competitors: blue-haired Raymond (David Lochary) and red-haired Connie Marble (Mink Stole) in front of the press. |
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| Pretty Baby (1978)
Louis Malle's provocative American debut film - a semi-scandalous picture upon its release due to unfounded charges of child porn, debuted at a time when there was public uproar over child abuse, child pornography, and child prostitution. Some worried that young Brooke Shields would be traumatized by her 'adult' role in the film - yet the entire film was basically free of explicit scenes or language. Malle had hired a female scriptwriter (Polly Platt) to insure that the film was dealt with in a sensitive manner. It was gorgeously photographed by Bergman-cinematographer Sven Nykvist, and set in a 1917 New Orleans bordello in the legalized red-light district of Storyville.
Various versions were edited (with dark shading, readjusted formats or closeups), and a G-string shield was worn to avoid portraying the underage nudity of the budding, prepubescent Brooke Shields. Some critics recognized that the film possibly portrayed Brooke Shields as a defenseless and naive daughter used by her manipulative mother - similar to her publicity-fueled image in real-life. |
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| A Real Young Girl
(1975, Fr.) (aka Une Vraie Jeune Fille)
Director Catherine Breillat's feature debut was this erotic drama with strong and shocking sexual content - it was made in 1975, but not released until 25 years later due to financial problems with her production company and controversy surrounding this sensational, raw and strange film -- Breillat would later become famous for the similarly-explicit Romance (1999) and Fat Girl (2001) which were also preoccupied with the representation of female sexuality. This film was promptly banned upon its initial release in France in 1976. This original, unapologetic and bold film showed various closeups of genitalia, a fascination with bodily fluids and smells (including vomit, urination and writing on a mirror with vaginal secretions), and sexual fantasies while it charted the budding sexuality, self-exploration and awakening of sexually-curious and self-analytic teenaged Alice Bonnard (Charlotte Alexandra) during a summer holiday. Crude and realistic, she lustfully fantasized about sex with a worker in her father's sawmill, would often drop her panties to her ankles, compulsively masturbated, and in one surreal scene had a live chopped-up worm rubbed into her crotch. |
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| Requiem for a Dream
(2000)
Aronofsky's effective and disturbing film told about the consequences of drug use for four individuals: lonely, TV-addicted, diet-pill-popping Brighton Beach widow Sara Goldfarb (Oscar-nominated Ellen Burstyn), her heroin-addicted son Harry (Jared Leto), his drug-dealing best friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans) and his girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly). Pre-release discussions claimed the film bordered on pornography and glamorized drug use. In the film, Sara's addiction to weight-loss and obsession with being on a television show led to hallucinations, near insanity, and shock-treatment, while the harrowing price of heroin addiction caused Harry's arm to become severely infected and require amputation, while despairing and pained Marion, earlier seen in full-frontal before a mirror, prostituted herself to pay for her addiction. The controversial sequence, argued as a necessary component and message that the cautionary film had to deliver about the consequences of drug use, was a nasty, extremely-graphic lesbian orgy scene with a shared anal dildo that shocked the MPAA which rated it NC-17 - Aronofsky appealed the ruling (which was denied), so the film was released unrated. An R-rated edited version of the film was released on video with a shortened sex scene. |
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Romance (1999, Fr.) (aka Romance
X)
This sexually-graphic drama import from daring French filmmaker Catherine Breillat faced international censorship problems for its explicit depictions of fellatio and intercourse; the film's poster displayed a red X over a self-pleasuring female's private parts; it told about the lack of connection between love and sex. The main character was a sexually-frustrated Parisian elementary school teacher named Marie (Caroline Ducey) who was paired with an unresponsive male partner named Paul (Sagamore Stevenin) - he rarely agreed to intercourse and responded disinterestedly to fellatio. Therefore, she sought sexual gratification through various 'no-strings-attached', explicit sexual encounters (including rear-entry sex) with studly Italian stranger Paolo (the controversial casting of Italian porn star actor Rocco Sefredi); she also was sexually involved and developed a relationship with her older boss named Robert (Francois Berleand) who enjoyed bondage and stimulated her potential for masochism. The film's scenes included a rape in a stairway, a controversial fantasy dream sequence (in which she imagined herself sexually defenseless with other women - their waists were available and positioned next to a hole in a wall as unseen strangers on the other side of the wall could engage in explicit sex with them through the opening), bondage scenes, a gynecological exam, and closeup footage of a childbirth (edited and replaced by Blockbuster Video). It was also the first mainstream movie to feature an erect penis; it was released with no MPAA rating, although it undoubtedly would have been an NC-17 rating with its full frontal nudity and explicit unsimulated oral sex - a turning point in the candid depiction of non-pornographic sex on screen for a mainstream film. |
     
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Intro | Part
1 | Part 2 | Part
3 | Part 4 | Part
5 | Part 6 | Part
7 | Part 8 | Part
9 | Part 10
Created in 1996-2008 © by Tim Dirks. All rights reserved.
The Most
Controversial Films of All Time: Films always
have the ability to anger us, divide us, shock us, disgust us, and more.
Usually, films that inspire controversy, outright boycotting, picketing,
banning, censorship, or protest have graphic sex, violence, homosexuality,
religious, political or race-related themes and content. They usually
push the envelope regarding what can be filmed and displayed on the
screen, and are considered taboo, "immoral" or "obscene"
due to language, drug use, violence and sensuality/nudity or other incendiary
elements. Inevitably, controversy helps to publicize these films and
fuel the box-office receipts. 
are the films that "The Greatest Films" site has selected as the 
This
infamous sex-western was millionaire director/producer Howard Hughes'
B-grade pet project. It was marketed salaciously for full effect - such
as with this tasteless slogan: "What are the two great reasons
for Jane Russell's rise to stardom?" 
The
fictional yet historically-inspired drama (based on Al Rose's 1974 non-fictional
book Storyville, New Orleans) told the story of a virginal, jaded
12 year-old Violet (former child model Brooke Shields in her breakthrough
role) - a child prostitute with her New Orleans brothel mother Hattie
(Susan Sarandon). Both were often photographed nude by Ernest J. Bellocq
(Keith Carradine) (one of his actual portraits displayed here of a turn-of-the-century
prostitute) - who also proposed to marry the young girl, who had innocently
told him: "I love you once, I love you twice, I love you more than
red beans and rice!" In one scene, Violet's virginity was matter-of-factly
auctioned off for the highest bidder ($400) by house madam Nell (Frances
Faye).