Introduction: In the following illustrated compilation are some of the most significant films in the history of sex on the screen. The influential film milestones and their memorable sexual/erotic scenes are thoroughly described. Including portrayals of sex and/or nudity, these films were often considered quite erotic, groundbreaking, unique and/or controversial at the time. The following listing of these influential, memorable and classic sex scenes and films takes into account all of the available surveys of this type of material, and attempts to provide an informed, detailed, unranked, chronological (by film title) grouping of the most influential and groundbreaking films and scenes. Some of the most notorious (or infamous) films are quite mediocre, usually made as an excuse to display nudity or eroticism of a star performer.

See also the multi-part Sexual and Erotic Films in Cinema, The Most Controversial Films of All-Time and the Best and Most Memorable Film Kisses of All Time in Cinematic History.

Key to Icon Symbol:

- Milestone Films With Scenes That Were Especially Notorious, Infamous, Controversial, or Scandalous

Example

The Beguiled (1971)

Director Don Siegel's psychosexual western-horror drama set in the Civil War period starred Clint Eastwood as injured Union soldier Corp. John McBurney who took refuge in an all-female seminary school for prim and proper Southern girls, led by sexually-frustrated headmistress Martha Farnsworth (Geraldine Page); the film's tagline descriptively stated: "One man...seven women...in a strange house!" and was criticized as misogynistic; McBurney soon learned that the Gothic atmosphere in this matriarchal society was one of sexual repression, deceit, jealousy, and power struggle between a triangle of females vying for his love, attention, and sexual favors: lesbian-leaning Martha (who had a scandalous past - incestuous relations with her deceased brother), her attraction for virginal Edwina Dabney (Elizabeth Hartman), and both Martha's and Edwina's jealousy toward flirtatious 17 year-old student Carol (Jo Ann Harris) - who offered herself to the entrapped soldier; the manipulative McBurney (known as Mr. McB) was able to charm every one of the women - even 12 year-old Amy (Pamelyn Ferdin); during a menage-a trois fantasy sequence (in Martha's mind?), McBurney was seen making love to Martha with Edwina next to him, and the two females shared a lesbian kiss - abruptly, however, McBurney was viewed making love in a room above with Carol; the hotbed atmosphere of sexual repression, empowered females and vengeful jealousy led Edwina to violently attack him - and later led to further retaliation - a gruesome leg amputation with a hacksaw (and brandy as an anesthetic) and lethal poisoning

Billy Jack (1971)

Carnal Knowledge (1971)

This Mike Nichols film with striking adult subject matter (regarding the fragile male ego and bravado, dysfunctionality, and misogyny), sexual encounters, and profanity further pushed the boundaries of sex in cinema although the film had little in the way of explicit sex - it challenged the ratings system as it chronicled the sex lives of two friends: predatory Jonathan (Jack Nicholson) and unsuspecting and naive Sandy (singer Art Garfunkel) as it followed their difficult initiation into sex during college (with among others, Candice Bergen as Susan), including Jonathan's later difficult relationship to voluptuous, big-breasted live-in mistress Bobbie (Oscar-nominated Ann-Margret) who he first felt was his sexual salvation: ("I took one look at the tits on her, and I knew I'd never have trouble again"); it followed Jonathan into his divorced, "ball-buster" burnt-out life in the late 60s, when he found himself dysfunctionally impotent, and resorted to using the services of paid prostitute Louise (Rita Moreno in a cameo) to recite a carefully-worded speech while kneeling between his legs - to massage his ego (and more) in the film's final scene: ("You're getting hard - more strong, more masculine, extraordinary, more robust. It's rising, it's rising. More virile, domineering. More irresistible - it's up, it's in the air!")

A Clockwork Orange (1971, UK)

The Devils (1971, UK)

Ken Russell's film was a blasphemous, shocking and excessive depiction of the repressive 17th century when sexuality was equated with Satanism - it was an adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s "The Devils Of Loudon"; the film was vilified and met with outrage in its story of a womanizing, vain, rebellious activist priest named Father Urbain Grandier (Oliver Reed); when the priest impregnated nobleman's cousin Philippe (Georgina Hale), married wealthy heiress Madeleine Dubroux (Gemma Jones) in secret, and then refused to remove the city walls around his fortified town, he faced questioning and persecution by Cardinal Richelieu (Christopher Logue) for witchcraft and sorcery; he was discredited and accused of "diabolic possession" by the local repressed Ursuline nuns who were led by tormented, sexually-hysterical, sexually-obsessed, hunchbacked Mother Superior Jeanne (Vanessa Redgrave); in one of the film's most shocking (and censored) scenes of a staged exorcism, the nuns acted as if they were possessed, due to threats of execution from one of the church's accusers - in the orgiastic "rape of Christ" sequence, the crazed nuns, who were whipped into a sexual frenzy of hysteria, displayed full-frontal nudity when they removed their habits, and masturbated with (or raped) a large-sized crucifix or effigy of Jesus that they pulled down from the wall, while Father Mignon (Murray Melvin) watched from afar and committed self-abuse under his robe - (the two and a half-minute scene was excised prior to the film's release)

Friends (1971, UK)

Get Carter (1971, UK)

Harold and Maude (1971)

Klute (1971)

The Last Picture Show (1971)

Director Peter Bogdanovich's realistic, black-and-white drama told about the dreams and shattered loves of small-town Texans in the early 1950s; although the adult-themed film was nominated for eight Oscars (with two wins for supporting performers), some considered it obscene; one of the film's relationships was between high-schooler Sonny Crawford (Timothy Bottoms) and coach's wife Ruth Popper (Cloris Leachman), after he had broken up with his girlfriend Charlene (Sharon Taggart) following an awkward petting scene in a car; his loss of virginity was realistically portrayed as he awkwardly undressed and made unceremonious love to the older woman - under the sheets; the film's most controversial scene was at an indoor pool party in which the country-club-set teenagers enjoyed skinny-dipping (with full frontal nudity) - highlighted by rich, self-centered, town tease Jacy Farrow's (Cybill Shepherd) disrobing on a diving board; in another scene, Jacy experienced an aborted deflowering with football-playing boyfriend Duane Jackson (Jeff Bridges) in the Cactus Motel in the dying Texas town, although she told her girlfriend-classmates: "I just can't describe it in words"; in another scene on a Saturday night inside a dark and closed-up pool-hall, the provocative, over-sexed Jacy also enticed her father's older business partner Abilene (Clu Gulager) to remove her shorts and underwear and have sex with her on a pool table - while her hands grasped the two corner pockets behind her

Lust for a Vampire (1971, UK)

Macbeth (1971) (aka The Tragedy 0f Macbeth)

Secrets (1971, UK)

Shaft (1971)

Straw Dogs (1971, UK)

Summer of '42 (1971)

Director Robert Mulligan's nostalgic, war-time, New England (1940s Nantucket Island) beachside summer romance and coming-of-age tale told a flashbacked account about the sexual awakening into manhood of an awkward teenaged boy named Hermie (Gary Grimes); in an earlier scene in the town's drugstore, an embarrassed Hermie nervously attempted to order prophylactics from an unsympathetic storeowner; the film was initially the subject of great controversy due to its frank and sentimental portrayal of teen sex and love for an older woman - a beautiful 22 year-old war bride named Dorothy (supermodel Jennifer O'Neill), after she learned by telegram that her husband had been killed in action; with tears in her eyes and slightly drunk, she put her head on Hermie's shoulder, slowly danced (barefooted) with him to the tune (the film's theme song by Michel Legrand) playing on a phonograph record, and tenderly kissed him a few times; she clasped his hand in hers and led him to her bedroom, where she removed her outer slip (and her undergarments) and beckoned him to join her in bed; the next day, she only left him a note explaining that perhaps the meaning of the event would come in time to him; the film was originally rated R, but then re-evaluated and rated PG; however, objections by conservative groups caused the rating to be reverted back to R in the 1980s

Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971, UK)

Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)

Twins of Evil (1971, UK) (aka Twins of Dracula, The Evil Twins)

Walkabout (1971, Aus)

Nicolas Roeg's tale was a coming of age saga about two stranded British schoolchildren, including a 14-year old Girl (17 year old Jenny Agutter), who must overcome the harsh climate of the Australian outback, aided by an Aboriginal boy (David Gumpilil); after overcoming self-consciousness and civilization's social conventions, the Girl engaged in a nude swim in a natural lagoon pond (with non-gratuitous full frontal nudity) - a symbol of her sexual awakening, although this would lead to tragic circumstances for the older aboriginal boy; about five minutes of the film were cut from the expurgated US version of the film

W.R.- Mysteries of the Organism (1971, Yugo.) (aka W.R. - Misterije organizma)