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25 Most controversial movies
- Thread starter Sinclair
- Start date
hypatia
Regular
Oh, what a great list! 
I love the movie Freaks. The one single thing I don't like about it is that it's sometimes very hard to hear what the characters are saying. But wow, did I stay up late one Saturday night when I stumbled onto that film for the first time on cable.
About a movie I've never heard of before on the list:
Man, it does sound as if Blair was based on this little "gem".
I love the movie Freaks. The one single thing I don't like about it is that it's sometimes very hard to hear what the characters are saying. But wow, did I stay up late one Saturday night when I stumbled onto that film for the first time on cable.
About a movie I've never heard of before on the list:
Man, it does sound as if Blair was based on this little "gem". 
Jade Jaguar
Regular
It's an interesting list. I've seen most of them, and would agree that most belong there. But, it does omit what are easily the two most controversial films of all time:
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo, 120 Days of Sodom, 1975, the most powerful, and disgusting, anti-fascist film ever made. It is still banned today in some countries. It probably got him killed, by Italian fascists, who ambushed him in the woods.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073650/
And, L' Age D'or (The Golden Age,) 1930, by Luis Bunuel. It was banned shortly after it opened in Paris in 1930, wasn't shown in the US until 1979, and was only unbanned in the mid 70's. It too, is anti-facist, and anti-church, or at least mocks the Catholic Church's view of sex.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021577/
Addendum:
I've seen 19 of the 25. About Caligula, it has lots of great stars, and they say that they thought it was a good film, as they were making it. But, it was a piece of trash in theaters. That is because producer Bob Guiccione, publisher of Penthouse magazine, oversaw the editing, and made it the crap that it is, in his attempt to be sexy, provocative, and sensationalistic. He failed, utterly. One wonders if all the outtakes still exist, and a fine film could actually be edited out of them, as the stars thought. But, it has such a bad rep, I doubt anyone would ever try to do that, even if it was possible.
Pier Paolo Pasolini's Salo, 120 Days of Sodom, 1975, the most powerful, and disgusting, anti-fascist film ever made. It is still banned today in some countries. It probably got him killed, by Italian fascists, who ambushed him in the woods.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073650/
And, L' Age D'or (The Golden Age,) 1930, by Luis Bunuel. It was banned shortly after it opened in Paris in 1930, wasn't shown in the US until 1979, and was only unbanned in the mid 70's. It too, is anti-facist, and anti-church, or at least mocks the Catholic Church's view of sex.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0021577/
Addendum:
I've seen 19 of the 25. About Caligula, it has lots of great stars, and they say that they thought it was a good film, as they were making it. But, it was a piece of trash in theaters. That is because producer Bob Guiccione, publisher of Penthouse magazine, oversaw the editing, and made it the crap that it is, in his attempt to be sexy, provocative, and sensationalistic. He failed, utterly. One wonders if all the outtakes still exist, and a fine film could actually be edited out of them, as the stars thought. But, it has such a bad rep, I doubt anyone would ever try to do that, even if it was possible.
Joseph DeMartino
Moderator
Guccione had the hard-core stuff shot separately and without the knowledge of the "name" actors, and cut it into the film in post. I saw the film only once, a rental when it was first released on VHS and have no desire to revisit it, but as I recall even without the non-sex stuff wasn't all that good. Malcolm McDowell can be a terrific actor with the right material and right director, but he can also chew the scenery with the best of them if not handled properly. And the considerable (and mostly pointless) liberties taken with history annoyed me, as they usuallydo in such films. (Why completely depart from the numerous mutually supporting accounts of his assassination, for instance?)
I didn't do an actual count, but I'd say I've seen the majority of films on this list, and it is a pretty good one - although, as with most such lists, it is biased towards more recent films that are fresher in people's minds, even though they may not be all that controversial in the grand scheme of things. (To suggest that The Passion of the Christ was as controversial as The Birth of a Nation or Deep Throat at the time those films were released is simply absurd.)
Also they don't always get their facts straight. (While there have been rumors that an early draft of the Freaks script called for the strong man to be castrated no surviving script includes that detail and there is no evidence that a scene even suggesting it was shot - much less, er, "cut".)
I found the inclusion of the nearly-forgotten Anthony Quinn film The Messenger interesting. Mostly because I was in D.C. the day the hostage drama started. Some friends and I were innocently taking a shortcut through an alley behind some buildings when what seemed like every cop in the city landed on us. They were just setting up a perimeter and the sight of a big, bearded, vaguely Mediterranean type in an old army jacket leading a group of people in the direction of the siege made them understandably nervous. After we were frisked, showed ID and were briefly questioned, we were escorted out of the danger zone. (But not before I saw SWAT snipers and other personnel setting up on the roofs of the buildings above us.)
We had actually talked about going to see The Messenger at some point, but after that decided against it and I never did get around to watching the film.
Regards,
Joe
Jade Jaguar
Regular
I saw Caligula in the theater, and I'll take the word of Malcom, Helen Mirren, and others that it could have been good, but, we'll never know. I think it is hard to judge the performances in such an awful context. But, I completely agree with what you say about the twisting of history. Caligula did some far worse, and more sensationalistic, things in reality, that he did in that film. They shouldn't have altered it.
I quite agree with what you say about The Passion, Birth of a Nation, and Deep Throat. I would add that "I am Curious, Yellow" was very controversial, much in the news, more controversial than Deep Throat, mainly because it came before Deep Throat, and sort of cleared the way for it.
I saw The Messenger on TV about a decade ago. It was dull, and well, passionless. Maybe Mel could do a remake, after he's done with Apocalypto.
I quite agree with what you say about The Passion, Birth of a Nation, and Deep Throat. I would add that "I am Curious, Yellow" was very controversial, much in the news, more controversial than Deep Throat, mainly because it came before Deep Throat, and sort of cleared the way for it.
I saw The Messenger on TV about a decade ago. It was dull, and well, passionless. Maybe Mel could do a remake, after he's done with Apocalypto.
GKarsEye
Regular
Not as controversial, no, but it might be more controversial to you if you were Jewish.
Jade, how did I'm Curious "pave the way" for Deep Throat? Granted, I don't remember the film that well, but I just don't see the connection.
Deep Throat continues to be controversial because Linda Lovelace was forced into doing it.
The first one on the list is retarded:
Right- they should have said, a land "where they cut off your clit if you're a chick."
Caligula- man, what a good subject for a modern movie.
The asshole who wrote that needs to get some perspective.
I saw Kids in college- it felt like it was just trying to creep people out for the sake of it.
Do the Right Thing is awesome, one of my favorites, and holds a special place in the heart of this Brooklynite.
I don't really get the "controversy" over Bonnie & Clyde. Yeah, yeah, product of the times, different generation, blah blah blah. But the bandits get killed at the end. Seems like good ol' fashioned "justice" to me.
Freaks-
One of us, one of us, we accept you one of us...
DaVinci Code... pfft, please.
I have never heard of The Message. Looks interesting.
A sign of the times- Last Tango In Paris bored me to tears. I am so goddamn desensitized.
PillowRock
Regular
Yeah, it's an intersting list. I've seen 9 or 10 of them (depending on whether you count Caligula, which I watched on cable a few years ago when I was bored; it was R-rated cut ...... not done to make it good, done in the way that R-rated movies get cut to PG-13 for broadcast networks, making things make less sense).
I think that I have mentioned before that I saw Deep Throat at a screening by one of the campus film co-ops (those were pretty well killed by the advent of home video and cable) in an auditorium of the Natural Sciences Building at U of Mich. That would have been circa 1980.
Beyond those 9 or 10, I've bits and pieces of several more. I've gotten around to sitting down and watching all of Deer Hunter or Last Tango or Baby Doll for example. But I have certainly seen bits of them while flipping through on cable. Actually, when I flip into them (among other movies) channel surfing I tend to purposely flip out again relatively quickly. That's because I know that I want to watch them from the beginning some time, and don't want to have been spoiled *too* badly by watching a the whole last half or something.
I think that I have mentioned before that I saw Deep Throat at a screening by one of the campus film co-ops (those were pretty well killed by the advent of home video and cable) in an auditorium of the Natural Sciences Building at U of Mich. That would have been circa 1980.
Beyond those 9 or 10, I've bits and pieces of several more. I've gotten around to sitting down and watching all of Deer Hunter or Last Tango or Baby Doll for example. But I have certainly seen bits of them while flipping through on cable. Actually, when I flip into them (among other movies) channel surfing I tend to purposely flip out again relatively quickly. That's because I know that I want to watch them from the beginning some time, and don't want to have been spoiled *too* badly by watching a the whole last half or something.
Jade Jaguar
Regular
Curious came out in 1967, and was seized by customs, on its wat into the country. There was a court fight to get it returned, and released. That fight was won. Curious has explicit sex, but is a good, serious film, with political and social content. That helped it win in court. When Deep Throat came along 5 years later, there wasn't a battle to speak of, because it had been fought, and won, with the release of Curious.
Deep Throat went on to become the highest grossing hard core porn film of all time. There was a sort of "porn chic," not my term, that sprang up around it, letting it into the mainstream. I remember a joke of the time:
Q. Why did the President (Nixon) go to see Deep Throat twice?
A. So he could get it down Pat. (Pat Nixon, his wife)
Linda's claims that she was brutally forced to make the film came years later, and that is probably the only reral controversy remaining about the film, which wasn't very good.
BTW, I tried to look up Deep Throat on both the IMDb, and allmovie.com. A title search doesn't turn it up on either site. An IMDb search for Linda Lovelace yeilds nothing, either. But, on allmovie, Linda comes up, with a link to an entry for Deep Throat!
GKarsEye
Regular
Yeah, that's why I don't see a connection. DT is just a dumb pron flick, not serious at all. And the sex in Curious is simulated.
There was no incident with DT held up at customs, so there's still no connection.
Plus their controversies are totally different: Curious was a movie with sexual content that was knocked down due to repressed powers. DT was one of the "big three" porn flicks that were the foundation of the supposed "porn chic" era, along with Debbie Does Dallas and Behind the Green Door. But DT got controversial again when star Linda Lovelace became "born again," condemned the movie and the industry, told the world how she was forced into it, etc. She is, to this day, one of two porn starlets used as examples by anti-porn advocates to criticise the industry (along with Tracy Lords, who first appeared in porn at the age of 15, but unlike Lovelace was never repentant about it).
Jade Jaguar
Regular
GKE, I guess I am not making myself clear. If it were not for the legal battle fought over I Am Curious (Yellow,) Deep Throat would not have been permitted to be shown in the US. If the barrier hadn't already been broken, Deep Throat would have had the legal battle to fight, and I think, would have lost in court, because it was just a dumb porn flick, and had none of (Yellow)'s "redeeming social value."
crazyhorse
Anarchist
Must say I'm surprised at no Exorcist(with the fuck me Jesus scene)or Evil Dead(tree rape scene).Living in Holland most of these films (the sex ones) wouldn't get a look in.
Jade Jaguar
Regular
GKE, I Am Curious (Yellow) was seized by US customs on its way into the US. The legal battle to get it released was fought in the US. Of course Deep Throat wouldn't have had to go through customs, but it would have been seized, and removed from many of the mainstream theaters it played in, without the court precedent of IAC(Y). Of course, it could still have played in those theaters that showed only XXX films, in areas, like NYC, where they could get away with it. But, that would have been a much smaller audience.
It was not unusual for avant garde films, with sex and nudity, to be seized in the 60s. I think it was less than 10 years ago that The Tin Drum was seized by the cops in Oklahoma, who took it out of video stores, saying it was kiddie porn. So, we're not immune to that kind of thing, even today.
It was not unusual for avant garde films, with sex and nudity, to be seized in the 60s. I think it was less than 10 years ago that The Tin Drum was seized by the cops in Oklahoma, who took it out of video stores, saying it was kiddie porn. So, we're not immune to that kind of thing, even today.
