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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.
Controversy-invoking films may be from almost any genre -- documentaries, westerns, erotic-thrillers, dramas, horror, comedy, or animated, and more.
-- The Most Controversial Films of All-Time
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Films that are considered "controversial" when released may seem rather tame for societies evolve, cultural standards change, and tolerance levels rise. Clearly, decades after the fact, one may wonder: what was the fuss all about?
Just like books, music and visual art, film can divide people as well as unite them. Audiences, critics, public figures and many other groups frequently clash over movies' content and style.
What is graphic or offensive to one moviegoer may be interpreted as insightful or thought-provoking by another. It's worth remembering that, like all other forms of art, film should be approached with an open mind.
(a movie poster from A Clockwork Orange)
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In no particular order, these are some of the most-controversial films in history. For a myriad of reasons, many of these still ignite debate, inflame passions, and have moviegoers and critics endlessly argue about their merit.
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This controversial, profound, and challenging adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis's 1955 best-selling novel (due to controversy) of the same name was Best Director-nominated by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences. The author was almost ex-communicated from the Greek Orthodox Church as a result of writing the book, and his work was frequently found on lists of banned books. The film was denounced as pornographic (for a non-explicit scene of Jesus procreating with his wife) even before its release, although the film stated in a pre-credits disclaimer: "This film is not based on the Gospels, but is a fictional exploration of the eternal spiritual conflict."
During one early screening in a Parisian movie theatre, a protesting fundamentalist French Catholic group threw a molotov cocktail at the screen and injured a number of people. Religious fundamentalists vehemently criticized, protested, boycotted, and picketed the film, with signs reading: "Don't Crucify Christ Again," "Stop This Attack on Christianity," and "Scripture Not Scripts." City leaders in Savannah, Georgia banned the film, and sent a signed petition to Universal requesting a widespread ban. The Blockbuster Video chain refused to carry the title, and one group suggested offering to buy the $7 million film from Universal in order to destroy it. Joseph Reilly of Morality in Media described the film as "an intentional attack on Christianity," and James Dobson of Focus on the Family warned ominously: "God is not mocked."
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Nazi Fuhrer Adolf Hitler commissioned dancer/actress-turned filmmaker Leni Rienfenstahl to make this notorious documentary to record and celebrate the sixth Nazi Reich Party Congress held in September 1934 in Nuremberg. This spectacular propagandistic film glorified and praised the might of the unjust and evil Nazi regime and state with masterful images, rapid cuts, a Wagnerian score, and ingenious camera angles and compositions.
This infamous, extravagant two-hour film is still considered the most powerful propaganda film ever made, with grandiose opening shots of Messianic Hitler's arrival by plane, his heroic entrance and adulation by saluting ("Sieg Heil") multitudes and uniformed party members and soldiers (and Hitler Youth), and his charismatic exalted character during rousing speeches. Director Riefenstahl was imprisoned by the Allies for four years after the war, although she continued to protest by insisting that her work was purely historical and an example of cinema verite, rather than the repellent work which it was criticized and accused of being.
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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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This groundbreaking, landmark American film masterpiece about two families during the Civil War and Reconstruction periods was also extremely controversial and explicitly racist. It was based on former North Carolina Baptist minister Rev. Thomas Dixon Jr.'s anti-black, 1905 bigoted play, The Clansman, the second volume in a trilogy.
Its release set up a major censorship battle over its extremist depiction of African Americans, although Griffith naively claimed that he wasn't racist at the time. Unbelievably, the film is still used today as a recruitment piece for Klan membership -- and in fact, the organization experienced a revival and membership peak in the decade immediately following its initial release. And the film stirred new controversy when it was voted into the National Film Registry in 1993, and when it was voted one of the "Top 100 American Films" (at # 44) by the American Film Institute in 1998.
The subject matter of the film caused immediate criticism by the newly-created National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) for its racist and "vicious" portrayal of blacks, its proclamation of miscegenation, its pro-Klan stance, and its endorsement of enslavement.
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The rest of the movies included in the poll are
Scenes from Rosemary's Baby
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Scenes from Basic Instinct and Midnight Cowboy
As usual, several worthy candidates did not make the poll. According to this list of the 100 Most Controversial Films of All-Time, you can read brief reviews of other movies deemed to be controversial when released at the time. Among many others, these include the following
Scenes from The Last Picture Show
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- Citizen Kane (1941) by Orson Welles.
- Dirty Harry (1971) by Don Siegel.
- Natural Born Killers (1994) by Oliver Stone.
- Pink Flamingos (1972) by John Waters.
- Bonnie And Clyde (1967) by Arthur Penn.
- Salo (1975, Italian/French) aka The 120 Days of Sodom by Pier Paolo Pasolini.
- The Deer Hunter (1978) by Michael Cimino.
- Caligula (1979) by Tinto Brass.
- The Wild Bunch (1969) by Sam Peckinpah.
- Deep Throat (1972) by Gerard Damiano.
- Ilsa: She Wolf of the SS (1975) by Don Edmonds.
- Carnal Knowledge (1971) by Mike Nichols.
- JFK (1991) by Oliver Stone.
- Monty Python's Life of Brian (1979, UK) by Terry Jones.
- Straw Dogs (1971) by Sam Peckinpah.
- The Last Picture Show (1971) by Peter Bogdanovich.
- Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004) by Michael Moore.
- The Passion Of The Christ (2004) by Mel Gibson.
- The Exorcist (1973) by William Friedkin.
- The Da Vinci Code (2006) by Ron Howard.
Remember to take the diary poll and share your experiences about the movies. Where did you see them? What do you find controversial, if anything, about the movie? What kind of reception did the movie get in your city or small town? And, looking back many years later, what do you think of the movie now?