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Outrage!
While many gays are hip to Baron-Cohen’s subversive tactics, there’s still a good deal of suspicion at the prospect of Bruno, his allegedly inflammatory satire of a homosexual Austrian fashionista… and not just from Eminem fans. SBC is hardly alone among today’s movie funnymen when it comes to pushing the envelope. It seems like no Judd Apatow movie is complete without full frontal male nudity; Will Ferrell is another one who looks to press people’s buttons (Talladega Nights); ditto the Farrelly brothers (There’s Something About Mary). Controversy isn’t always a laughing matter though, and while filmmakers are often guilty of exploiting audiences’ voyeuristic impulses (there’s no surer way to secure free publicity than testing taboos and courting controversy), moviemakers have also challenged viewers to reexamine their prejudices. On balance, it’s probably fair to say that films have played some part in making the public more open to diversity and more honest about sexuality. With that in mind, take a look at this selection of outrageous highs and controversial lows from the movies’ scandalous back catalogue. Tom Charity GOLDEN OLDIES
The Birth of a Nation (1915) / Battleship Potemkin (1924) / L’Age d’or (1930)Three classics from cinema’s infancy: Birth of a Nation was the first American epic film, a landmark in the history of the cinema, and the heroes are… the Ku Klux Klan!? Meanwhile Eisenstein’s dramatic recreation of a 1905 incident when sailors mutinied against their Czarist officers was judged a real threat to western capitalism and the film was banned in Britain, in Spain, France and Nazi Germany (Goebbels declared it could turn anyone into a Bolshevik). Spanish surrealist Luis Bunuel’s first feature-length film sparked riots and threats of excommunication against his wealthy backer – probably something to do with those scenes linking Jesus Christ with an orgy. The film was banned for three decades and Bunuel didn’t make another feature for nearly 20 years. FREAKS & GEEKS
Freaks (1931)Whoa! Dracula director Todd Browning cast reallife circus freaks (midgets, a bearded woman, Siamese twins) in this macabre little thriller. It was banned in Britain for three decades. 
Pink Flamingos (1972)In which Divine lives down to her rep as the “filthiest person alive” in all manner of repellent ways, including eating dog shit. Banned in Norway and Australia, apparently. WAR GAMES
The Rules of the Game (1939)Though it is now considered one of the greatest of all French films, this country house farce scandalized the public with its level-headed look at giddy lovers and charlatans on the eve of war. The premiere nearly induced a riot – someone tried to burn down the cinema in protest – and the distributor ordered 13 minutes of cuts. It was subsequently banned in France for being too demoralizing. 
The War Game (1965)Commissioned by the BBC to make a film about nuclear war, Peter Watkins turned in such a terrifyingly vivid docudrama it gave his bosses nightmares. They sought Home Office advice and then declared the effect of the film “too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”. The Beeb didn’t recant until 1985. 
Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004)Produced by Miramax, a subsidiary of Disney, Michael Moore’s attack on the credibility of President George W Bush was deemed too hot to handle by the studio, so a third party distributor was enlisted. Meanwhile a jury headed by Quentin Tarantino gave the film the top prize at Cannes, the first time a documentary had that honour in half a century. According to QT, politics had nothing to do with it. SOMETHING BLUE
The Miracle of Morgan’s Creek (1944)Trudy Kockenlocker (Betty Hutton) does her bit for the boys going off to war and then some – after an excess of lemonade she wakes up married to someone she doesn’t remember and definitively pregnant (with sextuplets, it turns out). The critic James Agee observed that Sturges had “raped the Hays Office in its sleep.” 
The Moon is Blue (1953)This was the first film released without the seal of approval from the Catholic League of Decency, dismayed by this comedy’s “unacceptably light attitude towards seduction, illicit sex, chastity and virginity”. Otto Preminger smelled money in the scandal, and was proved right – though the film wouldn’t raise an eyebrow today. 
Baby Doll (1956)“Just possibly the dirtiest American made motion picture that has ever been legally exhibited,” according to Time magazine. Tennessee Williams wrote the original screenplay, and Elia Kazan directed this lewd comedy about a child bride (Carroll Baker) seduced from her husband (Karl Malden) by his business rival (Eli Wallach). See also: Lolita (1961) 
Basic Instinct (1992)Scandalous not just for the infamous leg-crossing scene (a lot of fuss about nothing, when you think about it), but for its politically incorrect assertion that a lesbian could be a serial killer. The protestors were so persuasive screenwriter Joe Eszterhas wound up disowning his own multi-million dollar script. 
Kids (1995)Harmony Korine was just a teenager himself when he wrote this brutal portrait of soulless teen sex predators, a kind of High School Confidential for the AIDS era. Parents were duly shocked. 
Crash (1996)Auto-erotica from the collision of David Cronenberg and JG Ballard. The Evening Standard and the Daily Mail led the chorus of disapproval in front page diatribes that inspired Westminster, Durham and several other councils to ban the film, even though it was passed uncut by the BBFC. VILE-NCE
Peeping Tom (1960)This psycho thriller wasn’t exactly controversial in 1960… Everybody hated it. “The only satisfactory way to dispose of Peeping Tom would be to shovel it up and flush it swiftly down the nearest sewer. Even then, the stench would remain,” said one critic. “Wholly evil,” said another. “Frankly beastly,” opined a third. Today everyone agrees it’s a classic. Incidentally the same critics by and large gave Hitchcock the same treatment that year for Psycho. 
Bonnie And Clyde (1967)This landmark gangster picture upset people for romanticizing outlaws, for mixing comedy and violence, and for the brutal fusillade of the climax, easily the most graphic shoot-out Hollywood had produced to that time. Most of the critics gave it a spanking first time round, and the film was a non-event at the box office until its enthusiastic reception in the UK spurred a quick rerelease. This time it was a hit. 
A Clockwork Orange (1971)Director Stanley Kubrick asked Warner Bros to remove his film from circulation in the UK after he received personal threats. At least two crimes – a rape and a murder – had been linked by prosecutors and/or the press to the film, and the prospect of further copycat claims probably confirmed Kubrick’s resolve. The situation only changed after his death in 1999. 
The Last House on the Left (1972)Wes Craven’s gruesome debut was refused a certificate by the BBFC. It snuck out on video in the early 80s but was soon banned as a “video nasty” under the Video Recordings Act of 1984. Represented to the BBFC in 2002, it was released with 30 seconds of cuts. An uncut version was finally passed last year. (See also: I Spit On Your Grave; Cannibal Holocaust; The Exorcist) 
Natural Born Killers (1994)Oliver Stone set out to make a phantasmagoric satire of America’s blood-soaked pop culture and then was blamed for propagating violence. Lawyer-novelist John Grisham led the charge, taking on a case of a supposed copycat murder. 
Fight Club (1999)In the Evening Standard, Alexander Walker nailed his colours to the mast on this one: “It is an inadmissible assault on personal decency... this film is anti-capitalist, anti-society, and indeed, anti-God,” he said. The reaction was less extreme but equally skeptical in the US, where it was seen as promoting violence in a culture still reeling from the shootings at Columbine High School. Poor David Fincher was left perplexed: “It’s a comedy…” he claimed. FRENCH KISSES
Romance (1999) / Baise Moi (2000) / Irreversible (2001)A trio of French shockers that raised the stakes in terms of the kind of graphic sexual imagery permissible in art house cinema. While female full-frontal nudity has been common in European movies since the 60s, these movies gave equal exposure to the guys, and in scenes of a transgressive and violent nature. The first two titles were directed by women. PRAISE THE LORD AND PASS THE AMMUNITION!
Monty Python’s Life of Brian (1979) / The Last Temptation Of Christ (1988) / The Passion Of The Christ (2004)If you want to get people all hot under the collar, tackle Jesus Christ. All three movies were fiercely debated, no matter that one was an irreverent comedy, and another a serious philosophical inquiry into the nature of faith and sacrifice by one of our greatest filmmakers. The third, by box office champion Mel Gibson, won the support of the Evangelicals with its decidedly Old Testament take on the crucifixion. COMING SOON…
Antichrist (2009)The latest provocation from aging enfant terrible Lars von Trier, the man who gave us The Idiots, Dancer in the Dark, Dogville and Manderlay. According to the buzz from Cannes his first horror movie is his most extreme yet… |
