see no evil
I was going to do this on books, but then realized that I don't read enough, or really care enough about literature as a world.
So I decided to do it with movies. Bold are the ones I've seen. Italics are the ones I want to see.
Movies.com's list of 25 Most Controversial Movies:
Natural Born Killers
Midnight Cowboy
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Birth of a Nation
Song of the South
Last Tango in Paris
Pink Flamingos
JFK
South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
A Clockwork Orange
Titicut Follies
Dogma
Cruising
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Passion of the Christ
Caligula
Triumph of the Will
Requiem for a Dream
Deep Throat
The Devils
Crash (1996)
The Message
Baby Doll
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Brown Bunny
From FilmAffinity.com's Tour of Controversial Movies.
Mulholland Drive
Fight Club
Moulin Rouge
The Blair Witch Project
Elephant
A Clockwork Orange
Dumb and Dumber
Fahrenheit 9/11
Twelve Monkeys
The Passion of the Christ
There's Something About Mary
The Village
2001: A Space Odyssey
Primer
The Idiots
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Adaptation
In the Mood for Love
The Faculty
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Night Watch
The Big Lebowski
Death in Venice
Requiem for a Dream
Gerry
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Punch Drunk Love
Snatch
Titus
Dogville
The Matrix: Revolutions
Three Colors: Blue
Mars Attacks
Entertainment Weekly's List
The Passion of the Christ
A Clockwork Orange
Fahrenheit 9/11
Deep Throat
JFK
The Last Temptation of Christ
Birth of a Nation
Natural Born Killers
Last Tango in Paris
Baby Doll
The Message
The Deer Hunter
The Da Vinci Code
The Warriors
Triumph of the Will
United 93
Freaks
I Am Curious
Basic Instinct
Cannibal Holocaust
Bonnie and Clyde
Do the Right Thing
Kids
Caligula
Aladdin
But this guy Chris Jarmick on Epinions.com has challenged EW's list as basically Hollywood-driven and contrived, and faults in particular their inclusion of movies that are celebrated by many and garnered millions in their theater releases, because this indicates they are not as controversial as we would like to believe (didn't Passion of the Christ get Mel Gibson a hella lotta money?). Indeed, to be controversial means there's gotta be some challenge to our sensibilities. I would challenge it for not being very current. He makes a very convoluted list. I decided to make a more simple one, with no explanations. Some movies I've seen, some I haven't. It's not arranged in any order. It's just my opinion.
Straw Dogs
Last House on the Left
I Spit On Your Grave
Cannibal Holocaust
The Birth of a Nation
Triumph of the Will
A Clockwork Orange
Irreversible
Oldboy
Visitor Q
Guinea Pig Series
Reefer Madness
Kite (anime)
My list basically divides into the following categories: 1) rape movies; 2) splatterpunk; 3) politically incorrect. I think the most interesting movies are the politically incorrect ones, dismissed as promoting bad values while usually quite good otherwise (Reefer Madness being the exception). Triumph of the Will, by Leni Riefenstahl, is used by the U.S. in making propaganda movies. The Birth of a Nation is widely considered one of the best early movies for its cinematography. The fact that they're banned really demonstrates how the U.S. regards history - it's better not to look at bad parts, that way they won't happen again - which is bullshit, of course. It's easy to see why splatterpunk is banned - if you've ever looked up stills of Cannibal Holocaust... well, let's just hope you have a strong stomach. I can see not letting the movie play in theaters, but banning it is still ridiculous. The rape movies I've talked about to some extent. I haven't actually seen any of them, so I can't really say. But it's interesting what a norm against rape we have, given the way our society is constructed, and how many rapes still occur. But I have always wondered if part of the reason sexual movies are challenged is because people are afraid of becoming aroused by the movie.
That said, I'm of course very anti-censorship and I think banning a movie because it portrays your country in a negative light is quite ridiculous, as is banning an entire movie for one nude scene. But it is an interesting depiction of norms for a country, to look at what movies they ban. The U.S. has a norm against white supremacy, extremely gory and grotesque violence, cannibalism, and rape, according to my list. But Hollywood wants us to think the U.S. has a norm against religious violence, the glorification of violence, adultery, porn, and demented kids. However, those movies are never actually outright banned and they're usually seen by many, and have big strong ad campaigns to go along. So, I don't think that religious violence, glorified (highly stylized) violence, adultery, porn, or demented kids are actually that taboo or disturbing to U.S. audiences. Those things don't make us all that comfortable. A lot of it, after all, can be justified by something - The Passion of the Christ is just depicting truth, Natural Born Killers is cool, Last Tango in Paris is steamy, Deep Throat is liberating, Kids just shows the ugly underbelly of suburbia. Any of these can be supported by a certain faction of society - the religious right, the liberals, the hipsters. But who's going to come out and support Nazism? Or rape? Skewering sticks through people's throats? Eating people? Yeah, no one. Because those movies don't just show the dark side of America, they show the dark side of the entire human race. Ironically, of course, the old "it's just depicting truth" validation that many defenders of the EW list will use can also be used for my list of controversial movies. Not that Nazi glory is truth - but it is true that Nazis wanted to believe it was truth, and they wanted to make a movie that glorified themselves, and they believed in Triumph of the Will's contents. All that's truth too. But that kind of truth is not cool.
And that, my friends, is what we political scientists call a norm.
So I decided to do it with movies. Bold are the ones I've seen. Italics are the ones I want to see.
Movies.com's list of 25 Most Controversial Movies:
Natural Born Killers
Midnight Cowboy
The Last Temptation of Christ
The Birth of a Nation
Song of the South
Last Tango in Paris
Pink Flamingos
JFK
South Park: Bigger, Longer, & Uncut
A Clockwork Orange
Titicut Follies
Dogma
Cruising
Fahrenheit 9/11
The Passion of the Christ
Caligula
Triumph of the Will
Requiem for a Dream
Deep Throat
The Devils
Crash (1996)
The Message
Baby Doll
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover
The Brown Bunny
From FilmAffinity.com's Tour of Controversial Movies.
Mulholland Drive
Fight Club
Moulin Rouge
The Blair Witch Project
Elephant
A Clockwork Orange
Dumb and Dumber
Fahrenheit 9/11
Twelve Monkeys
The Passion of the Christ
There's Something About Mary
The Village
2001: A Space Odyssey
Primer
The Idiots
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Adaptation
In the Mood for Love
The Faculty
Kill Bill Vol. 1
Brotherhood of the Wolf
Night Watch
The Big Lebowski
Death in Venice
Requiem for a Dream
Gerry
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Punch Drunk Love
Snatch
Titus
Dogville
The Matrix: Revolutions
Three Colors: Blue
Mars Attacks
Entertainment Weekly's List
The Passion of the Christ
A Clockwork Orange
Fahrenheit 9/11
Deep Throat
JFK
The Last Temptation of Christ
Birth of a Nation
Natural Born Killers
Last Tango in Paris
Baby Doll
The Message
The Deer Hunter
The Da Vinci Code
The Warriors
Triumph of the Will
United 93
Freaks
I Am Curious
Basic Instinct
Cannibal Holocaust
Bonnie and Clyde
Do the Right Thing
Kids
Caligula
Aladdin
But this guy Chris Jarmick on Epinions.com has challenged EW's list as basically Hollywood-driven and contrived, and faults in particular their inclusion of movies that are celebrated by many and garnered millions in their theater releases, because this indicates they are not as controversial as we would like to believe (didn't Passion of the Christ get Mel Gibson a hella lotta money?). Indeed, to be controversial means there's gotta be some challenge to our sensibilities. I would challenge it for not being very current. He makes a very convoluted list. I decided to make a more simple one, with no explanations. Some movies I've seen, some I haven't. It's not arranged in any order. It's just my opinion.
Straw Dogs
Last House on the Left
I Spit On Your Grave
Cannibal Holocaust
The Birth of a Nation
Triumph of the Will
A Clockwork Orange
Irreversible
Oldboy
Visitor Q
Guinea Pig Series
Reefer Madness
Kite (anime)
My list basically divides into the following categories: 1) rape movies; 2) splatterpunk; 3) politically incorrect. I think the most interesting movies are the politically incorrect ones, dismissed as promoting bad values while usually quite good otherwise (Reefer Madness being the exception). Triumph of the Will, by Leni Riefenstahl, is used by the U.S. in making propaganda movies. The Birth of a Nation is widely considered one of the best early movies for its cinematography. The fact that they're banned really demonstrates how the U.S. regards history - it's better not to look at bad parts, that way they won't happen again - which is bullshit, of course. It's easy to see why splatterpunk is banned - if you've ever looked up stills of Cannibal Holocaust... well, let's just hope you have a strong stomach. I can see not letting the movie play in theaters, but banning it is still ridiculous. The rape movies I've talked about to some extent. I haven't actually seen any of them, so I can't really say. But it's interesting what a norm against rape we have, given the way our society is constructed, and how many rapes still occur. But I have always wondered if part of the reason sexual movies are challenged is because people are afraid of becoming aroused by the movie.
That said, I'm of course very anti-censorship and I think banning a movie because it portrays your country in a negative light is quite ridiculous, as is banning an entire movie for one nude scene. But it is an interesting depiction of norms for a country, to look at what movies they ban. The U.S. has a norm against white supremacy, extremely gory and grotesque violence, cannibalism, and rape, according to my list. But Hollywood wants us to think the U.S. has a norm against religious violence, the glorification of violence, adultery, porn, and demented kids. However, those movies are never actually outright banned and they're usually seen by many, and have big strong ad campaigns to go along. So, I don't think that religious violence, glorified (highly stylized) violence, adultery, porn, or demented kids are actually that taboo or disturbing to U.S. audiences. Those things don't make us all that comfortable. A lot of it, after all, can be justified by something - The Passion of the Christ is just depicting truth, Natural Born Killers is cool, Last Tango in Paris is steamy, Deep Throat is liberating, Kids just shows the ugly underbelly of suburbia. Any of these can be supported by a certain faction of society - the religious right, the liberals, the hipsters. But who's going to come out and support Nazism? Or rape? Skewering sticks through people's throats? Eating people? Yeah, no one. Because those movies don't just show the dark side of America, they show the dark side of the entire human race. Ironically, of course, the old "it's just depicting truth" validation that many defenders of the EW list will use can also be used for my list of controversial movies. Not that Nazi glory is truth - but it is true that Nazis wanted to believe it was truth, and they wanted to make a movie that glorified themselves, and they believed in Triumph of the Will's contents. All that's truth too. But that kind of truth is not cool.
And that, my friends, is what we political scientists call a norm.