5 Most Controversial Films By Year

When it was first released, the film was criticized for being pro-police brutality, pro-vigilantism, and fascist propaganda. The film was picketed by many groups, including the ACLU. The film was also criticized for its graphic violence and sexuality.

The film's sadistic and graphic content, based on the erotic and pornographic political critique of the same name, involves teenagers being forced to undergo perverse and disgusting sexual acts, which created a massive stir the world over. The film was banned in many countries, and remains so to this very day. Many famous critics, including Roger Ebert, did not watch the film, due to its disturbing and haunting reputation. The film's director was shot and killed shortly before the film was released, and some have speculated that there was a connection, while others have dismissed it.

The film's graphic rape sequences, that last the entire first half of the film and sequences of horrific violence caused many people, most famously the critic duo Siskel & Ebert, to denounce the film as vile, misogynistic, glorified violence against women, and murder, which resulted in many bans across the world.

The film's graphic content, including unsimulated sex scenes, which in the film is rape, real imagery of animals being slaughtered and brutal unrelenting violence caused a massive stir in Italy. After the premiere in Milan, the film was so convincing, many people thought it was a legitimate snuff film and the film's director Ruggero Deodato was arrested on suspicion of murder, and the charges were only dropped when 3 of the actors in the film showed up alive and well in court and explained to them how the sequences were filmed. Not surprisingly, many countries around the world banned the film for it's graphic content and scenes of animal cruelty.

This film was heavily and vehemently criticized for being anti-Christian. Among the aspects that were pointed out, the film depicts Jesus as building crosses for the Romans, being tormented by the fact that he is the Son of God, angsting over committing what he thought were sins, shows his naked body during the Crucifixion scene, and most notoriously, includes several scenes a temptation vision from Satan that shows him coming off the cross, consummating his relationship with Mary Magdalene, has two more wives at the same time after she dies, and have kids, until he dies of old age. Christians were outraged and demanded that Universal not only not release it, but destroy the film negative. Several chains refused to screen the film. The film was also banned in many countries, including Greece, Mexico and Argentina. An extremist Catholic group set a movie theater in Paris, France on fire, during a screening where 13 people were injured.

This film was heavily criticized for its frank portrayal of a JFK conspiracy theory, that not many people take seriously, most notoriously, the "Magic Bullet Theory." Oliver Stone claimed that the film was intended to be a fictional "what-if" scenario.

The film was criticized by transgender rights groups, for the film's portrayal of serial killer Buffalo Bill, a deranged lunatic who believes he's a woman, and kidnaps women, kills them, skins them, and then sews the skin together to a woman suit for himself. They claimed this film's portrayal further pushed the stereotype that transgender and transexual individuals were freaks. The film was also controversial for its gruesome and taboo subject matters, like transsexualism, and cannibalism.

Although it was later proven to be false, some people said this film inspired 10 year olds Robert Thompson and Jon Venables to murder 2 year old James Bulger.

This film was criticized for its use of both sexual violence, and was also derided for its implications that lesbians were sexually deviant psychos.

Was considered by many people at the time to be way too excessively violent. One moment that was consistently pointed out was the scene where Blonde (Michael Madsen) brutally tortures a police officer by slicing his ear off with a razor, and then pouring gasoline all over him, to the tune of "Stuck in the Middle With You," which resulted in many walkouts.

This film has been criticized for it’s racist depiction of Arabs; most notably that the antagonist Jafar has the darkest skin tone out of all the main characters, and a single line of the song “Arabian Nights," implies that all Arabs are barbaric murderers; which got dubbed over with another line in every subsequent release.

Controversial for both onscreen and behind the scenes drama, the film was criticized for being sexist and advocating nepotism, for its handling of the subject matter of acrotomophilia, and for Kim Bassinger backing out of her contract to appear as the titular character, which resulted in her being sued by the executives for $9 million, before the decision was overturned by a higher court, and a settlement was decided.

A scene in the film features a scene where a football player, Kane, laid down in the middle of high traffic as cars narrowly passed him as a test of bravery. The scene was copied by many teenagers, which resulted in a large amount of injuries and deaths. The scene was removed from the film after release as a result.

The film was criticized for it's portrayal of minorities, reinforcing the stereotype of the "white angry man," and using the rise in mass shootings as a shock tactic. One scene in particular, where Michael Douglas' character points at a gun at an employee of a burger joint, and accidentally fires some rounds into the ceiling, felt eerily similar to the San Ysidro McDonald's massacre, in which a man ran into a McDonald's and shot 40 people, killing 21. The film was also apparently the inspiration for Craig Stephen Hicks to commit the Chapel Hill shooting in 2015, as his ex-wife said that he watched it all the time, and it was his favorite film.

The film was widely criticized for its graphic and sadistic violence and was criticized for glorifying murder. Some people have claimed that this film inspired several real life violent attacks, most notoriously the Columbine massacre (in which the boys prior to the massacre had a long conversation about who would make their life stories into films), and another incident where a teenager and her much older boyfriend slaughtered her entire family, including her 8 year old brother, which they apparently were emboldened to do after watching this film.

Many people were furious that this film changed the novel's haunting bittersweet ending, with a Hollywood style happy ending.

The film became infamous for its graphic violence, and there have been many copycat crimes linked to the film. One infamous case involved two cousins murdering one of their mothers by stabbing her dozens of times, with the hopes of using the money they gained by killing her to fund their future killing spree, which would've included purchasing two Ghostface costumes, and a voice changer, like in the film.

A highly controversial movie based on the controversial debut novel of John Grisham. The film was widely accused of condoning murder, and for perpetuating the stereotype that the 90s South was still as racist as segregation-era South.

This film set a huge ruckus, especially among the Conservative crowd, for its shocking, over-the-top humor, and it being unbelievably profane for an animated film. It being animated, actually resulted in many parents taking their kids to see it, because they thought it would be clean. The film was also criticized for its anti-Christian jokes and plot. This film also got some flak for somehow getting an "R" rating from the MPAA, despite it's over-the-top crudeness, and their final cut did get an NC-17 rating, before the MPAA suddenly changed their minds.

This movie was widely criticized for being anti-Catholic, and was often picketed by Catholic groups at theaters where the film was being screened. Kevin Smith received 2 death threats as the result of this film. The Catholic Church itself never officially denounced the film.

The film has been accused of being anti-Semitic, not at all helped by director Mel Gibson's real life, public meltdowns. Criticism has been directed at the portrayal of the Jews that wanted Jesus to be crucified, saying they were stereotypical and insulting. Another milder controversy amongst Christians was that the film focused more on the suffering of Jesus, than His resurrection or why He came in the first place.

The film was criticized by global warming skeptics for heavily promoting global warming as a serious impending disaster, whilst global warming alarmists criticized the film for its poor science and ridiculous claims, fearing it would make global warming look like nothing more than a big joke.

The film was derided for being overly gruesome and gory, and received further controversy later on down the road, for inspiring the mostly loathed sub-genre of filmmaking, the torture porn.

At the time, the film was widely controversial for being a mainstream picture that tackled the issue of homosexuality in a graphic and intimate manner. Many people cited this film in particular as proof that Hollywood was trying to corrupt people by pushing a homosexual agenda at the audience. Gay groups were also heavily critical of critics who disliked the film, included famed critic Gene Shalit, who believed that the main character Jack was a sexual predator trying to coax an unwilling individual into an affair, because they saw attacks on this film as attacks on their lifestyle. The film was embroiled in further controversy yet again, when it failed to snag the Best Picture trophy at the Academy Awards and lost to the anti-racist drama "Crash," which led many people to speculate that this film lost only because it was about two men pursuing a homosexual affair, and many questioned if many members of the Academy had actually seen the film.

Though the film was not initially controversial when it was first released, it became so when it eventually won the Academy Award for Best Picture, over films like "Brokeback Mountain," "Capote," and "Good Night and Good Luck." People were quick to dismiss this as one of the worst Best Picture winners ever, and people felt that the film's message, "racism is bad," was the only reason that it won, rather than any artistic merits in its own right.

The premise is founded on the idea that Jesus married Mary Magdalene and had children with her, and that the Roman Emperor Constantine had this hushed up in order to make Jesus appear more divine than he actually was, and that the Catholic church is aware of this, and they have assassins kill those descendants to keep it quiet to stay in power. Arguments that the film was anti-religious, in particular anti-Christian and anti-Catholic, and loaded with misinformation regarding history were, and still are, very common.

Accused of being released too soon. Many found it tasteless to release a film like this, only 5 years after 9/11 took place.

Based on the heavily atheistic fantasy series, this film was boycotted by religious people for having anti-religious subtext, but many atheists were also disappointed by the film for diluting the novels atheistic themes.

This film was criticized when it first came out, as being gross, vile and exploitative, in particular the end result in which the victims are sewn together from rear end to mouth, and includes a scene in which a character defecates into another one's mouth.

This film has been accused of many things. Some claim the film implies that waterboarding is an effective torturing method, and was essential in locating Osama Bin Laden. The film was also accused of playing politics, being released just a month before the reelection of US President Barack Obama.

Media Action Network for Asian Americans criticized the film for scenes that depicted white actors in yellowface in order to portray Asians.

Ben Affleck was criticized for casting himself as the role of Tony Mendez, who is Hispanic, and the film was also criticized for its historical inaccuracies, in particular how the film downplayed the role that Canadian officials had in ending the Iranian hostage crisis, which Affleck attempted to fix by changing a postscript text at the end of the film to give credit where credit was due.

Not only was this film criticized for its copious amount of nudity and sex, the film was also criticized by anti-gun groups for scenes where the girls are shown holding guns very suggestively. The film was also heavily derided by women's rights groups, claiming that the film was promoting rape culture, as well as seemingly putting emphasis on women as sex objects and nothing else.

Not for the film itself, but more for the author's political views. Orson Scott Card's anti-LGBT beliefs resurfaced as a result of this film, and people heavily debated if going to see this film was considered to be support for his beliefs, and so many called for a boycott. Some said it's better to just avoid any of his works, while others said that you should be able to separate an author's beliefs from his or her works.

The film creators were heavily criticized for hiring the very white Benedict Cumberbatch to play Khan, a character who in the original series and "Wrath of Khan" was played by Ricardo Montalbán, a Mexican actor.

The film has been criticized for it's overly frank lesbian sex scenes, with focus especially put on 1 in particular that went on for 10 minutes. It was accused of being purposefully titillating and soft core porn, which some felt cheapened the romance. This is not helped by the actresses recounting their experience of filming and working with the director as being terrible.

Not really because of the film's content itself, but for the way in which it was filmed. Knowing that Disney would never allow them to film their psychological horror film at Disneyworld, the filmmakers simply used guerrilla style techniques to secretly film it anyway. Many suspected that Disney would attempt to sue the filmmakers, but surprisingly never did, and many suspected that because the film did not leave a major impression, Disney did not want to draw further attention to it, and opted to simply ignore it.

The film that nearly sparked a war (supposedly), North Korea took major actions against Sony for attempting to release a film centered around the attempted and successful assassination attempt of their leader, Kim Jong-un. They responded by hacking Sony's database and releasing thousands of documents and private e-mails, and threatening to bomb theaters that showed the film, which resulted in the film getting temporarily pulled from theaters, before it was released, though not as a wide release, and being released VOD.

Some Christians were outraged by the portrayal of Noah in this adaptation, supposedly as a paranoid schizophrenic, as well as the bizarre changes, such as the rock monsters, some saying that the film was outright blasphemous.

The film has received a lot of flak, especially by those who claimed that the film's mostly unflattering portrayal of US President Lyndon B. Johnson was an insult and an intentional distortion of the facts.

This film has been accused of being everything from pro-feminist, to anti-feminist, to anti-marriage and so on. Some people were not pleased by the film's downer ending, and some were also not pleased that the film made a central character more sympathetic than the novel counterpart, which changed the tone of the ending.

The film received some criticism for downplaying Alan Turing's homosexuality, in order to appeal to a wider audience, as well as unnecessarily changing many of the events that actually happened.