Before one frame was shown, The Da Vinci Code, a cinematic adaptation of the Dan Brown novel, attracted controversy. The film and book were denounced by church leaders as blasphemous, and Mr. Brown was charged with (and acquitted of) plagiarism in England. So strong were feelings surrounding the story that the film crew was unable to shoot at some of the novel's more notable locations, including Westminster Abbey.
Cinematic controversy is nothing new. One of the earliest motion pictures, a nickelodeon short titled The Kiss, was deemed improper because it showed an amorous couple engaged in, well, a kiss. Here are some other controversial films:
PRETTY BABY (1978): Set in the Storyville section of New Orleans, this Louis Malle- directed film stars a very young Brooke Shields as a girl reared in a bordello who prepares to enter the "profession." The film, which also stars Susan Sarandon as Ms. Shield's madame mother and Keith Carradine as a potential suitor, raised a ruckus in its initial release but seems tame by today's standards.
BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967): Damned by critics and detested by Jack Warner, the studio head who gave the gangster drama a green light, this artistic, intelligent and violent film from Arthur Penn changed the way bloodshed was approached on-screen. Though many of the scenes of violence for which the film was criticized have lost their shock value, the slow-motion execution of the bank-robbing duo is still strong, dark cinema.
THE LIFE OF BRIAN (1979): This Monty Python skewering of religious zealotry stars the late Graham Chapman as Brian, the other child born in a Bethlehem manger one significant night. Roundly railed against by a variety of religious groups, the film, which treats flying saucers and false prophets with the same lack of respect, went on to become a comedy classic.
MIDNIGHT COWBOY (1969): It's amazing that during all the Brokeback Mountain brouhaha, this film about a cowboy with impure thoughts wasn't referenced more. Jon Voight plays Joe Buck, a country mouse who heads to New York to make his fortune as a male hustler. His foil and ad hoc family is "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), a sickly man-of-the-streets who teaches Buck about the improprieties of man in exchange for food, shelter and, most importantly, human companionship. Sad but strong.
GENTLEMAN'S AGREEMENT (1947): It's possible that post-World War II America, still in the long shadows of the Holocaust, wasn't ready to confront its own anti-Semitism on the silver screen. That mattered little to Elia Kazan, who cast the always-earnest Gregory Peck as a journalist who pretends to be Jewish in order to expose unpleasant attitudes. It's a movie that still strikes a chord.
Reach Steven Uhles at (706) 823-3626 or steven.uhles@augustachronicle.com.
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