Dead Center Film Festival

Just a little break from my series on controversy in film to remind everyone in the Oklahoma City area that starting tomorrow, Wednesday June 9th, is our own Dead Center Film Festival. Film Festivals are a great place to meet young directors, catch up on film gossip and see the films that usually don't make it to theaters.

Lights, Camera, Friction: Racism in Film

Perhaps the most racist film ever made, The Birth of a Nation, was released in 1915. The film recounted the events that created the Ku Klux Klan, and did so through a horrifyingly warped view of history. While it was praised by some audiences at the time, The Birth of a Nation has sunk into obscurity due to its blatant and disgusting levels of racism. Less controversial was 1939's Gone With the Wind, which despite popularity at the time has since been acknowledged by many to glorify slavery. In the 1970's with the rise of the exploitation film genre, the African American community began producing their own films. While many enjoyed these "blaxploitation" films like Super Fly, Black Caesar, or Coffy, others disliked the films for their often stereotypical portrayal of African Americans. The Academy Award winning film, The Deer Hunter, released in 1978, sparked controversy for portraying Vietnamese people as being sadistic, showing Vietnamese soldiers forcing American prisoners to play russian roulette. Throughout their history, Disney has released many films that contained racially insensitive material. Their 1946 film, Song of the South, was and continues to be denounced for its negative portrayal of African Americans. In 1992, many Muslims denounced the film Aladdin for its stereotypical portrayal of people of the Islamic faith. The latest controversy has come only last year with complaints about stereotyping in Disney's The Princess and the Frog. In 2004, Crash became one of the first films to deal with racial issues without sparking any sort of controversy. Crash hopefully will lead a stride of new films to deal with race fairly and honestly instead of hiding behind stereotypes.

Lights, Camera, Friction: Negative Views of Religion in film

While early films dared not be critical of religion, a few managed to break the ice later on. The earliest film to stir up religious controversy, The Exorcist, released in America in 1973 became highly controversial due to its portrayal of religion. In 1979, Monty Python's the Life of Brian was widely attacked for its satire of Christianity. In 1988, The Last Temptation of Christ was attacked for showing Jesus to have a sexual life. Along similar lines, the film The Crime of Father Amaro would be controversial for showing a Catholic priest having sex. Dogma attempted to be a light religious comedy in 1999, but was criticized for satirizing religion. Things died down until Mel Gibson's film The Passion of the Christ in 2004. While many in the religious community felt this film to be a wonderful depiction of Christ's suffering, others complained that it associated extreme violence with religion. The latest controversy came in 2007, with the film September Dawn. The film recounted a true story of a massacre carried out by Mormons, but was attacked by the Mormon Church for its negative and sometimes inaccurate depiction of Mormons.

Lights, Camera, Friction: Homosexuality in Film

Controversy in film typically parallels controversy in society. Therefore if something in controversial in society it will be controversial when they show it in a movie. Homosexuality was completely avoided by film until 1961 when the film Victim made history by being the first film to say homosexual, and continued to shock audiences by having an openly homosexual protagonist. Aside from this film, there are very few examples of homosexuality in film. Al Pacino starred in 1980's Cruising, a film about a cop who goes undercover as a homosexual to stop a killer. The most recent controversy has come in 2005's Brokeback Mountain. This film showed several scenes of explicit homosexual intercourse, and stirred up major debate amongst the supporters and detractors of homosexuality. Aside from these, there have been other films to discuss homosexuality, but most of these have only circulated throughout the homosexual community and avoid mainstream success. In spite of this, whenever a film about homosexuality does come up though, it is certain to spark lots of debate.

Lights, Camera, Friction: Sexuality in Film

Showing sex in film is an issue that still rocks the film world. The first wide controversy over sexuality in film came in 1943 with a scene in the film Outlaw, which by today's standards wouldn't even earn the film a PG-13 rating. In 1962, Stanley Kubrick released the film Lolita, which had such graphic sexual depictions of a young girl's intercourse that the young female star was not allowed to attend the film's premiere. Aside from these early icebreakers, sexuality was kept out of films until it came around in 1967, along with violence, in the New Hollywood film movement. In 1967 the Graduate displayed a story of a woman's extramarital affair, but managed to avoid widespread controversy due to a lack of any explicit sex scenes. Midnight Cowboy came along in 1969 and finally brought in huge waves of controversy over this issue. Originally receiving an X rating, Midnight Cowboy shocked audiences with the graphic depictions of intercourse yet unseen in film. After Midnight Cowboy, M*A*S*H was released, one of the first films to feature sexual humor. A Clockwork Orange continued the trend, having an equally gratuitous amount of sex as it did violence. The director of A Clockwork Orange, Stanley Kubrick, also directed Lolita and would become known for the sexual explicitness of his films. In a later film, Eyes Wide Shut (1999), Kubrick was criticized for his again graphic display of voyeuristic sex. Aside from this film, Basic Instinct also sparked controversy in the nineties with its very graphic scenes, including an infamous shot of actress Sharon Stone. Sexual relationships in film have never ceased to be controversial. In 2002, a film entitled The Crime of Father Amaro sparked controversy in Mexico for its display of the sexual relations of a Catholic priest. The association of the church with carnal relations also caused trouble for the film Hail, Mary in 1985, and the several lurid scenes in The Exorcist in 1973. Perhaps the biggest controversy over associations of sexuality and religion in film came in 1988 in the film, The Last Temptation of Christ, which was widely denounced for its depiction of a sexual life of Jesus. The other area of controversy with regard to sexuality has been with displaying odd sexual scenes. The "tree-rape" scene in The Evil Dead of 1981 was one such scene, leaving viewers shocked. Likewise, the German film Nekromantik caused widespread controversy for its display of necrophilia. Sexuality in film is an important issue, even in the far more liberal world of today.

Lights, Camera, Friction: Violence in film

Violence has become less controversial in recent years, but it has sparked quite a bit of controversy throughout film's history. Psycho became the first widely controversial film due to violence in 1960. Prior to this film, violent films had been so far removed from mainstream audiences, that early films containing any significant level of violence were completely unheard of. While Psycho is fairly tame in the world of Tarantino that we live in today, in 1960 it was quite shocking. Violence came up again in 1967 with Bonnie and Clyde. The bloody shoot outs, including the gory killing of the duo shocked audiences in full color, while Psycho had simply been in black and white. The sprays of red blood heralded a new era, creating the sort of R rated masterpieces that still win Academy Awards today (Note No Country for Old Men and the Hurt Locker). Despite Bonnie and Clyde's trailblazing, violence continued to be a controversial subject in film. When the Wild Bunch was released in 1969 it shocked western viewers who were used to the bloodless, straight laced films of John Wayne and James Stewart. Wild Bunch director Sam Peckinpah earned the nickname "Bloody Sam" for the brutal violence in this film. Peckinpah's next film, Straw Dogs in 1971 also sparked controversy due to its glorification of violence. The glorification of violence present in 1971's A Clockwork Orange kept debate on violence in film heated as violent films became more common. Horror films like The Last House on the Left (1972) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) used unprecedented levels of violence leading to controversy around these types of films as well. After these films, overly violent movies began to go underground. With the exception of Taxi Driver in 1976, the rest were played in cheap grindhouse theaters if they were even played at all. All throughout the 60s and 70s imported samurai films from Japan like Hanzo the Razor, Lady Snowblood, and Sex and Fury, caused controversy for their strong levels of violence. In these samurai films it was quite common to use a hose to literally spray fake blood after a limb was severed. Things died down until the ultra violent Cannibal Holocaust in 1980. Perhaps the most violent film ever made, Cannibal Holocaust showed graphic footage of people literally being eaten. The over the top level of violence caused another whiplash against violent films, but it was short lived. Violence became less controversial, violent films became more mainstream, and the debates over it became less heated. While a few films like those of Quentin Tarantino still spark some anger over their levels of violence, these arguments usually die down fast and are only carried out by extremists.

Coming this month: Lights, Camera, Friction

This month I'll be having an ongoing study on controversy in film entitled Lights, Camera, Friction. I'll be exploring all the various things that have made films controversial from negative racial stereotyping to "tree-rape".