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.