In the ’80s, at the suggestion of director Steven Spielberg, the Motion Picture Association of America modified its film rating system, creating more categories for parental guidance to reduce conflicts over film censorship. The result was a more nuanced approach to pushing the boundaries of the rating system, as a lower rating generally meant a wider potential audience and higher box-office performance. These battles have been fought since the pre-Code Era, when an X-rating could be a death sentence for a film if censors deemed it unfit for wide theatrical release.
Still, there were X-rated films that drew enough of an audience to become critically revered, in one case, Midnight Cowboy, which even won Best Picture at the Oscars in 1970. The infractions that could trigger censorship were varied — cursing and the number of incidences in a film had to be considered in an edit, as well as sexual content and specific speech regarding religion or subject matter thought to incite violence. Curiously, the depiction of physical violence and gore was often the least censored part of American films, as America’s lust for crime epics, horror films, and war could generally pass muster with an R Rating. Ratings didn’t always align across countries, however, and some on this list show differences in international opinions about censorship.
‘Blue is the Warmest Color’ (2013)
Blue is the Warmest Color (La vie d’Adele in France) exposed the American discomfort with sexually explicit scenes between same-sex couples, as the film, despite winning the Golden Palm at the Cannes Film Festival in France, garnered an NC-17 rating in America.
Léa Seydoux had already acted in American films Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Midnight in Paris, but her graphic sex scene opposite Adèle Exarchopoulos proved too much for American censors, even though it delighted critics, who seem to unanimously feel that film is the art form that best examines the complexity of sexuality.
‘The King’s Speech’ (2010)
The F Word has long triggered the MPAA, creating a rubric wherein only one F Bomb can be dropped in a PG-13 film. For The King’s Speech, that presented a problem. After winning Best Picture at the Oscars, The Weinstein Company essentially censored their own movie for a wider theatrical release, omitting the Duke of York’s F-laden tirade as he attempted to overcome his stammer.
The scene was a particularly triumphant moment in the film, as Colin Firth’s character finally overcomes his verbal hiccups by getting angry and dropping seven too many of the magic words. The film is a testament to the fact that sometimes economics play into censorship as much as content.
‘The Exorcist’ (1973)
In 1973, William Friedkin shocked moviegoers worldwide with The Exorcist and sparked a new revival of the supernatural horror film. Linda Blair’s demonic 12-year-old, Regan, was fit for theatrical release with an R-rating, but required Friedkin to make an additional cut for the film’s TV premiere in 1980.
This required Friedkin to cut out all the swearing, but allowed for a surprising amount of graphic content deemed suitable for children. Because the Christian priest dispatched to perform the exorcism made the film essentially pro-Church, its depictions of the Satanic were considered permissible, as well. The movie now stands as a cultural phenomenon and one of the highest-regarded horror movies of all time.
‘The Dreamers’ (2003)
Two and a half minutes worth of footage of sexually explicit scenes in The Dreamers were cut to get the film under an NC-17 Rating for release in the United States. A young Michael Pitt acted in the Bernardo Bertolucci film, which was centered around the fervent, activist drama surrounding the 1968 Paris student riots.
The film examines tenets introduced in the famous book The Society of the Spectacle, and it was, fittingly, too much of a spectacle for American censors. The distinction of American censors to focus more on sexual content than violence has long puzzled European filmmakers, with Bertolucci said to have been against the film’s American version being released.
‘Blue Valentine’ (2010)
Blue Valentine was initially granted an NC-17 rating thanks to sexually explicit content, sparking a debate led by the film’s director, Derek Cianfrance, who created a dialogue around the topic and eventually got the decision reversed.
Cianfrance opined that “[The MPAA] were humble and generous to reverse their decision and I have a lot of respect for them for that. It’s started a big discussion in America about why is sex taboo and why is violence okay. I think the MPAA has to re-evaluate its stance on things.” The film was a rare case of the governing body relinquishing its prior rating choice, thanks to an online discussion of the ethics involved.
‘Henry & June’ (1990)
Henry Miller was already a controversial author in American literary history, with his hypersexual stories of expatriots in Europe pushing the boundaries of free speech in literature.
In Henry & June, the writer’s relationship with his wife and mistress in Paris is examined, and on September 27, 1990, the film became the first to garner the newly created NC-17 rating. One scene in particular, involving Henry (Fred Ward) and AnaÏs Nin (Maria de Madeiros) under a bridge in Paris, could have only passed muster in Europe.
‘Irréversible’ (2002)
Irréversible was the brainchild of avant-garde Argentine filmmaker Gaspar Noé, a film that pushed the boundaries and broke all the rules of what was even allowable. The plot follows a reverse chronology, with the first scene being the film’s most climactic, and certainly not for the faint of heart, as Marcus (Vincent Cassel) enters a sex club to seek revenge for his pregnant wife’s rape (the other completely harrowing scene).
While this sort of content may have seemed Not Safe For Life in the U.S. — remember, these were mainstream actors in Europe! Monica Bellucci was willing to risk a complete revision of her stardom as the victim of the film’s most significant trauma, a scene so brutally long and drawn out it’s difficult not to hit the fast-forward button. Needless to say, you won’t see the film in the U.S. without some heavy warnings ahead of Noé’s brilliantly styled opening credits.
‘Midnight Cowboy’ (1969)
Basing the plot of a studio film, Midnight Cowboy, around the life of a male prostitute was unheard of in 1969. Still, director John Schlesinger was familiar with gay lifestyles and the nightlife scene surrounding 42nd Street in Manhattan back then, adapting a narrative that he managed to slip through the door at United Artists before the censors clamped down with an X-rating.
The rating didn’t stop the film from reaching enough audiences to become a critical and box-office hit, never more evident than when the film won Best Picture at the Oscars.
‘Basic Instinct’ (1992)
Basic Instinct required some heavy cutting to retrofit the film for audiences in Germany, as the film’s sex scenes and gory icepick coitus interruptus required some serious editing.
The film’s infamous deposition scene was, surprisingly, one that didn’t require editing, as Paul Verhoeven cleverly cut around Sharon Stone’s leg uncrossing, showing how alluding to something shocking can have a Mandela Effect on our collective brains, as the hair-raising scene was satirized in several following films and comedy programs. The movie did not come without its controversies behind the scenes, as Sharon Stone would later state that she lost custody of her son because of the film.
‘Medium Cool’ (1969)
Sometimes, the MPAA’s decision to issue an X-rating can be seen as politically motivated, as in the case of Medium Cool. During the politically fervent 1968, Haskell Wexler wrote and directed a film about politics, news reporting, and what constitutes verité during a year when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated.
Wexler struck a deal with Paramount to self-fund the film on the condition of creative autonomy, leading to a much more political film than studios of the time were comfortable with. This led to an X-rating, which Wexler always felt was politically motivated, as the film is presented almost like a documentary, covering Chicago’s Mayor Richard Daley and the controversial Chicago riots of ’68.
