5 Movies That Were Almost 'Banned' Due To Explicit Sex Scenes
Content warning: sexual abuse and assault
After years of trying to stifle more scandalous aspects of films through moves like the implementation of the Hayes Code, the Motion Picture Association of America, or the MPAA, introduced a ratings system in 1968 — and history was made. From that point on, parents or those concerned with the content of specific films could see if a film boasted a G rating for General Audiences, PG for Parental Guidance Suggested, PG-13 for Parents Strongly Cautioned, and R for Restricted. There's one more, though: NC-17, which means that anyone under the age of 17 can't even watch the movie in theaters without a parent or guardian by their side.
It should come as no surprise that films slapped with an NC-17 rating have much more trouble finding a market or even scoring a theatrical release. Without explicitly "banning" the below films, the MPAA all but ensured that these films would face extremely limited releases and struggle with advertising, which basically guarantees the films will flop. That way, the MPAA doesn't face outright claims of censorship by truly banning everything, but making it impossible for a film to release or advertise is kind of the same thing.
Throughout cinematic history, some films have been saddled with highly restrictive ratings, all but guaranteeing the movie will only be seen by a smaller audience. Here are just a few selections of the movies that had trouble securing a release due to explicit sexual content.
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Perhaps the most impressive feat accomplished by John Schlesinger's 1969 film "Midnight Cowboy" is the fact that it managed to win Best Picture at the Academy Awards despite its X-rating, becoming the first movie in cinematic history to do so. Though it was eventually lowered to an R, it's not entirely surprising that this subversive tale received such a strict rating initially.
When Joe Buck (Jon Voight), a young man from Texas, moves to New York, he seeks a career in sex work, eventually allying himself with con man Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman), who helps him turn tricks in the bustling city. After Ratso initially cons Joe, the two form a bond and try to survive New York City together, although things take a turn for the worse when Ratso becomes incredibly ill and Joe has to tend to him.
The film won the top prize at the 42nd annual Academy Awards in 1970 despite its restrictive X-rating, which would be NC-17 by today's standards (according to a retrospective in The Hollywood Reporter). Argued that it only received its initial higher rating due to its queer themes, "Midnight Cowboy" became one of the most highly regarded films of its time, and its legacy as a great piece of work by Schlesinger, Voight, and Hoffman endures.
A Clockwork Orange (1971)
It's no secret that "A Clockwork Orange" is a brutal, violent movie — and it almost got an X-rating as a result.
Towards the start of the film, Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell) and his gang of "droogs" attack a writer and his wife in their home, sexually assaulting Mary Alexander (Adrienne Corri) and beating her husband Frank (Patrick Magee). Mary eventually succumbs to the injuries sustained by Alex and the droogs and dies, and while that's certainly the most graphic scene in the film, the rest of the movie isn't exactly a cakewalk. While undergoing the Ludovico technique — an attempt to rehabilitate criminals who have committed violent acts — Alex is physically forced to keep his eyes open while watching extremely explicit footage of sex and violence and ends up getting sick to his stomach.
Originally, "A Clockwork Orange" was hit with an X-rating, but director Stanley Kubrick eventually agreed to cut less than a minute of violent sexual content, which dropped the movie down to an R rating. Nobody's saying that "A Clockwork Orange" is an easy watch — the film was ultimately blamed for some real-life violence — but it seems slightly ridiculous that 30 seconds of explicit content was the difference between these two ratings.
Showgirls (1995)
Paul Verhoeven's camp classic "Showgirls" may be a cult favorite today, but when it was released in 1995, it courted controversy due to its explicit sex scenes — something the director knew would happen even as he was filming it.
As he told Rolling Stone in 2020, Verhoeven struggled to ensure that his previous film "Basic Instinct" was only rated R so it could perform at the box office, and he more than accepted the fact that something like "Showgirls" would end up rated NC-17. "So I told Joe [Eszterhas, the film's screenwriter] and the others, 'If you don't do this as an NC-17, I'm not going to do it.' Because I didn't want to fight with the MPAA about one breast here, or another breast there, and another breast over there. So from the beginning, I was very clear that I only wanted to make the movie with that rating."
The film, which focuses on the sexual awakening and strip club tenure of Nomi Malone (Elizabeth Berkeley), did bomb at the box office, but in recent years, critics and fans have revisited the film and declared that it's actually a biting satire and not a "bad" film. "Showgirls" is, to be clear, a frothy, campy, often absurd delight, and audiences who took it at face value seriously missed out (if they got to see it at all, thanks to the rating).
Blue Valentine (2010)
Written and directed by Derek Cianfrance, "Blue Valentine" tells the story of a couple — Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) — as their relationship crumbles throughout the years, and thanks to one scene, it almost got hit with an NC-17 rating.
Due to a scene where Dean performs oral sex on Cindy, the MPAA initially chose to assign an NC-17 rating to "Blue Valentine," and Gosling immediately went to bat for the movie, correctly pointing out that this could prevent people from seeing the film ... and that a consensual sexual encounter between a man and wife did not, in any way, merit such a strict rating. As he initially told AceShowBiz (per MTV), "There's plenty of oral sex scenes in a lot of movies, where it's a man receiving it from a woman — and they're R-rated. Ours is reversed and somehow it's perceived as pornographic." Gosling went on to say that the movie wouldn't be able to be shown in large movie theater chains, nor would it be able to advertise on television with an NC-17 rating.
After The Weinstein Company, which produced the film, appealed to the MPAA, it ended up landing an R rating after all and avoided the fate of being buried alongside other NC-17 movies. Still, it's absurd that this particular sexual act nearly earned such a strict rating.
Blonde (2022)
It's not an exaggeration to say that writer-director Andrew Dominik's 2022 film "Blonde" is an exercise in pure misery. With Ana de Armas as a (somewhat) fictionalized version of Marilyn Monroe, Dominik paints a portrait of an abused, wholly battered, and fully broken woman who's simply used by the men around her to fulfill various desires and fantasies. For much of the film's lengthy 166-minute run time, de Armas' character Norma Jeane spends the bulk of her time crying or struggling against said abusive men. It's not an easy watch, and furthermore, it feels like it denigrates Monroe herself as it brutalizes a character clearly based on the iconic movie star that experiences a lot of physical and sexual assault.
"Blonde" was released on Netflix after a limited theatrical run in September 2022, and its definitive NC-17 rating created serious buzz. Critics even spoke out before the film was released; as Kady Ruth Ashcroft wrote at Jezebel, "'Blonde's' NC-17 rating is intended as both a warning and a restriction as to who can handle the film's mature content. It also acts like a tease — just how scandalous was this sexpot's life anyways? — in a way that may prevent the movie from shrinking Monroe the myth back down to Norma Jean." The movie eventually earned de Armas an Oscar nomination, but it caused a ton of controversy before, during, and after its release, and its explicit sex scenes were a large part of that.
If you or anyone you know has been a victim of sexual assault, help is available. Visit the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network website or contact RAINN's National Helpline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673).