10 Classic Movies You Didn't Know Were Slammed By Critics

10. Blue Velvet

David Lynch is regularly cited as one of the greatest of all living directors - it's easy to see why, with films like The Elephant Man, Mulholland Drive and Lost Highway regarded as some of the best modern movies. And Blue Velvet is widely considered to be his real masterpiece. While this view is widely held now it wasn't the case when Blue Velvet was first released in the mid-80s, with its shocking scenes of sadomasochism and violence coming across as crude and repulsive to a few critics. Most notable was Roger Ebert's incredibly harsh one star review - Ebert was particularly incensed by the treatment of Isabella Rossellini, saying, "she is degraded, slapped around, humiliated and undressed in front of the camera. And when you ask an actress to endure those experiences, you should keep your side of the bargain by putting her in an important film." British film critic Mark Kermode held similar views at the time, also slamming Blue Velvet in his early review - although more recently Kermode has done an about-face and now views Lynch's movie as the masterpiece it truly is.