10 "Controversial" Movies That Didn't Deserve All The Hype

8. Midnight Cowboy

The controversy: Midnight Cowboy, about a young Texan (Jon Voight) that heads to New York City to become a male prostitute, was slapped with an X-rating on its release in 1969 due to its "homosexual frame of reference" and "possible influence upon youngsters". The reality: Midnight Cowboy hardly looks like a 'controversial' film anymore; if anything, it's dated, the film firmly rooted in a long-gone era. Still, it remains 'controversial' for one reason: it's the only film with the dreaded X-rating to ever win an Oscar, taking home three of the big ones (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay). This puts Midnight Cowboy up there with other Oscar-nominated X-rated films A Clockwork Orange and Last Tango In Paris, even though it's hardly as risque as either. As an indication of how un-controversial Midnight Cowboy really is, even the MPAA decided to lower the rating on the film to an R just a year after it won its Oscars, meaning what had been unseemly in 1969 had already ceased being so by 1971.