20 'Controversial' Movies Everyone Completely Over-Reacted To

The Film:

Mel Brooks' 1967 satirical comedy, which features two men (Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder) trying to produce a Broadway flop which will allow them to steal lots of money.

The Controversy:

With all the jokes about World War II and Hitler, coming a mere two decades after WWII ended, the film caused a lot of offence. The film nearly wasn't released at all, but Peter Sellers persuaded the executive producer to release it since he enjoyed it so much.

Why It Was Wrong:

This one hasn't aged very well and seems like a fairly mild comedy today. Even for the time, calling the film morally repugnant doesn't seem fair.

The musical 'Springtime for Hitler' is just one scene. The film is not making fun of the events of WWII, it is simply about two men putting on a deliberately tasteless play.

The play itself is made to look utterly ridiculous, so this Hitler-glorifying play is completely sent up. Surely a film shouldn't be seen as so disgusting when it's making fun of a hated historical figure rather than glorifying him.

One of the wonderful things about satire is its ability to undermine amoral views and repugnant acts throughout history, and that is what Mel Brooks was doing here. Therefore, it's hard to see why people were so angry about the film. Still, the film won an Oscar for its screenplay so at least some people caught onto Brooks' real aims.