20 Most Controversial Movies Of All Time
3. A Clockwork Orange
Condemned by the Catholic Church, initially slapped with an X rating in the US, and eventually banned for 27 years in the UK, A Clockwork Orange is certainly the most notorious (and maybe the most celebrated) film of Stanley Kubrick's career. Several real life crimes were linked to the film, including a rape case in which the attackers sang Singing in the Rain, mimicking the film.
Kubrick's wife claimed that the family faced protests and threats from an angry public, and eventually Kubrick himself asked Warner Bros. to pull the film's British distribution. A Clockwork Orange was not readily available for viewing in the UK until after Kubrick passed away in 1999.
Now one of the most iconic films of Kubricks career and full of images that have become ingrained in modern pop culture, A Clockwork Orange has more than survived the controversy surrounding it, it's thrived on it.