3. A Clockwork Orange (1971)
Stanley Kubrick's film of sociopath Alex and the ultra violent antics he gets up to with his droogs earns its rightful place on this list. It gave the BBFC a merry dance and proved to be so controversial that Kubrick himself took it out of circulation because he was scared of copycat violence and attacks on his family. The film is really a masterclass of controversy from beginning to end. Alex and his pals beat up an old alcoholic indigent, fight a rival gang, beat up a writer to the point of crippling him for life and then rape his wife, and he kills a woman with a giant penis. For the latter act he is sentenced to 14 years in prison. Alex is subject to the Ludovico technique - a form of aversion therapy to he gets to the point where he is violently ill looking at a pair of woman's breasts. He is judged rehabilitated but is this just a temporary fix or has Alex's baser instincts been knocked on the head for good? The film ticks all of the controversial theme boxes - rape, random violence, casual murder, the sexual exploitation of women as well as looking at controversial social issues such as psychiatry, the criminal reform system, victim revenge and psychological techniques. Personally, I find the film a little dated but it is certainly still a firebrand of a movie.