Which Movie Do You Think is the Most Offensive?

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Upon making my "movies you refuse to see list," in 2021, I was surprised to see users mention titles that I found neither offensive nor lousy (i.e., MCU films, Harry Potter, Avatar, etc.). I thought, "why would you refuse to watch the MCU movies, given that none of those movies are offensive or lousy?" Although I will admit that the MCU isn't for everyone, such an answer still took me by surprise.

So I thought I would make a poll that boils down some of the most controversial films of all time and have voters narrow them down to the most offensive. Some of these have even been banned in numerous countries (i.e., Borat, Cannibal Holocaust, South Park, Pink Flamingos, Passion of Christ, Last Temptation, etc.)!

I would pick Kids for how loathsome the debauched youths were in the film, especially the main kid Telly. This film dared to show kids shoplifting, disrespecting their elders, brutally beating up a man in the park, doing drugs, and having highly lewd discussions. Telly was a creep, and a scumbag whose entire mission in the movie was to deflower as many virgins as he could (all while unknowingly spreading HIV/AIDS). The only sympathetic character is Jenny, one of his ex-lovers, who attempts to stop Telly

My second pick would be Passion of Christ for its violent cruelty and meanspiritedness. Not to mention that the film vilifies Semitic and Italic peoples.

My third pick would be Borat for how it paints an offensively stereotypical portrayal of Kazakhstan and the United States. But I thought the naked hotel fight scene was hilarious!


So what's your top pick? Let's be civil here!

Clarification Note: By Bully, I mean Larry Clark's Bully and not Lee Hirsch's documentary Bully. The latter is a meaningful anti-bullying film that everyone should see. The former is more for people who like true crime and have the stomach to sit through it.

I liked Pink Flamingos.

Can you describe your political views?
Kill everyone now. Condone first degree murder, advocate for cannibalism, eat s**t. Filth is my politics, filth is my life.

Cannibal Holocaust. At least with the other movies, nobody was actually harmed. Not true for the animals of Cannibal Holocaust. Guess the guys filming the monsters filming the monsters were the real monsters after all.

I've never seen any of them.

I feel like I can't say anything other than The Birth of a Nation, if for no reason other than 'this is the movie that lead to the revival of the Ku Klux Klan'.

Everything else is peanuts, comparatively, I can understand why people might find many of these films offensive due to their content, for one reason or another, but none of them led to the revival of a far-right extremist terrorist organization and hate-group after over 40 years that had between 3 and 6 million members during its peak in the mid-1920s.

And that's with me also acknowledging that The Birth of a Nation is also one of the most important films in history, in spite of its content.

The South Park movie gave me some of my first hard laughs as a kid.

IMO, this is a tough list to choose one from.

However, one example of film that is considered "polarizing" is:

Freaks
Tod Browning insisted to the studio MGM on using real circus performers instead of actors. During test screenings, many were horrified with one woman claiming it caused her to have a miscarriage. When MGM saw the final cut, Browning was told to edit out about 20-25 minutes.

The movie flopped and ended Tod Browning's career. It gained cult status during the 1960s counterculture movement.

I've watched this film a few times and worth a watch.

I don’t agree with the concept of offensive media.

I’m not saying that different aspects of media can’t offend, but “Offensive media” is a normative claim of objectivity imposed on aesthetic value, which is purely subjective.

You can impose a systematic approach to weigh different aspects of the content, but you are left with subjective value judgements imitating objectivity.

Do I like some of the movies on the list? Yes. Do I dislike some? Sure. Do some of them contain problematic subject matter? Pretty much all of them do.

A core value of art is to affect emotions, sometimes that results in negative responses.

The premise of your argument is flawed under the assumption that subjective media can be objectively judged.

None.

The more offensive and controversial something is, the more I got to see what the hype is about.

But PV, you're spot on about Birth of the Nation.

While I won't ever watch Pink Flamingos, that is a pretty darn good quote!



Which is why I don't ever want to watch Cannibal Holocaust. I always regard The Blair Witch Project as the godfather of the found footage genre!



Then you might enjoy Team America.



I think you're taking my argument way too seriously. I'm asking users which movie, in their OPINION, they feel is the most offensive, with some notorious examples. I may not have chosen the best words in the initial post, but I wished to see different opinions on the featured films (known for their controversy). This thread is meant to be fun while discussing films that have challenged the censors.

You're right that no film can be objectively offensive since what is and isn't offensive is subjective. The same goes for humor and fear. A comedy or horror movie won't be in everybody's taste, but such a movie could still generate waves and land an audience. Borat did that, and various countries banned it, which only fueled its cult following (I once read that Kazakhstan unbanned the movie because of the influx of tourism).

While this poll can't make a genuinely conclusive outcome on what movie qualifies as the "most offensive" (the same would go for a poll that asks for the worst/best of a selected bunch of films), we can appreciate the exchange of opinions regarding the impacts that these movies made.

Since the OP wants the answer to be about personal ahem taste.

2 Girls 1 Cup

I've also seen Team America.

i didn't like sex in the city [movie, as well as series] as it was chock-full of antisocial expression/philosophy/behavior.

Or it's sequel: SWAP.avi

The most offensive movie I've ever seen was Silence of the Lambs.
Freaked me the F out.

"the last boy scout" was also somewhat ripe. "faces of death" was somewhat shocking.