It is Life of Brian which was voted the most controversial film of all time besting films like A Clockwork Orange and The Last House on The Left with the polls spokesmen stating:  “The success of films like Life Of Brian proves that scandal sells.”

-The Mirror

1. The Life of Brian

2. A Clockwork Orange

3. The Last House on the Left

4. The War Game

5. Pink Flamingos

Now of course this is not the first, nor will it be the last time a most controversial film of all time list is done, so the fact that films like Caligula, The Cook The Thief His Wife and Her lover,Salo,The Last Temptation of Christ,Crash,Kids,The Birth of  a Nation, The Passion of the Christ,Lolita,Deep Throat or Bad Lieutenant were forgotten to be mentioned is heresy.  It does though make you wonder who, in fact, classifies a film to be controversial or inappropriate.  Is it mere coincidence that 2 of the films mentioned are comedies while the other a pseudo documentary and not a full length  narrative film, or does it say more about ourselves that films of that nature or ‘quality’ do not get made today?  It is more often than not religion and sex, more so than violence that seems to anger certain viewers such as is the case with every film mentioned previously.  With the sole exception of The War Game which was deemed too frightening and graphic so much so that the film was made for television viewing back in August of 1966 and the same year won an Oscar for best documentary but was banned by the BBC for viewing until 1985 a full 11 years later due to ”the effect of the film has been judged by the BBC to be too horrifying for the medium of broadcasting”.

Or maybe its the filmmakers themselves that are too afraid to make controversial films like in the case of Theo Van Gough who directed the 10 minute film Submission about muslim women which got him stabbed to death (as seen below)

There is even to this day rampant discussion as to whether Pier Paolo Pasolini had been murdered out of sheer vengeance from his captor or if it in fact had been done due to his final film Salo: The 120 days of Sodom.  Either way it is up for debate that if films that can cause such outright hate and debate are more controversial than a biblical comedy by the famed British troupe.