Liquid Sky

My friend Evan noted in a comment regarding yesterday's Bowie post how he was surprised by running into his father at a Liquid Sky (1983) showing. If you've seen the controversial film with cult following, the surprise makes sense. This incident reminds me of the buzz around other films over the years. In my family, we kids could feel the electricity in the air when my parents were going to see Last Tango in Paris (1972), though they never discussed it afterwards. Having since seen it more than once as an adult myself, I can understand their silence on the matter.

When I was a really little kid, I took the soundtrack to Goldfinger to school for show and tell. My then teacher was not amused, and raised a stink about it (too controversial at the time and for that age group, apparently). I still have the record, featuring Shirley Bassey (another January 8th birthday!) and the Bond theme -- and I still love it.

When I was a bit older, one of my sisters took me to see several "controversial" films, ranging from The Moonshine War (1970) to The Omega Man (1971) to Deliverance (1972). In turn, babysitting my younger brother years later, I took him to see wildish movies like Wise Blood (1979), Apocalypse Now (1979), Quadrophenia (1979) and The Kids Are Alright (1979). If memory serves, Wise Blood freaked him out a little (he was nine at the time, the same age I was when Vickie collared me for The Moonshine War). No worries: we're both productive tax-paying adults now, so all is well. Ha!

How about you?  Did you have a sibling or friend who sneaked you into controversial films?  I just remembered another one: by the time The Exorcist (1973) came out, I went with school friends. Lots of people were freaking out about it at the time. We thought it was cool, but joked our way through.   

 

Today's Rune: Defense.