A Gathering of every NC-17 film ever released - An Incredibly autistic research piece I did

[The Cunting Death]

So back in August I got bored and realized "what the fuck is the point of the NC-17 rating if very few people actually seen a film with that rating."

Wikipedia has a list of this shit but its so poorly managed and most of the films on the list weren't actually assigned the rating, just voluntarily cut because the distributors assumed it would get an NC-17, so I looked this up myself on Film Ratings

The list/table doesn't include films that originally had an NC-17 but then surrendered the rating instead (meaning the uncut version is just unrated, since the MPAA is voluntary unlike something like the BBFC) like Killer Joe or Happiness (1998 )

Spoiler: the table

Title (Alternate Title or Translated Title)	Description:	Year	Distributor	notes:
Romantic Memoirs	N/A	1990	Spectradyne
Secret Sex Lives of Romeo and Juliet	N/A	1990	Spectradyne
Softly From Paris Series I-V	N/A	1990	Spectradyne	5 different releases, combined to one for categorization
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!	Scene of Strong Adult Sensuality with nudity	1990	Miramax
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls	N/A	1990	20th Century Fox
Blonde Emanuelle in 3-D	N/A	1990	Movie Visions
Center spread	N/A	1990	Spectradyne
In the Cold of the Night	N/A	1990	Omega Entertainment	edited
Midnight Woman	N/A	1990	Greenbow Pictures
Peepshow	N/A	1990	Comsat Video Enterprise
Play Thing	N/A	1990	Atlas International Film
Radio Active/Ground Zero L.A.	N/A	1990	Stardusk Ent
Cook The Thief His Wife and Her Lover	N/A	1990	Miramax
Henry and June	N/A	1990	Universal	A post card involving a Japanese woman and a squid during the opening credits got the film its rating. First film to get the rating
Arabian Nights	N/A	1991	Water Bearer Films
Bizarre	N/A	1991	Spectradyne
Canterbury Tales	N/A	1991	Water Bearer Films
Dark Obsession	N/A	1991	Circle Releasing
Dice Rules	N/A	1991	Seven Arts	Andrew Dice Clay Stand Up
The Dolls	N/A	1991	Platinum Pictures
Emanuelle: The Joys of a Woman	N/A	1991	Paramount
Flesh Gordon II	N/A	1991	Filmvest Inter
Games Of Love	N/A	1991	Spectradyne
In the Realm of the Sense	N/A	1991	Gades Films Inter
Rodney Dangerfield 'Nothing Goes Right'	N/A	1991	Orion Home Video/R2 Entertainment	Stand up film
Modern Love	N/A	1991	Holiday Enterprises
Myriam	N/A	1991	Comsat Video Enterprise
Santa Sangre	Several Scenes of extremely explicit violence	1991	Expanded Entertainment
Shadowed Mind	N/A	1991	Northern Film Traders
Whore	N/A	1991	Trimark Pictures/Lionsgate
Bad Lieutenant	Sexual Violence, Strong Sexual Situations and Dialogue, and Graphic Drug Use	1992	Live Home Video/Lionsgate	has an R rated cut,
Easyriders Video Magazine #13	Pervasive Sexuality and Graphic Sexual Dialogue	1992	Easyriders Video Magazine
Intent To Kill	Extreme Violence	1992	PM Entertainment Group
The Loves of Lady Chatterly (L'amante, Malu)	scenes of explicit sexuality	1992	First Cinema Ventures
Tower of Terror (Hard to Die, Sorotity House Massacre 3, The Seance 2, Nighty Nightmare)	Extreme Horror Violence	1992	Concorde Pictures
Tropic of Cancer	Strong Language and Sex-Related Dialogue	1992	Paramount
Wide Sargasso Sea	Strong, Explicit Sexuality	1992	New Line Cinema
Man Bites Dog	Strong Graphic Violence	1993	Roxie Releasing/Criterion
Tokyo Decadence	Strong, Explicit, Sadomasochistic sexuality	1993	Northern Arts Entertainment Group
Evil Dead (original)	Substantial Graphic Horror Violence and Gore	1994	MCA Home Entertainment	Released Unrated on most new releases
Paris, France	Explicit Sexual Content	1994	A-Pix Entertainment
Comfortably Numb	Scenes of Graphic Drug Use and some explicit sexuality	1995	Meistrich Corp	not related to the Pink Floyd song
Delta of Venus	Explicit Sexuality	1995	New Line Cinema (Fine Line Features)
Hottest Bid	Strong Graphic Sexuality	1995	Deborah Films	appeal withheld
Showgirls	nudity and erotic sexuality throughout, and for some graphic language and sexual violence	1995	MGM/United Artists	killed the chances of the NC-17 rating ever being a commercial success
Showgirls Sneak Preview	Strong sexual images	1995	MGM/United Artists	just a preview version of the above
Broken English	Explicit Sexuality	1996	Sony Pictures Classics	Appeal withheld
Crash	numerous explicit sex scenes	1996	New Line Cinema (Fine Line Features)	has an R Rated Cut, no relation to the 2004 Oscar Winner
Inserts	Explicit Sexuality	1996	MGM/United Artists	updated rating
Bent	a strong scene of graphic sexuality	1997	MGM
Hell's Belles	pervasive sexuality and nudity	1997	South Pacific Productions
Last Tango in Paris	Some Explicit Sexual Content	1997	MGM	listed three times for some reason on the film ratings website
Pink Flamingos	Wide range of perversions in explicit detail	1997	New Line Cinema (Fine Line Features)	lol also 25th anniversary re-release
Glam	a scene of explicit sexuality and some sexual dialogue	1998	Cineville	appeal witheld
La Grande Bouffee (The Big Feast, The Blow Out)	some explicit sexuality	1998	Sceneries Distribution
Orgazmo	Explicit Sexual Content and Dialogue	1998	October Films/Universal	worst thing shown in the film is a dudes ass, and has an unrated version
Two Girls and a Guy	a scene of explicit sexuality	1998	20th Century Fox	edited
The Barcelona Erotic Film Festival	Explicit Sexual Content	1999	Shayla Productions
Female Trouble	explicit sexuality and nudity	1999	New Line Cinema (Fine Line Features)	25th anniversary re-release
Trois	some explicit sexuality	2000	Columbia Tristar Home Video	edited
WVAG in New York City	Graphic Sexuality	2001	theradiochick.com	released online, made by Leslie Gold of Fox News Radio fame, seriously. I also can't find a single fucking copy of this
The Story of O	sexual content	2002	Ventura Distribution	rating changed
WADD The Life and Times of John C Homes	Explicit Sexual Content	2003	VCA Labs
Bad Education	A Scene of explicit sexual content	2004	Sony Pictures Classics
A Dirty Shame	pervasive sexual content	2004	New Line Cinema (Fine Line Features)	Killed John Waters career, has an r-rated edit solely for places like Walmart
The Dreamers	Explicit Sexual Content	2004	20th Century Fox (Fox Searchlight)
Young Adam	Some Explicit Sexual Content	2004	Sony Pictures Classics
Inside Deep Throat	Explicit Sexual Content	2005	Universal Pictures and HBO Documentary Films	has an R rated cut and both versions have aired on HBO
Law of Desire	A Scene of explicit sexual content	2005	Sony Pictures Classics
Ma Mere	Strong and Aberrant sexual content	2005	TLA Releasing
Matador	Aberrant sexuality including violence	2005	Sony Pictures Classics
Secretaries	pervasive graphic sexuality and nudity	2006	Maverick Entertainment Group
100 Tears	Extreme Horror Violence	2007	Crytzer Enterprises/Unearthed Films
Descent	A Brutal Rape	2007	City Lights Pictures	not to be confused with the 2005 horror film and also has an edited version
Lust, Caution	some explicit sexuality	2007	Focus Features/Universal	has an R rated cut
Marie and Jack A Hardcore Love Story	Explicit Sexuality	2007	Comstock Films
The Night Buffalo	some graphic sexuality	2009	Distrimax
El Infierno [Hell]	some graphic violence and explicit sexual content	2011	Pantelion Films
A Serbian Film	Extreme Aberrant Sexual and Violent Content including Explicit Dialogue	2011	Invincible Pictures	was cut 4 minutes to obtain this rating, took almost two years to get the film released uncut in America, only way to watch it uncut for awhile was a leaked screener copy. Unearthed Films later got the rites and sold it unrated
Shame	Some Explicit Sexual Content	2011	20th Century Fox (Fox Searchlight)	nominated for a golden globe for best actor (Michael Fassbender)
Blue Is The Warmest Color	Explicit Sexual Content	2013	IFC Films (Sundance Selects)	nominated for best foreign language film at the golden globes; won the palm d'or in 2013 and the only film for which the leads won the palm d'or as well
Lucky Bastard	Explicit Sexual Content	2013	CAVU Pictures	Usually, the MPAA gives suggestions on what to cut to obtain an R rating. For this film, there was so much stuff to cut out in just the opening scene that they stopped taking notes on that 5 minutes in.
Marriage 2.0	Explicit Sexual Content and Graphic Nudity Throughout	2015	Adam and Eve.com	its just an edited version of a porn film that takes out a lot of the most hardcore scenes.
Swearnet The Movie	Some Explicit Sexual Content, Graphic Nudity, and for Language	2015	The Pits Inc/Entertainment One	Holds the world record for most fucks said in a film at about almost 1000 in just under 90 minutes
This One's For The Ladies: Uncensored	Some Explicit Sexual Images	2018	Super LTD and Neon	documentary
Blonde	Some Sexual Content	2022	Netflix

Of my research, here's a few interesting things of note.

Only 90 films kept the NC-17 rating for home video or whatever

Every Year until 2008 had at least one film with an NC-17 rating

Spectradyne released the most with this rating, at 10 releases

Two Stand Up specials were released with this rating, "Dice Rules" with Andrew Dice Clay and Rodney Dangerfield's "Nothing Goes Right"

This One's For The Ladies is the only movie I know of that was simultaneously released with both an R and NC-17 rated version in theaters.

John Waters released the most films with an NC-17, at three. (Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble's 25th anniversary re-releases, and A Dirty Shame, as well as being in Inside Deep Throat)

Comfortably Numb and Bad Lieutenant are pretty much the only films that were released with an NC-17 that was mainly assigned the rating because of drug related content


updated as of 3/25/22

 

[edboy]

Wasn't 'Blue Is The Warmest Color' released in small arthouse theaters in the U.S. with an NC-17 rating?

 

[TokiBun]

Interesting read. Do you think certain NC-17 films would have a different rating today due to cultural changes?

 

[The Mass Shooter Ron Soye]

Wikipedia's list has some good info, but is separated into separate alphabetical sections, so it's impossible to sort by year.

 

[The Cunting Death]

Wikipedia's list has some good info, but is separated into separate alphabetical sections, so it's impossible to sort by year.

I already explained that I knew about the list, but that list specifically has a lot of movies that aren't even rated NC-17, mostly just threatened with the rating or released unrated instead.

Wasn't 'Blue Is The Warmest Color' released in small arthouse theaters in the U.S. with an NC-17 rating?

Yes it was. It actually did okay here in theaters (making $2.2 million, which, considering it only played in 142 theaters out of like 4000+ in all of America, is a lot of money.) and thanks to Netflix, I know a lot of people who have actually seen the film.

Interesting read. Do you think certain NC-17 films would have a different rating today due to cultural changes?

possibly, the rating was only introduced in 1990 so give it some more time and we'll see.
Although personally, I think Orgazmo would be given an R rating today if it was re-released.

 

[Starscreams Cape]

Lol Bad Lieutenant. One of the few movies that you are absolutely compelled to take a shower after watching.

 

[OttoWest]

The Matador that received an NC-17 is the 1986 Pedro Almodovar film. It’s a bit confusing because there was actually a film called Matador released in 2005 starring Pierce Brosnan. Sony Pictures Classics did a rerelease of some of Pedro’s older titles in preparation of the release of Volver in 2006, hence the resubmitted rating.

Law of Desire is also an Almodovar film. This would mean Pedro has the most films on the list at four: Bad Education, Law of Desire, Matador, and Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.

I think it would be helpful to cite the first year of release somewhere on the chart for those films that received the rating upon rerelease (ex 1972 for Pink Flamingos) to prevent confusion as above with Matador. Maybe director too.

Pasolini’s Arabian Nights (1974) was rereleased in 1990, not 1991 though maybe they didn’t get the US rating til 91? It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, that might be worth noting.

Nice work! It’d be interesting to see which films got an actual theatrical run versus home video release. Something like Shame is in such a different ballpark from Blonde Emmanuelle.

 

[The Cunting Death]

The Matador that received an NC-17 is the 1986 Pedro Almodovar film. It’s a bit confusing because there was actually a film called Matador released in 2005 starring Pierce Brosnan. Sony Pictures Classics did a rerelease of some of Pedro’s older titles in preparation of the release of Volver in 2006, hence the resubmitted rating.

Law of Desire is also an Almodovar film. This would mean Pedro has the most films on the list at four: Bad Education, Law of Desire, Matador, and Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.

I think it would be helpful to cite the first year of release somewhere on the chart for those films that received the rating upon rerelease (ex 1972 for Pink Flamingos) to prevent confusion as above with Matador. Maybe director too.

Pasolini’s Arabian Nights (1974) was rereleased in 1990, not 1991 though maybe they didn’t get the US rating til 91? It won the Grand Prix at Cannes, that might be worth noting.

Nice work! It’d be interesting to see which films got an actual theatrical run versus home video release. Something like Shame is in such a different ballpark from Blonde Emmanuelle.

Thanks, will fix soon

And with Arabian Nights, the site itself shows the film was rated in 91, maybe their records are wrong, who knows.

 

[I can't imagine]

It's probably at least worth mentioning films that were rated NC-17 initially, but later successfully appealed to an R rating without edits, like Clerks or Blue Valentine. Unfortunately, I don't really know how easy that information even is to come by. Offhand, I can think of those two films, plus Zack and Miri Make a Porno (made some edits, got another NC-17, then successfully appealed) and Boxing Helena.

 

[Syaoran Li]

Interesting read. Do you think certain NC-17 films would have a different rating today due to cultural changes?

Honestly, with woke culture being what it is these days and prevalent in Hollywood and other media circles, I'd wager most "hard" R films from the 1980's, 1990's. and even the 2000's would get an NC-17 rating if they came out today. This is especially true of the ones with female nudity or "problematic" language.

Hell, some of the "hard" PG-13 films of the same timeframe would get an R rating if released today.

PG has become the new G across the board and PG-13 is the new PG in many cases, while the "hard" PG-13 is like the new R, largely the purview of horror movies and action flicks.

Quite frankly, I'm honestly surprised that the G rating hasn't been retired already since the only films that get that rating at all anymore are in the Disney Animated Canon, and that's mainly as a grandfather clause scenario of sorts.

After the early 2000's, the G rating was seen as a sort of box office poison, although not a total death sentence like an NC-17 rating is.

I'd say a lot of it has to do with the kiddie stigma of the G rating and the fact that the bulk of movie audiences nowadays are teens.

 

[The Cunting Death]

updated because another film got added

feel free to rate me autistic because this list really is autistic

 

[BrunoMattei]

updated because another film got added

feel free to rate me autistic because this list really is autistic

You forgot Urotsukidoji. I know the first OVA was edited together as a film and released as an NC-17 with just the fuck and cum shots edited out.

 

[Harlan Wick]

Tropic of Cancer is 1970 not 1991

 

[Jason Wynn]

Wasn’t Happiness NC-17 as well? It was eventually released unrated but it was originally slapped with the NC-17 rating so it’s a bit nebulous whether or not to be included

 

[DiceindaMirror]

This would mean Pedro has the most films on the list at four: Bad Education, Law of Desire, Matador, and Tie Me Up, Tie Me Down.

I first learned about PA from this trailer of "This Film is Not Yet Rated":

 

[The Cunting Death]

You forgot Urotsukidoji. I know the first OVA was edited together as a film and released as an NC-17 with just the fuck and cum shots edited out.

I'll look into it.

Wasn’t Happiness NC-17 as well? It was eventually released unrated but it was originally slapped with the NC-17 rating so it’s a bit nebulous whether or not to be included

It was originally but yeah i didn't count it because it was released unrated. Great film though

 

[BrunoMattei]

Happiness was okay. Didn't think it was amazing. It probably wouldn't have attracted any controversy were it not for the pedo sub-plot.

I first learned about PA from this trailer of "This Film is Not Yet Rated":

That's a very mediocre docu because it almost completely ignores the scrutiny horror films had to endure. That and the Private Eye segments were cringe.

 

[Red Hood]

Of those I've seen Evil Dead, Showgirls, and Orgazmo.

 

[Kerr Avon]

OG Robocop is another