# What Are the Most Divisive Movies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 30, 2005, 5:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289 "2005-08-30T17:47:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![joazito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@joazito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joazito)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/81 "2005-09-05T09:12:36Z")
**Life Aquatic** and **Napoleon Dynamite** come to mind. Damn i got bored to death on both of them… ---
**Author:** ![joazito](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@joazito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joazito)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/82 "2005-09-05T09:14:24Z")
I somehow missed that last post. Oh well. ---
**Author:** ![fifty-six](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@fifty-six](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fifty-six)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 9:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/83 "2005-09-05T09:35:40Z")
Debbie Does Dallas ---
**Author:** ![Dunderman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ecb155/32.png) [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/84 "2005-09-05T09:52:19Z")
> [@Steve MB](#): > > Somebody likes that? I’ve never heard of anyone but Verhoeven himself defend it. I like _Starship Troopers_ a lot. I don’t get from it what **lissener** got from it, but I like it. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 4:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/85 "2005-09-05T16:09:08Z")
Donnie Darko. Ick! ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/86 "2005-09-05T16:19:11Z")
I’m the first person to mention “Forrest Gump”? “Gump” is frequently cited on this very message board as being one of the worst movies to ever win Best Picture, along with “Titanic” and “Gladiator” (presumably by people not old enough to remember crap like “Around the World in 80 Days.”) Now, I happen to think “Forrest Gump” was a terrific movie and fully deserving of the accolades it got, but there’s no doubt that it’s a TREMENDOUSLY polarizing movie, and it’s a pretty even split as to those who hate it and those who love it. I think it wins hands down. Sure, you get the same love-or-hate thing with “Starship Troopers,” but not a lot of people buy into the it’s-good-because-it’s-satire apologic; “Gump” gives you a much more even split. ---
**Author:** ![Darkhold](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/90db22/32.png) [@Darkhold](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darkhold)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/87 "2005-09-05T16:56:30Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > I’m the first person to mention “Forrest Gump”? > > “Gump” is frequently cited on this very message board as being one of the worst movies to ever win Best Picture, along with “Titanic” and “Gladiator” (presumably by people not old enough to remember crap like “Around the World in 80 Days.”) > > Now, I happen to think “Forrest Gump” was a terrific movie and fully deserving of the accolades it got, but there’s no doubt that it’s a TREMENDOUSLY polarizing movie, and it’s a pretty even split as to those who hate it and those who love it. I think it wins hands down. Sure, you get the same love-or-hate thing with “Starship Troopers,” but not a lot of people buy into the it’s-good-because-it’s-satire apologic; “Gump” gives you a much more even split. Heh it even divided me for awhile. First time I saw it I thought it was ok. Through a series of circumstances I ended up watching it about 7 times in two weeks. Then two more times at school (it was the end of the year and we ended up watching it in history class and some other class where the teacher didn’t want to assign anything serious). I hated that movie so much but the end of all that. Now I like it enough to own it on DVD and I was really shocked to find how totally it was hated on these boards but I can see their point considering how badly I hated it at one time. ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/88 "2005-09-05T22:11:43Z")
> [@Pushkin](#): > > **The Big Lebowski**? Everyone else seems to have not heard of it or thought it completely unfunny, my friends and I think its hilarious and try and quote it as often as possible. The dude endures ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2005, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/89 "2005-09-05T22:13:12Z")
Tod Browning’s “Freaks” was banned for a number of years ---
**Author:** ![Cartooniverse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cartooniverse/32/3084_2.png) [@Cartooniverse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cartooniverse)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/90 "2005-09-06T00:44:27Z")
> [@Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor](#): > > **Birth Of A Nation** both created modern movies as we know them, and is as ugly as a firebomb through a bedroom window (which actually happened to my family, in Maywood, Illinois, in 65). Word. I knew I liked your brain. And now, more proof. ( dips spoon into **Bosda’s brain** , a la Hannibal :eek: ) Divisive. At least you chose a truly divisive title. Love or hate, to me, ain’t divisive. Socially uproarious- THAT’S divisive. **Birth Of A Nation**? My god yes. Other titles that caused social disturbance on various levels? A Clockwork Orange ( banned in England by Kubrick himself due to copycat violence post-relase). The Last Temptation of Christ. The Passion of Christ. ( interestingly enough it seemed, for different reasons… ) Farenheit 9/11 Titticutt Follies. It tore the filthy curtains away from the mental health world and was a serious wake-up call in this country. Cartooniverse ---
**Author:** ![Excalibre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/898d66/32.png) [@Excalibre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Excalibre)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/91 "2005-09-06T18:25:04Z")
> [@Thudlow Boink](#): > > **Dancer in the Dark**. Count me among those who consider it manipulative, predictable, contrived, and wallowing in misery. Absolutely! What an awful, sadistic movie. You’ve put it perfectly. > [@BlackKnight](#): > > Opinions of “Fight Club” seem to be split very cleanly down gender lines. I’m a dude, I hated the movie. I thought it reveled in violence and a simplistic sort of nihilism before a smarmy, moralistic rejection of that philosophy towards the end. The authors accomplished their task quite well - the teenage boys who are so enamored of the movie managed to miss the third act rejection of nihilism entirely, while folks discomfited by the violence could latch on to that and have their opinions confirmed. It’s an awful movie that’s just redolent of the filmmakers’ self-congratulation and their contempt for their audience. I can’t even begin to explain how much I loathe that pretentious, idiotic piece of garbage. ---
**Author:** ![cruel\_butterfly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/5daacb/32.png) [@cruel\_butterfly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cruel_butterfly)\ **Post date:** [September 6, 2005, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289/92 "2005-09-06T18:47:18Z")
**Vanilla Sky**. It has divided my own household. My husband hates it; never wants to see it again. I love it; I wanna own it. FTR, my husband didn’t grasp the movie. He has trouble liking any movie whose plot and character development (if any) aren’t handed to him on a silver platter just after the opening credits. I’m not knocking his taste in movies; he just doesn’t want to try too hard to watch a movie. Occasionally, I like a movie like _Dumb & Dumber_, but most of the time, I like to watch the credits roll at the end and say, “Okay…what?!” Then I watch it again. And again. And again. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-the-most-divisive-movies/319289.md?page=4)