After enduring years of sub-par super hero movies in the 1980s and '90s, comic book geeks everywhere finally got their wish when the first X-Men ushered in the new age of heroes on the big screen. Not only was X-Men the first super-hero film to truly do its comic justice, it paved the way for other super heroes to follow on the big screen. Since 2000, we've seen two more X-Men films, three Spider-Man movies, the reinvention of the Batman franchise, the return of Superman, Hulk, The Punisher, even second tier characters like Catwoman, and most recently the birth of a new franchise with Iron Man.
Although comic book geeks are basking in their own glory days of cinema, with no signs of super hero movies slowing down anytime soon, there will come a time when the tide turns. It happens with most properties in Hollywood when popularity reaches an inevitable peak, the times change, and new concepts take hold for up and coming generations. When the tide will actually turn, we're not quite sure. When the day comes, and we hope it's not anytime soon, we're preparing ourselves with a list of the "10 Factors that Could Kill Super Heroes in Hollywood."
10. Time
Just like Westerns were cool back in the day, it's safe to say that cinematic super heroes will ride off into the sunset only to reappear sometime in the future. At some point, it's likely people will ask, "Are super hero movies dead?" Although us comic book geeks are finally having our day in the big screen sun, thanks largely to the advances in technology, time is an unstoppable villain that even our greatest heroes can't defeat. Time is the one factor that transcends all forms of entertainment. Just like bands such as Warrant and Poison rode the final wave of glam-metal back in the late 1980s and early '90s, time will eventually usher in a new era of action ass-kickers. Although our favorite super heroes are already doomed to a predestined fate, it's undeniable that whatever comes next will be heavily influenced by the popularity of super hero movies. While big screen super heroes might be in their prime, you can expect Hollywood to use the genre as a springboard into something new and innovative. Think about it for a second. In 20 years, will the likes of Iron Man, Spider-Man, Hulk, Batman and X-Men be sitting atop the box-office?
9. Failed Heroes and Movies:
There's nothing worse than waiting for your favorite hero to hit the big screen only to walk out of the theater hoping no one sees you standing under the sign that reads "Now Playing - Catwoman". The fact is - just because some of our favorite super hero movies made money, doesn't mean we'll see them again, or need to for that matter. After Batman & Robin and Superman III (Superman IV, even Superman Returns) the Bat-franchise and Superman movies have been the exception to the rule. Either critically or monetarily, there have been a number of misses over the years. It goes without saying that Catwoman was a disaster. Despite being resurrected in 2008, the 2003 Hulk was a disappointment. The Punisher was critically "punished" by fans in 2004 and, although he's not your typical super hero, John Constantine/Hellblazer went down in a ball of flames in 2005. Hell, we're not even talking about the likes of Judge Dredd and Spawn. Although some heroes have lived to see another turn on the big screen, we already know others have met their untimely demise and won't be back (for at least a couple of decades of eternity). The exception to the rule... Superman, who's getting yet another cinematic turn in the next couple of years.
8. Questionable Heroes:
There's nothing better than being surprised when some super heroes unexpectedly work on the big screen. Let's be honest here - when Iron Man was first announced, most fans were intrigued and curious as to how Jon Favreau would pull it off. It wasn't like Iron Man was beyond the question, "Can Tony Stark support his own movie?" Throw in Robert Downey Jr. and a kick-ass trailer and we all felt A LOT better. Although there's a ton of territory for Hollywood to mine when it comes to established super heroes, do some of them really need their own movie? Sure, some characters have potential given their popularity, but many only appeal to a niche market of fans. In recent memory, Elektra forced us to question whether the warrior assassin really deserved her own film. As far as female super heroes go, where the hell is Wonder Woman hiding? Daredevil, as popular as he is off-screen, certainly had an uphill climb given the fact that much of the super hero market was cornered at the time by X2 and the first two Spider-Man films. Some super heroes are no-brainers while others are nothing but questionable at best. Captain America? Sure. The Sub-Mariner? Not so sure. The Avengers? Maybe. Green Lantern? Would love to see. Shazam? Not so sure. Thor? Not so sure. Luke Cage? Not so sure. Justice League? Was a maybe for us, but now not sure at all. That's eight super hero properties and a number of characters that we question whether they can truly stand on their own. It's not that we don't want to see them, but the X-Men, Spider-Man, Iron Man, and Batman franchises have set the bar so high that each one would have to blow us away on the scale of Iron Man to work. What are the chances?
7. The New Kid on the Block:
Let's see, cop movies in the 1970s, cheesy action movies in the '80s, non-linear pulp pics in the '90s, torture horror, remakes, and super hero flicks in the 2000s. If we follow historical patterns, something else always comes along to keep things fresh. It's hard to predict what will come down the pike to knock our favorite super heroes off the box-office throne. Given the latest string of war-movie flops, we doubt the Iraq war epic will get its due for quite a while. There is a ton of fertile ground with the Internet, but how that could possibly take shape (if at all) as a sub-genre is anyone's guess. We do see a ton of potential with the animated universe to break new ground as the years go by, but animation has always been popular and in play to some degree. There was a time when Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sly Stallone were as popular as Wolverine and Peter Parker, so is there any reason to think that today's successful big screen super heroes will be able to stay atop the box-office longer than The Terminator and Rambo in their day?
6. Fatigue:
What's better, to be teased with little bits and pieces of your favorite upcoming super hero movie or to be slammed over the head every day for an entire year until the movie hits theaters? After the hype surrounding Iron Man, fans or not, there's no doubt that some people will simply become exhausted by the buzz. Sure we were all looking forward to Iron Man, but it came damn close to being over-exposed by the time it was released. With the glut of super hero projects in the works, fans could possibly see three or four super hero movies a year for the next three to four years. If each film comes with the same barrage of hype and marketing, it's inevitable that some fans will suffer burn out. Although the hardcore comic book fans will be there, several super hero projects will need a wider mainstream audience to bring in the girlfriends and wives. Like it or not, fatigue will be setting in at some point. When? Who knows. As always though, too much of anything will kill any good property, super hero related or not.
5. Sequels:
When it comes to the topic of sequels, it's a two-sided debate. There's good and bad, but the battle of attrition will eventually win out on the downside. For studios, sequels are often money in the bank because of brand loyalty. For the fans, it's a 50/50 crap shoot. An interesting question comes to mind - how many movies is it going to take to put the X-Men and Spider-Man franchises to bed for a few years? We all know it's coming. What 20th Century Fox is doing with the upcoming Wolverine spin-off movie appears to be a smart move to continue the X-Men universe on the big screen. Also, given the reports of an upcoming Venom movie, the Spidey franchise looks set to live on in a varied form for a few more years aside from the inevitable Spider-Man 4. Add to that, despite our concerns whether he even warrants a movie as a lead/title character, the Silver Surfer will be surfing into his own big screen adventure from the last Fantastic Four film. Yeah, we know it's the Silver Surfer, but it's not like he made such an impression last year that people are still talking about him today. We hope we're wrong. As far as sequels go, there are a lot of points in favor of future success. However, as much as the spin-off sequel formula might ensure a certain longevity, no super hero sequels to date have been met with the same reception as the initial films. Reaction to X-Men: The Last Stand was much less positive than the first, and the same can be said about the third Spidey movie. Batman Begins was met with mostly positive reaction but there was still a mixed sector of fans. Don't believe me... go look up old reviews and forum posts. At this rate though, The Dark Knight will ease our sequel fears for now. However, it's only going to take a couple atrocious sequels, maybe two, to kill X-Men and Spidey for a few years. It's a fate almost all super heroes will eventually meet on the big screen, even Batman and Superman at some point.
4. The High Cost of Marketing:
If you haven't figured it out by now, there's a reason why Cloverfield was marketed in such a low-cost, viral manner. We all know that the most successful super hero movies have cost hundreds of millions of dollars to make. Given the financial evolution of Hollywood blockbusters and summer tentpole movies, some films have been nearly half a billion dollars (plus) in the hole before the start of production. In order for a big budget super hero film to get the proper amount of cash for a large marketing campaign, studios need to know ahead of time that there will be a sizable return at the box-office to still make money well beyond production costs, casting, marketing and distribution. Although it's not quite like the days of Cleopatra, which almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox into becoming a cinematic memory, we're wondering how many studios will be able to finance other films if it costs $200 million just to market one blockbuster, super hero movie or not. Extrapolate those numbers over a few more years and some super hero movies won't be feasible. Like I mentioned, there's a reason why Cloverfield was marketed in such a viral manner. It didn't cost nearly as much as larger films but it made a ton of cash. Throw in a bunch of no-name actors, and Paramount didn't have a lot of costs. Look at the marketing for The Dark Knight, it's similar in its viral nature to Cloverfield. After the huge marketing costs associated with Spider-Man 3 (some estimates of $120 million), studios have had no choice but to explore other options if they want to even think about making another super hero movie.
3. Crap:
There may come a time - and it might be here sooner than we think - when there could be so many sub-par super hero movies coming down the pike that fans will lose faith in the genre. Actually, you can take some of the factors already mentioned on this list and roll them into one neat pile called "eventual crap". I remember having long discussions with other webmasters prior to the release of X-Men and almost everyone was in agreement - it's only going to take a few consecutive stinkers to render our favorite super heroes powerless in Hollywood. Obviously it hasn't happened yet, but in relation to #10 and "Time", eventually the day might come when you won't be able to pitch a super hero project to anyone in Hollywood without someone laughing you out of an office. That's when it'll all come full circle. We're not sure how many actual nails it takes to hammer a coffin shut, but, in relation to the many upcoming super hero based movies in the works, just imagine a string of eight or nine potential super hero stinkers at the box-office over a two year period. We're not sure if the combined forces of Wolverine, Iron Man, Spidey, and Batman would be able to save the super hero day if that happens.
2. Hollywood:
Just like with every hot commodity in Hollywood, super heroes are the current "flavors of the day." It wasn't that long ago when a super hero flick couldn't make its money back no matter how big the marketing campaign. There was a time when a Spider-Man movie was only a dream and most hardcore fans threw their hands up in the air in resignation over the fact that it would never happen. When the floodgates opened after the first X-Men film, Hollywood execs quickly began to jump on the bandwagon when it was proven that super hero movies could turn a huge profit. All one needs to do is look back at the many super hero properties that were resurrected from development hell and given a green light since. Looking ahead to the future, fans can expect a lot more super hero based properties to find their way into theaters. From the studio side of the fence, you can't really fault a business for wanting to cash in on the action. However, as much as studio insiders can blame fans for poor ticket sales or overblown internet hype, Tinseltown has to shoulder much of the blame when the super hero bubble eventually bursts. In the end, like the assembly line of remakes and Asian horror in recent years, Hollywood will eventually cannibalize the super hero sub-genre until there's nothing left. It's just the nature of the beast.
1. The Buck Stops Here:
It doesn't take a genius to figure out that the day our favorite super heroes fail to turn a profit at the box-office is the day the sun will set on the current trend that we're enjoying at this moment in time. Given the resurgence and popularity of the comic book and graphic novel industries, super hero movies will never go away entirely. Given the financial success of Iron Man, the super hero trend is alive and well on the big screen for another few years. Still, when you think of truly successful super hero movies as compared to the many attempts in recent years, only four franchises have risen to the top in our modern era - Batman, X-Men, Spider-Man, and now Iron Man. That's certainly not a lot given the amount of super hero properties that have been pushed into some phase of development. Since each studio (big or small) is looking for their own mega-franchise, it's doubtful that a lot of others will turn out to be big money makers on the same scale. Think about it... Warner Brothers has Batman (and Superman), 20th Century Fox has the X-Men universe (not to mention Fantastic Four), Sony Pictures has Spider-Man, and Paramount now has Iron Man. If all goes well with The Incredible Hulk this summer, Universal Pictures will have a revived Hulk franchise. In the end, to a large degree, all of those projects have proven to be safe money makers for their respective studios. Why take a chance on an unproven entity when you can always rely on your safe bet? The fact is, studios won't need to take the gamble. Still, it's not going to stop more from coming down the pike. Like we mentioned earlier in this list, it might be a string of potential super hero stinkers that fail to produce at the box-office that brings the big boys to their knees. Thankfully, we're not there yet.
Last year, Hollywood executives were whining about how the fact that they make bad moviesHalo 3 (a massively successful video game) was putting a big dent in their movie sales. In October 2007, box office receipts were down 27%. Company mouthpieces had to come up with a reason why, so they fired up their BS machine that allows them to blame everything from online piracy to Scientology for poor movie sales and came up with this: (Excerpt from CVG)
Film executives are blaming Halo 3 for lower than expected October Box Office numbers, which on the weekend of the 5th were down a whopping 27 percent from the same time last year.
Many film executives, reports Advertising Age, are convinced that punters stayed indoors to play Master Chief’s latest, which let’s not forget broke all box office records by making $170 million on its first day. It’s now gone on to sell well over $300 million.
Ben Stiller’s new offering, The Heartbreak Kid (which cost $60 million to make) was expected to clear $20 million in its opening weekend, instead it made only $14 million. Execs blame the Chief.
It sounds like a good excuse, but RUH-ROH! A little movie called Iron Man debuted this weekend and brought in ~$104 million, which sets it at the second-highest ever opening weekend gross for a non-sequel movie. That’s a pretty good take; in fact, it’s an opening weekend that most studio execs would give their eye teeth for.
In conclusion: big, bad GTA IV just came out and should have kept Iron Man’s bread-and-butter audience indoors, blood-shot eyes illuminated by a flickering screen filled with the most comprehensive, open-ended virtual world ever created. So, why didn’t Iron Man flop and make $1 over the weekend? Um, maybe because it’s a good movie, and if you make good movies you don’t have to come up with silly, back-pedaling excuses for your share holders.
For prickly provocation, it's hard to outdo the upstart Korean directors that have been shocking, scandalizing, and grossing-out art house audiences and festivalgoers for much of the '00s. Kim Ki-Duk got the buzz started with movies like The Isle and Bad Guy, which detailed the extremes of sexual obsession via scenes of women swallowing fishhooks or getting forced into prostitution. Around the same time, Park Chan-Wook—who'd previously helmed the slick, crowd-pleasing action-mystery Joint Security Area—made the taboo-shattering Sympathy For Mr. Vengeance, which squeezes black comedy from the accidental death of a child and features a hero who gets back at black-market organ-dealers by eating their kidneys. Since their respective breakthroughs, Kim has made the far gentler Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter…And Spring and 3-Iron, while Park has beefed up his "vengeance" series with the more accessible Oldboy and Sympathy For Lady Vengeance. Although given that Oldboy has been cited as inspiration for Virginia Tech shooter Cho Seung-Hui, these Koreans' controversial days may not be gone for good.
3. Uwe Boll
An inclination for combativeness is a given among notorious cinematic provocateurs, but only Uwe Boll, the thin-skinned German behind many of the worst video game adaptations of all time, has the iron cojones to literally challenge his detractors to fisticuffs in a publicity stunt worthy of P.T Barnum. After being hailed and derided as the new Ed Wood by a generation of anonymous Internet smartasses, Uwe Boll climbed into the ring and opened a can of whoop-ass on a number of his most voracious detractors in matches that will be included on the DVD of Postal, a brazenly offensive satire that explores the funny side of 9/11 and Osama Bin Laden. Afterwards, one of Boll's bruised and battered critics opined "I think he's a jerk. This might be PR, but I don't want to keep getting punched in the head." Moviegoers everywhere could relate, though continually being pummeled with laughably awful, disturbingly prolific filmmaking is a lot easier on the melon than getting punched repeatedly by a towering, enraged shlockmeister.
4. Catherine Breillat
Controversy has dogged French director Catherine Breillat since her first film, 1976's semi-autobiographical A Very Young Girl, was shelved for 25 years for its graphic depiction of a sexually precocious 15-year-old. In retrospect, it served as an excellent introduction of the typical Breillat heroine: a sexual adventurer who blurs the line between curiosity and masochism. Breillat's international breakthrough, 1999's Romance, featured the considerable assets of porn star Rocco Siffredi in real sex scenes that challenged critics and audiences to distinguish art from pornography. (Breillat would employ Siffredi's services again in 2004's Anatomy Of Hell, which included among many delights "menstrual tea" and the creative use of gardening tools in the bedroom.) Her most notorious and widely seen effort, 2001's Fat Girl, has as its centerpiece the excruciating deflowering of a virginal teen and ends with an act of violence intended to shock viewers to the core. Breillat has been yanking pin from post-feminist grenades for three decades now, and she seems to enjoy watching people scatter.
5. Vincent Gallo Vincent Gallo has directed just two features, but he's got a lifetime of braggadocio and ridiculousness to balance them on. If Buffalo 66 and The Brown Bunny weren't so damn good, he'd be just another blowhard NYC dabbler—he also paints and rocks—but it's tough to deny the power and artistry of each. (Yes, even the controversial Brown Bunny, with its graphic fellatio, is worth exploring closely.) Sure, his personal life can be pretty repugnant: His website offers his sperm for sale, but only to whites, and he also offers himself as an escort. (There's some latent anti-Semitism in there, too, just for good measure.) But it's all part of being a provocateur—until somebody comes up with the sperm money.
6. Jean-Luc Godard
The generous assortment of movies Jean-Luc Godard signed his name to in the '60s represent the greatest extended stretch of high-profile films made by an internationally famous director who was essentially just dicking around. From 1960's Breathless to 1967's Weekend, Godard enticed serious cineastes to watch as he gleefully—and occasionally maliciously—played with the conventions of filmmaking, trying to see if un-matched editing, off-beat camera angles, cut-up scores, purposefully pointless dialogue, and extended breaks for political essays could still be entertaining (or even enlightening). Godard has continued to experiment and tease over the past four decades, though of late he's more likely to garner press for his America-and-Hollywood-bashing interviews than for his movies, which barely get seen.
7. Michael Haneke
Late last year, while filming the English-language remake of his own Funny Games, Austrian director Michael Haneke told the New York Times: "I've been accused of 'raping' the audience in my films, and I admit to that freely—all movies assault the viewer in one way or another. What's different about my films is this: I'm trying to rape the viewer into independence." If you don't feel like being raped into independence, then his deeply discomforting features aren't for you. But films like The Seventh Continent (about the long, slow descent of a seemingly normal family) and Benny's Video (about a shocking act of violence and its ripples) are so starkly brilliant that they're difficult to dismiss—even if you're of the opinion that Haneke is a heavy-handed schoolmarm.
8. Werner Herzog
For 40 years, Werner Herzog has been making fiction films and documentaries, but he doesn't like to draw any sharp distinctions between the two; both fall under the aegis of "ecstatic truth," which is his way of saying that the truth in this films is filtered through his sensibility first. And that sensibility, from early provocations like Even Dwarfs Started Small and The Mystery Of Kaspar Hauser to recent work like Grizzly Man and Rescue Dawn, has always been marked by a love for mad, quixotic outsiders and a deep skepticism of man's ability to overcome forces from within and without. His legendarily arduous productions have put cast and crew through incredible ordeals to achieve verisimilitude: Aguirre, The Wrath Of God was shot entirely in the Peruvian rainforest to better reflect a conquistador's journey; Herzog had his actors hypnotized for Heart Of Glass, about an isolated 18th-century Bavarian village that sinks into collective madness; and Christian Bale lustily devoured maggots as a POW in Rescue Dawn. But Herzog's most contentious shoot was 1982's Fitzcarraldo, in which he employed indigenous Peruvians for virtually no money to drag a 320-ton steamboat up a steep incline using a primitive pulley system. And that's just for starters: His controversial misadventures are chronicled in the excellent documentary Burden Of Dreams.
9. Harmony Korine
There's a certain level of grotesquerie involved in the three films written and directed by Harmony Korine. (He also wrote Kids, directed by Larry Clark.) But there's also a beautiful cinematic eye and a weird sense of empathy to Gummo, Julien Donkey-Boy, and the new Mister Lonely. It may be tough to get past certain scenes—cat-drowning, a meal in a dirty bath—but there's something at the heart of each film that makes it more than just provocation. On that front, though, Korine is also capable of simply pushing buttons: He started a film a decade ago that involved him instigating fist fights with strangers and surreptitiously filming them beating the shit out of him. Fight Harm was never released.
10. Takashi Miike
From 1995 to 2003, Japanese gadfly Takashi Miike directed anywhere from four to seven movies a year, many of them direct-to-video releases, and any given one of them likely to disgust at least someone in the audience. In films like Audition, Dead Or Alive, Ichi The Killer, Visitor Q and, Gozu, Miike has shown a preoccupation with the bestial side of human nature, as expressed in rough sex, ritualized violence, and gallons of bodily fluids. Miike's output and his outrageousness have slowed some in recent years, though as recently as 2006, his entry into Showtime's Masters Of Horror series—an episode entitled "Imprint," focusing on abortion, prostitution, and torture—was tabled by the network for being too extreme.
11. Michael Moore
Long before 24-hour cable news turned journalism into contrarian loudmouth jerks screaming at each other, Michael Moore pioneered the art of "I'm right, you're evil" entertainment with his film Roger And Me. By the time of his massively successful Fahrenheit 9/11, Moore was making films with the expressed purpose of influencing the presidential election. Problem is, as good as Moore is at rallying the left-wing base, he's equally good at galvanizing right-wingers against everything he stands for. So while Moore's socialized medicine movie Sicko was admirable, the message might have been more persuasive for those outside the choir if it came from a guy who hadn't made his name by smugly mocking those outside the choir.
12. Gaspar Noé
Gaspar Noé's entire output at this point consists of two features, a handful of shorts, and contributions to the anthology films Destricted and 8, but even with such a small body of work, he's earned a reputation for his staggering cruelty, both to his characters and to his audiences. His first feature, I Stand Alone, centers on a blunt, miserable butcher who translates his miserable childhood into a miserable life for him and for those around him. Noé lets him work out his philosophy of hatred and contemptuous self-sufficiency in slow, excruciating detail, as though he was some grotesque flower gradually blooming into poisonous maturity. And Noé's follow-up, the justly infamous Irréversible, tells the story of a grotesque rape and an even more grotesque revenge with a backward chronology, a nauseatingly whirling camera, and a level of grunge and grit guaranteed to unsettle. He's said the film's barrage of grinding static, disorienting camera work, and insistent, pounding repetition of horrors were all intended to make viewers feel like they were losing their minds. His tactics are unnervingly effective.
13. Todd Solondz
A quintessential Nerd Wit' Attitude, Todd Solondz has earned a cult following by rubbing movie-goers' faces in misery, misanthropy, sexual perversion, and the grotesque. Though an uncompromising wallow in the depths of adolescent agony by every other standard, Solondz's 1995 breakthrough film Welcome To The Dollhouse now looks positively meek compared to the films that followed it. 1998's Happiness infamously offered a sympathetic exploration of pedophilia through the story of a loving father and husband (Dylan Baker, in a career-making role) who also happens to molest little boys. The film was dropped by its distributors but not even oceans of controversy and press could transform it into a hit. Solondz followed with the racially and sexually explosive Storytelling and Palindromes, a pitch-black, largely self-financed art film with a pregnant, 13-year-old protagonist played by eight different thespians, including Jennifer Jason Leigh and actor Will Denton. In case a plot involving abortion, teen pregnancy, killing abortion doctors, and pedophilia weren't provocative enough, Solondz begins the film by killing off his most popular character, the geeky protagonist of Welcome To The Dollhouse.
14. Oliver Stone
You want provocative? How about a movie accusing the goddamn government of perpetrating a conspiracy to kill JFK? Or an über-violent, balls-out treatise on the dangers of über-violent entertainment? Or an old-fashioned motherfucking sand-and-sandals epic depicting Alexander The Great's steamy acts of man-love passion? You want provocative? Oliver Stone has it. True, the only thing shocking about Stone's big 9/11 movie World Trade Center was how sappy it was. But for the most part, the flamboyant Vietnam vet—please ask him about Vietnam!—has made a career out of rhetorical outrageousness unencumbered by subtlety or stylistic restraint.
15. James Toback
Since writing the screenplay for 1974's The Gambler, writer-director-provocateur James Toback has subjected an increasingly small circle of moviegoers to his pet obsessions with sex, gambling, violence, retro-pop, philosophers and great writers you stopped caring about after college, organized crime, and classical music. With a complete indifference to anything outside the realm of his own ego, Toback has essentially made the same film over and over again, a combustible cocktail of high art, pop trash, gratuitous nudity, and full-frontal pretension, often graced with at least a cameo appearance by the publicity-shy shrinking violet of an auteur himself, as well as his good buddy/muse Mike Tyson. Toback has thumbed his nose at propriety and good taste for decades, but his pinnacle in provocation is undoubtedly Black And White, a wholly improvised, wildly self-indulgent free-form essay on sex and race featuring a notorious scene where Robert Downey Jr. hits on Mike Tyson while Downey's turned-on wife (a cornrows-sporting Brooke Shields) tapes it all for posterity. When Black And White was slapped with an NC-17, Toback stuck some especially spicy sex scenes on the Internet. Now that's provocatastic!
16. Lars von Trier
Danish enfant terrible Lars von Trier is just as cruel to his characters as he is to his audiences: As a feature filmmaker, he's best known for Breaking The Waves, Dogville, Dancer In The Dark, and Manderlay, four features in which women are systematically abused and broken as they desperately try to maintain a kind, giving attitude toward the people exploiting them. His central philosophy in these films, repeated over and over, seems to be that good intentions just spur evil people on to worse acts of evil, and that softness is synonymous with weakness. But even outside these notoriously emotionally wrenching films, von Trier has made a career out of provocation. His obstreperous, gnomish attitude toward filmmaking can perhaps best be seen in The Five Obstructions, where he smugly challenges one of his inspirations, Jørgen Leth, to remake his classic short "The Perfect Human" five times, under increasingly twisted, ridiculous constrictions. And of course, as one of the cofounders of the Dogme 95 movement, he established a manifesto about the conditions under which films should be made, and judged other filmmakers' "purity" by how well they followed his restrictions. It's worth noting, however, that he himself walked away from those conditions shortly after laying them down; von Trier is masterful at manipulating emotions both in life and onscreen, but he seems far more interested in pushing people down roads he finds interesting than he is in traveling them himself.
17. John Waters
After John Waters' cult sensation Pink Flamingos was released in 1972, some wondered what the self-proclaimed Baltimore "trash artist" could film that would be more shocking than lovemaking hippies squashing chickens between their bodies and transvestites eating dog shit. But what those folks missed is that with Waters, it's never just the acts themselves that are off-putting. It's his tinny style and down-is-up approach to beauty and class. In movies as diverse as the serial killer homage Female Trouble and the teen-friendly musical Hairspray, Waters lionizes the outré and makes anyone who doesn't see the world as he does feel like a hopeless square.
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