Quote:
Originally Posted by Michael Brooke  A great many British critics - possibly even the majority - flat-out loathed The Devils when it was originally released.
Ken Russell had been something of a critical darling up to early 1970, but the one-two punch of Dance of the Seven Veils (on telly) and The Music Lovers (in the cinema) turned a lot of people off, and The Devils was really extreme for the time - at least as far as a biggish-budget major-studio-funded film was concerned. So it became a political football even before it was released, and a lot of the coverage at the time was more about that than it was about the film's actual content. |
Nothing seems to change then. I can understand the rape of christ scene being unacceptable at the time though. Its a pity the powers that be still see it that way.