This is the first part of an eight-part series about difficult movies. 

Part 2 will focus on Bernardo Bertolucci’s “Last Tango in Paris”. Part 3 will focus on Don Edmonds’s “Ilsa, She Wolf of the SS”. Part 4 will focus on Paul Verhoeven’s “Basic Instinct”. Part 5 will focus on Terry Jones’s “Monty Python’s Life of Brian”. Part 6 will focus on Martin Scorsese’s “Last Temptation of Christ”. Part 7 will focus on Spike Lee’s “Bamboozled”. Part 8 will focus on Dinesh D’Souza's “2000 Mules”.

***

Referenced media:

• “Bone Tomahawk” (S. Craig Zahler, 2015)
• “Brawl in Cell Block 99” (S. Craig Zahler, 2017)
• “The Passion of the Christ” (Mel Gibson, 2004)
• "Tim” (Michael Pate, 1979)
• “Pulp Fiction” (Quentin Tarantino, 1994)

Audio quotation:

• “Dragged Across Concrete” (S. Craig Zahler, 2019), including the songs “Street Corner Felines” (featuring Eddie Levert, Walter Williams, and The O’Jays), “Don’t Close the Drive In” (featuring Butch Tavares), and “Shotgun Safari” (featuring Eddie Levert, Walter Williams, and The O’Jays) written by Jeff Herriott and S. Craig Zahler