Banned Films / Rare Films / Films You aren't Supposed to See

In 1978, less than one year after STAR WARS destroyed box office records, CBS aired the 97-minute special, which found Han Solo trying to get Chewbacca back to his home planet of Kashyk in time for Life Day, the Wookiee equivalent of Christmas. It's also known for introducing bounty hunter Boba Fett and—why not?—Jefferson Starship as Holographic Band. The film is very campy and cheesy to say the least and at points so bad that it is almost surreal.----George Lucas did not direct it and hates the film. He said in an interview ""If I had the time and a sledgehammer, I would track down every copy of that program and smash it.". Carrie Fisher said that she made George Lucas give her a copy of the special in exchange for recording DVD commentary for the Star Wars films. She added that she shows it at parties, "mainly at the end of the night when I want people to leave." Despite all that the film is part of the official Star Wars canon. It is extremely unlikely that the film will ever be released for viewing in the US or anywhere else. For years bootlegs copies were passed around from recordings made of the original TV broadcast and it was a big claim to fame if you had managed to see it. Then it leaked to the internet. Thanks again internet! It is essential viewing for any Star Wars fan.

A 1987 American short biographical film that follows scenes from the final seven years of Karen Carpenter's life. An unusual facet of the film was that, instead of actors, almost all parts were played by modified Barbie dolls. The film suggested that members of the carpenter family were mentally unstable, abusive, and homosexual. It later emerged that the film never obtained music licensing from either the Carpenters' label for the numerous songs used in the film. Richard Carpenter sued the film for failing to obtain the clearances and won. As a result of the lawsuit, all copies of the film were to have been recalled and destroyed. The Museum of Modern Art retains a copy of this film but has agreed with the Carpenter estate not to exhibit it. The film has since become a cult classic with bootleg copies passed around for decades until it was leaked to the internet. Thanks again internet!

Before Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire became household names they starred in an improvisational black-and-white drama titled ‘Don’s Plum.’ The 2001 movie was released overseas but never screened in the U.S. Some critics believe the movie was suppressed by DiCaprio and Maguire because it’s terrible and potentially embarrassing. Many of the actors in the film were friends in real life and while they are of course "just acting" the improvisational nature of the gives a bad impression of of the actors themselves. It is of course available for viewing on the Internet.

Titicut Follies is a 1967 American documentary film directed by Frederick Wiseman about the patient-inmates of Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane. It portrays the existence of occupants of Bridgewater, some of them catatonic, holed up in unlit cells, and only periodically washed. It also depicts inmates/patients required to strip naked publicly, force feeding, and indifference and bullying on the part of many of the institution's staff. Just before the film was due to be shown at the 1967 New York Film Festival, the government of Massachusetts tried to get an injunction banning its release. The government claimed that the film violated the patients' privacy and dignity. Although Wiseman received permission from all the people portrayed or the hospital superintendent (their legal guardian), Massachusetts claimed that this permission could not take the place of valid release forms from the inmates. The dispute marked the first known instance in the history of the American film industry that a film was banned from general distribution for reasons other than obscenity, immorality or national security. Little changed until 1987, when the families of seven inmates who died at the hospital sued the hospital and state. Steven Schwartz represented one of the inmates. Schwartz’s client who was “restrained for 2 ½ months and given six psychiatric drugs at vastly unsafe levels - - choked to death because he could not swallow his food.” Schwartz claims that, “There is a direct connection between the decision not to show that film publicly and my client dying 20 years later, and a whole host of other people dying in between.” In 1991, Superior Court Judge Andrew Meyer allowed the film to be released to the general public, saying that as time had passed, privacy concerns had become less important than First Amendment concerns. It is available to be seen online.

Song of the South is a 1946 American live-action/animated musical film produced by Walt Disney, based on the Uncle Remus stories. It was Disney's first feature film using live actors. The film depicts the character Uncle Remus, a former slave, cheerfully relating to several children, including the film's protagonist, the folk tales of the adventures of anthropomorphic Br'er Rabbit and his friends. The film's song "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah" won the 1947 Academy Award for Best Song, is frequently used as part of Disney's montage themes, and has become widely used in popular culture. The film inspired the Disney theme park attraction Splash Mountain.----- The film's depiction of black former slaves, and of race relations in Reconstruction-Era Georgia, has been controversial since its original release, with a number of critics — at the time of its release and in later decades — describing it as racist. Consequently it has never been released in its entirety on home video in the United States and is not shown in theaters. Like man of these films it can bee seen online.

Alternative version of this film has also been known under the titles "The Witches" and "Witchcraft Through The Ages". Häxan is a study of how superstition and the misunderstanding of diseases and mental illness could lead to the hysteria of the witch-hunts. The film was banned in the United States in 1922, the first to ever be banned across the entire country, and heavily censored in other countries for what were considered at that time graphic depictions of torture, nudity, and sexual perversion. The film was seen in a heavily edited and shortened version in the US under its alternative titles in 1976 featuring William Burroughs as a narrator. As far as I can tell the original ban was never officially dropped and amazingly the original film was never legally seen in the US until 2001. This film is a little different than the others on the list because its country wide restriction on release was due to censorship from the government, the only film on this list like that, and one of the only films to ever be banned across the entire country. It can be seen online.

The Rolling Stones agreed to let a filmmaker document the band’s 1972 American tour. Behind the scenes, the tour embodied debauchery, lewdness and hedonism. The band sued to make sure the film would never see the light of day. The film came under a court order which forbade it from being shown unless the director, Robert Frank, was physically present and stipulated that it could only be shown four times a year under an archival/academic setting. For decades that was the only way anyone ever saw the film and its rumored scenes of depravity were the stuff of legend. Then it leaked onto the internet. Thanks again internet!

A film studio made this low budget version of the story solely to fulfill a legal stipulation so they would not lose the rights to the story. Of course the company was not able to ever openly admit that and hired a director who took it seriously despite the fact that they never intended to release it. It is a favorite underground film amongst the sci-fi and comic-con crowds. It can be seen online.

It concerns a desperate young native american man (Johny Depp) who takes a big cash offer to star in a snuff film — as the victim — in order to make money for his wife and children. Depp not only starred in the film — he co-wrote and directed it, and got his friend and Marlon Brando to appear. It is supposed to be a drama and not a comedy. It got horrible reviews and at Depp's request the studio never released it in the US after it was shown at some festivals. It can be seen online.

This movie was made by Lorne Michaels the creator of Saturday Night Live and stars Bill Murray and Dan Akroyd among others. It is a sci-fi comedy about an aspiring artist who is tasked by an underground network of bums to spread peace and love on the moon. It is hilarious. Supposedly the studio won't release it due to unspecified legal battles even though major stars have been campaigning for it for years. It is kind of a mystery. This is one of the few films that is very difficult to find online.

A 2011 British documentary film, directed by Keith Allen, about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed. It argues that the British and French authorities covered up uncomfortable facts about the crash, accuses Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Margaret of being 'gangsters in tiaras', and alleges that Prince Philip is a psychopath. It has not been released because it proved impossible to gain insurance against possible litigation. It can be seen online.

A camp comedy that has no dialogue, only atmospheric sounds, alternating bursts of laughter, and screams. It is a tribute to eccentric film director Edward D. Wood Jr., who Johny Depp recently made a biographical movie about. Bud Cort, star of the film Harold and Maude, makes an uncredited appearance This has not been released because the film company is broke and not able to pay for the permissions it needs for some of the footage and music in the film and it is so bad that I don't think anyone involved in its making is making much of an effort to fix that. It is somewhat of an underground cult film. It can be seen online.

Frat House is a documentary film exploring the darker side of fraternity life. The film was directed by Todd Phillips and Andrew Gurland, and largely filmed at Allentown, Pennsylvania's Muhlenberg College; the majority of the film was shot in the house of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity, whose charter was revoked in 2000 (although has since rechartered).The opening fraternity, that drove the filmmakers out of the college and the town, is the Beta Chi fraternity on the State University of New York College at Oneonta campus in Oneonta New York. Beta Chi is an unrecognized fraternity in Oneonta, and was kicked off the Oneonta campus after reports of severe hazing. It continues to operate as a rogue, unrecognized chapter in the town to this day. Beta Chi is no longer an unrecognized fraternity at SUNY Oneonta. They are currently a recognized fraternity. Other unrecognized fraternities from SUNY Oneonta shown in the film include Sigma Alpha Mu, also known as "Sammy", and Tau Kappa Epsilon, which was recognized in the spring of 2007 but shortly thereafter lost their recognition from the campus. Frat House won two Sundance Film Festival awards in 1998, but has been attacked for containing sequences that were staged for the cameras.

Frat House was originally intended to be shown on the HBO TV channel, but was never aired after receiving allegations that much of the final portion of the film was staged. The sequences concerned involved 'hazing', in which aspiring members of the fraternity (known as 'pledges') are seen undergoing humiliating initiation rites. The allegation is that the pledges who appear on screen were in fact already members of the fraternity: the fraternity chapter was paid $1500 to film the events, and several members were paid $50 each to pretend to be pledges and re-enact things that were rumored to happen during fraternity pledging rituals.
The filmmakers signed non-binding forms stating that the school and fraternity names would not be used, and that the events did not reflect the behavior of the fraternity. The deceit was noticed because the film was shot in the Spring, but Muhlenberg College did not rush during the Spring.

Phillips and Garland claim their film is completely accurate, but they have not refuted the claim that pledging did not happen during the Spring at Muhlenberg College.[citation needed] While not admitting to have done it himself, Phillips argues that staging re-enactments of true events is a technique used by well-known documentarians such as Nick Broomfield and Michael Moore.
It can be seen online.

Return of the Ewok is an unreleased 1982 mockumentary short, written, produced and directed by David Tomblin, starring Warwick Davis as himself in a fictionalized account of how he got the role of Wicket W. Warrick in Return of the Jedi.

The film was created during production of Return of the Jedi, on which Tomblin worked as first assistant director, and as second unit director, filming Ewok battle scenes. "The film is a curiosity, half-documentary about the making of Jedi, half-fairy tale about a little boy who becomes an Ewok. He thinks he's the only Ewok in the world, but eventually finds there are others," Tomblin said in a 1984 interview.
One potential use of the film mooted at the time of filming was to use it as a promotional film for Return of the Jedi. However, post-production on Return of the Ewok was never completed, and it has never been officially released.

The film is set in both the "real world" and the fictional locations of the Star Wars universe. Real world locations include Chelsea Football Club's stadium Stamford Bridge, Heathrow Airport and Elstree Studios and the actors' dressing rooms there. Fictional locations include Dagobah, the Death Star II, Jabba's Palace, and Endor. Throughout the film, these two realities are intermixed to produce an alternate reality.

Return of the Ewok focuses on the fictional account of Davis' decision to become an actor and act as Wicket in Return of the Jedi (notably, however, Davis refers to the film as Revenge of the Jedi, its temporary pre-release title). It also follows his transformation into Wicket. As Warwick and as Wicket, he visits and interacts with many of the cast and crew of the movie and then characters of the movie. As Warwick, he goes to Elstree Studios where he interacts with the cast, both in and out of character. At one point, he even interacts with Luke Skywalker as he jumps out of a movie screen. As Wicket, he goes to Dagobah to see Yoda, and the Death Star to see Darth Vader, and is chased by Boba Fett.

Filming took place during the production of Return of the Jedi, including at lunchtimes and on weekends. "At lunch times, I would rush around and try and shoot pieces for it," Tomblin said. George Lucas financed the film, though costs were limited to expenses such as film stock. "Everyone contributed their time and talent for absolutely nothing," Tomblin said.
It is very difficult to find online.

A documentary listed for viewing in TV Guide Magazine was to be aired on the Discovery Channel, on May 3 1994. This documentary exposed a network of religious leaders and Washington politicians who flew children to Washington D.C. for sex orgies but powerful people made sure it never aired by challenging it in the courts which found its claims were not credible. The first season of the HBO series "True Detective" was partly based on it. Can be seen online.

The Thorn is a comic, religious satire movie released on May 24, 1974, as The Divine Mr. J. It was first shown as The Greatest Story Overtold at the Detroit Institute of Art in 1971. It was released on video in the early 1980s as The Thorn. It was written, directed and produced by Peter Alexander. Its release was legally challenged on grounds that its title and advertising deceptively exploited the fame of its co-star, Bette Midler.

After its premiere showing in Detroit, the film remained underground until it was released by National Entertainment Corp. as The Divine Mr. J a few years later, to capitalize on Midler's growing fame as "The Divine Miss M." Its premiere showing under the new title at the Festival Theater in New York City on May 24, 1974, was picketed by Midler's agent, who also challenged the film's title and marketing in court. The film received very poor reviews and soon closed.

The Divine Mr. J was re-released by Rochelle Films, Inc. in 1980 after Bette Midler's starring role in The Rose. It was blocked from opening in the U.S., but it did show overseas in the early 1980s. It received poor reviews.

The film reappeared as The Thorn on a Magnum Entertainment VHS video release around 1984. It was again blocked by the courts and returned underground. It is difficult to find online.