Few people can forget the controversy sparked in 1992 by the release of Disney's animated version of Aladdin. There were the heated denunciations by religious groups, theatres refusing to show the movie, outcries that the movie proved the moral decay of America and Hollywood. Then there was all of that Oscar controversy.

Or not.

Aladdin was, in fact, denounced only by the Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee for a rather insensitive lyric that Disney removed the falling year when the movie came out on video. That was pretty much it for Aladdin's being “controversial”. Yet that was enough to land the movie on Entertainment Weekly's just released list of "The 25 Most Controversial Movies of All Time."

What wasn't on the list? Not only does Brokeback Mountain not make the list, it doesn't even merit a mention in the accompanying article or any of the three sidebars. In fact, the only time gays and lesbians are mentioned at all is when the writer, Jeff Jensen, devotes one sentence to the reaction of GLBT activists to Basic Instinct (number 19 on the list). Indeed, Jensen gives more time to the BI's “eye-popping” sex and Sharon Stone's “notorious leg-crossing” which Jensen had to see twice.

I guess Jack and Ennis just couldn't compete with that--nor could the gay-themed The Children's Hour, Midnight Cowboy, Dog Day Afternoon, Sunday Bloody Sunday, or Philadelphia.

Other films deemed more controversial than anything gay-related included Baby Doll (number 10), The Warriors (number 14), United 93 (number 16), and Cannibal Holocaust (number 20).

That's right: Cannibal Holocaust.

Lists such as this are always subjective, not to mention controversial in themselves. Nonetheless, the omission of anything GLBT does seem extraordinary.

1961's The Children's Hour raised eyebrows with its tale of an alleged lesbian relationship between two teachers at an all girls school. The film ends when one of the teachers (Shirley Maclaine) hangs herself.

Midnight Cowboy shocked viewers in 1969 with its portrayal of a gay hustler working the streets of New York City. The X-rated movie still stands as the only movie with that rating to win an Academy Award, that being controversial itself.

Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), John Schlesinger's follow-up to Midnight Cowboy, was considered absolutely scandalous for its same-sex kiss between Peter Finch and Murray Head. (Ian Bannen, originally cast to play Peter Finch's role, was so terrified of the fall-out from the same-sex kiss he withdrew from the film.)

Dog Day Afternoon (1975) stirred controversy a few years later, both for its true tale of a man robbing a bank so his same-sex lover can have a sex-change operation, as well as for its overall counter-culture message.