25. The General's Daughter (1999)
No film has ever tried as hard to have its rape and eat it too as the sleazy military thriller "The General's Daughter," in which John Travolta and Madeleine Stowe play a pair of warrant officers investigating the ugly murder of the pretty Captain Elisabeth Campbell (Leslie Stefanson) who turns out to have had some Major Issues, most of them daddy-related. That bad dad is, as the title suggests, the base commanding general, and it seems that he, for the sake of the sanctity of West Point and his own reputation, forced his daughter to cover up the fact that she was gang raped as a cadet. So sullied, the girl set out "conducting a field investigation in psychological warfare, and the enemy was Daddy," as one character puts it -- she banged every officer under her father's command, delving into handcuffs, harnesses and video tape. "The General's Daughter" tsk-tsks at the hypocrisy and closed ranks of the male-dominated military while luxuriating over every kink and curve of its troubled victim, who dies naked, bound and spread-eagled on the ground, and by god if she doesn't stay that way for what feels like a third of the film. It's the flashbacked sexual assault that wins the mix messaging prize, though -- taking place during a nighttime exercise, it's filmed in wartime flashes. The attacking trainees, indistinguishable in camo, leap around like monkeys, but the camera's more interested in lingering on Stefanson's bared limbs, toned abs and perky nipples. By the time it's over and the bloodied, traumatized girl is airlifted to the hospital, the ick factor's high enough that I wished I could escape the theater the same way. --Alison Willmore
24. Anatomy of Hell (2004)
I realize, of course, that titillation was hardly Catherine Breillat's point in making a film that is essentially one long, psyche-bruising sex-o-rama. But the French provocateur really went the extra mile with this one, casting porn star Rocco Siffredi as a gay man repulsed by the female body, and Amira Casar as a suicidal woman determined to get to the bottom (gah) of her own sexuality. Over a series of paid encounters, the woman displays herself to the man, offering herself up as both visual and physical specimen, and varying degree of hotness ensue. Soon enough the couple begin using her vagina as a sort of odds'n'ends drawer, and by the time she's brewing him a glass of tampon tea, only the gravest of perverts among us are still feeling tingly. In the ultimate scene, a garden rake is used to penetrate Casar's character, and Breillat takes the opportunity to tease out some excruciatingly banal symbolism, contorting her heroine into one of the most unfortunate Jesus Christ poses of all time. It's the only sex scene I can think of that's vastly improved with the director's DVD commentary playing over it. --Michelle Orange
23. Purple Rain (1984)
According to director Albert Magnoli's audio commentary on the "Purple Rain" DVD, the love scene between frills-fond pop superstar Prince and leading lady Apollonia was shot in G, PG and R-rated versions, the last of which was ultimately used for the film. More preferable, however, would have been to ditch the scene altogether, as it radiates all the heat of sticking one's groin in the freezer. Lasting just over one tortuous minute, this get-together is primarily notable for featuring Prince -- decked out in the same puffy shirt Jerry Seinfeld would later mock on his sitcom -- stroking Apollonia through her panties, grabbing her bustier-encased breasts, and, after erotically rubbing his face in her long hair, giving her open-mouthed kisses with the type of unnatural deliberateness usually reserved for Cinemax soft-core. If Prince seems mechanical carrying out such staged sensuality, Apollonia is downright wooden, "enjoying" her rock star beau's groping with an absolute minimum of expression save for the unintentionally amusing moment in which her tightly closed eyes suddenly open in a look of sleepy surprise. Mercifully, a fade to blue sky (and dreadful morning-after chit-chat) spares the world the further embarrassment of having to watch these two unsexy, overdressed robots actually bump and grind. --Nick Schager
22. Never Talk to Strangers (1995)
When Rebecca De Mornay slaps Antonio Banderas' face and he responds, "What else?," it might as well be code for "anything goes" in this tawdry psychosexual thriller that's far more psycho than it is sexual. For starters, the titular stranger, played by Banderas, has a freestanding cage in his apartment, which no one in the film ever questions, nor should they -- after all, it's the perfect setting for De Mornay's police psychiatrist to get it on with someone who the plot suggests could be a potential serial killer. Yet in a bold move for female empowerment, a fully clothed De Mornay is the one in control, taking a wet and naked Banderas, who just emerged from the shower, and forcing him up against the outside fence before biting his ass and dry humping him from behind. (Surely, as one of the film's executive producers, De Mornay thought Gloria Steinem would be proud.) The tables turn when Banderas flips De Mornay inside the cage and she realizes the only way she can reach him is with her tongue through the chain links. Although De Mornay's unreasonably long appendage seems capable of just about anything, Banderas insists on entering the cage himself -- which in most films would only be a euphemism. --Stephen Saito [Watch this clip at Nerve.]
21. Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song (1971)
Little Mario Van Peebles was 13 years old when his father, Melvin Van Peebles, enlisted him to play the younger version of Sweetback (whom Melvin played as an adult) in his blaxploitation salvo. It might have been a cute casting opportunity, had the scene Mario needed to pull off at the beginning of the film not involved him simulating (please God, simulating) totally, traumatically explicit sex with a prostitute. Mario looks even younger than 13, so when he's pulled into a bedroom by a hooker (he's the "towel boy" at a local whorehouse) who looks like she's seen the far side of 30, the sight of the kid's bare, chicken wing shoulder blades and tiny behind is beyond disturbing. The old whore coaxes him into the act, and apparently he gets the hang of it pretty quickly, as she christens him with his nickname: "You've...gotta...sweet...back!" It's one of the most disturbing things I've seen on film; the combination of the grungy production, the nasty sex, the graphic angle, the wee boy-child and the fact that his father was behind the camera calling the shots makes me glad to know that Van Peebles Sr. contracted gonorrhea from his own, unsimulated sex scene. --M.O.
[Photos: "The General's Daughter," Paramount Pictures, 1999; "Anatomy of Hell," Tartan USA, 2004; "Purple Rain," Warner Bros., 1984; "Never Talk to Strangers," TriStar Pictures, 1995; "Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song," Cinemation Industries, 1971]
