The Devils · reception & legacy
1971 · Ken Russell
How The Devils has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Savaged in 1971 as blasphemous filth — X-rated, banned outright in several countries, and hacked apart by censors — it's now widely regarded as Ken Russell's masterpiece and one of the great films about religious and political hysteria.
What's debated
Fans still argue over whether it's a blasphemous provocation or (as Russell himself insisted) a deeply moral, even devout film — and rage endlessly at Warner Bros for keeping the fully uncut version locked in the vault.
Its footprint
Its censorship saga is the stuff of legend: critic Mark Kermode spent years campaigning for the film and helped track down the excised footage, and the still-suppressed 'Rape of Christ' sequence remains cinema's most famous missing scene. Its stark white-walled city of Loudun is one of the most striking set designs ever put on film.
Where it stands
The definitive 'banned masterpiece' — a holy grail of cult cinema and a Letterboxd badge of honour, championed by everyone from Kermode to Guillermo del Toro.