What was the first-ever movie to show a condom?
Since the dawn of cinema at the start of the 20th century, movies have had a difficult relationship with the censors.
Sex, nudity, strong violence and more were all taboo subjects for mainstream cinema, with the industry reaching 1960 before it would even show a toilet on-screen, with this strange feat being achieved by the classic Alfred Hitchcock horror flick, Psycho.
Throughout the years, however, sex and nudity have proven consistently controversial, reserved only for audacious art films and risque erotic cinema, regularly appearing in the films of Lars von Trier and Gaspar Noé, among others. What’s strange, however, is that, despite sex being an open conversation in contemporary cinema, the use of condoms on-screen is a rare sight to see indeed.
It’s strange, isn’t it, the things that still manage to rattle people’s cages. Cinema’s never been shy when it comes to guns, gore or shouting, but show a character rolling on a condom – even for a few seconds – and it’s like someone’s pulled the fire alarm at the local church. For decades, filmmakers could simulate just about anything on-screen… so long as they didn’t show anyone being sensible in the sack.
Sex on screen? Fine, as long as it’s sexy. As long as it’s glossy and unrealistic, and nobody ever mentions the very normal reality. The idea of portraying anything remotely practical or grounded – like actual contraception – was almost considered offensive. And yet, when it finally happened, it wasn’t in a French art film or some underground porno. It was a big studio picture with a massive cast. Cue the moral panic.
So, what was the first movie to show a condom?
Such explains why there was such an uproar when one was seen on-screen for the very first time back in 1971 with the release of Carnal Knowledge.
Directed by Mike Nichols, who was better known for helming The Graduate with Dustin Hoffman, the film follows the sexual development of two friends throughout their lives, with the Oscar-nominated movie featuring the likes of Jack Nicholson, Art Garfunkel, Carol Kane and Ann-Margret.
The movie was controversial, to say the least, with the film arriving in American culture at a time when conversations about sexual matters were still considered rather taboo. This controversy was illustrated when a theatre in Albany, Georgia, screened Carnal Knowledge in January 1972, causing the location to receive a search warrant from the police, who seized the movie under obscenity laws.
Later, the theatre manager was convicted of “distributing obscene material”, even after the Directors Guild of America and the Motion Picture Association of America appealed the ruling.
The moment in the movie where the contraceptive is used comes when Garfunkel’s Sandy takes out a condom while in bed with Candice Bergen’s Susan, with this small scene causing a stir among conservative audiences.
The film itself failed to make too much of a commercial and critical splash, fading into the diverse range of Hollywood cinema that emerged in the 1970s. The same can certainly also be said for Jack Nicholson, with Carnal Knowledge being forgotten in his filmography, particularly as it was released one year after his Oscar-nominated role in Five Easy Pieces and three years before Roman Polanski’s Chinatown.
Take a look at the trailer from Carnal Knowledge below, where a condom was seen on-screen for the very first time in cinema history.
