BDSM-themed movies, and films with hot kink scenes in them provide us with two very important things: mainstream popular-culture acceptance, and something to jerk the gerk/smack the peach to when we're bored.
See also: The best BDSM movies: Five more options for your viewing pleasure
Depictions of BDSM in film can be serious, campy, ridiculous, artistic, graphic, funny or just plain hot, but all of them are memorable. We would have a gaping hole in our collective cultural consciousness without ever seeing Dennis Hopper huffing nitrous oxide and domming Isabella Rossellini, or James Spader ordering Maggie Gyllenhaal to bend over the desk. Filling that hole is our top ten list of the best BDSM movies -- you know you want them.
10. The Story of O (1975). Between the then-classy-now-campy sets, costumes -- or lack thereof -- and crazy 1970s pube bushes, this film is based on the Pauline Réage book of the same name, and one of the few movies that is actually better than the book. 9. Blue Velvet (1986). Nothing says "I love you" like Isabella Rossellini begging Kyle MacLachlan to hit her in lieu of foreplay, and Dennis Hopper's sociopathic, drug-huffing character is a classic for the ages. David Lynch deserved an Oscar for this film. Or at least some rough sex afterward. 8. 9 ½ Weeks (1986). The 1980s gave us some of the most intense BDSM movie scenes, including Kim Basinger getting iced, getting girly, and getting herself off. This film taught us that food isn't just for eating, and Mickey Rourke didn't look so much like a boiled ham back then. 7. Body of Evidence (1993). Madonna getting handcuffed and buggered is almost as awesome as Willem Dafoe just being in the movie, period. The plot was hole-ier than a pegboard, but we get to see Julianne Moore in the buff, which is never a bad thing. 6. The Pet (2006).\ Servitude can be beautiful -- with lots of naked -- and this movie appeals to the submissives at heart. Also, the archetypal rich male benefactor-dominant is well-portrayed. This movie is relatively low-budget and harder to locate, but well worth the effort. 5. Black Snake Moan (2007). This film embraces some hot trailer-park-themed action, and a semi-nude Christina Ricci chained to a radiator will leave an impression. This is a great flick for all the white knight/Captain Save-a-Hos out there who get off on saving fucked-up chicks from their own bullshit. 4. The Image (1976). It's been said that there were no pretty people in the 1970s, but even with the thigh carpet, Rebecca Brooke is smoking hot. And the graphic depictions of oral delight, bondage and whippings are out-shined only by the urination scene. Brooke makes pissing on a pretty flower, well...pretty. 3. Pulp Fiction (1994). This is the movie that makes almost every movie list, but Tarantino's cinematic brilliance is encapsulated with a ball-gagged Bruce Willis and a seriously butt-fucked Ving Rhames taking out their captors with a machete -- and apparently, later, a blowtorch. 2. Sin City (2005). There is really nothing about this movie that isn't hot. If you haven't seen this film, then you best go Netflix it. 1. Secretary (2002).One word can really sum up this BDSM breakout film: James-Fucking-Spader. But Maggie Gyllenhaal as the awkward, BDSM-blossoming submissive to Spader's dispassionate dominant brings BDSM into the spotlight -- and bends it over a desk. This movie easily captures the top spot on the list because it does a superb job of explaining not just the "how" of BDSM, but the "why," and the film's happy ending is just the beginning...
