Oliver Reed & Alan Bates in Landmark Wrestling Scene in Ken Russell’s “Women in Love“ 1969

One of those scenes which is almost a miracle it got made and then managed to make it through the censors. Perhaps because it was a D. H. Lawrence novel, it allowed the director an intellectual alibi. Ken Russell really was lucky to be making movies during the most liberated period of cinema. The wrestling scene in 1969 was like what the “Basic Instinct“ scene was in 1991. I still remember being a teenager and renting this on VHS. I thought since the title was “Women in Love“, that it would be about lesbians. I was stupefied when this scene appeared. Fortunately, it intrigued me enough to read most of Lawrence’s work afterword, something which I highly recommend for anyone with a love for literature.