20 Banned or Otherwise Unavailable Movies You Can Only Watch Online

Given Hollywood's relentless quest for more of your money, it's strange that there exist tons of movies that have never been converted from an older home video format, like VHS or LaserDisc, to DVD so that they can be sold to you again. Some of the films that have never made the leap are old black-and-white classics, and the thinking must go that time has forgotten them—the market no longer exists.

But there are other films that have been prevented from seeing home video availability for more complicated reasons. Despite tenacious Internet petitioning and genuine followings, these movies will likely never see a re-release (or initial release) for legal issues. Lawsuits have stopped them dead. Thanks to the Internet, many of the most beloved, or notorious, of these movies have been posted in their entirety to sites like YouTube. Here are 20 Banned or Otherwise Unavailable Movies You Can Only Watch Online.

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Director: Todd Haynes
Running time: 43 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Todd Haynes (Far From Heaven, I'm Not There) made this biopic while doing graduate work at Bard College, but he never obtained clearance to use the songs of The Carpenters. Richard Carpenter, Karen's brother, sued Haynes, and as a result this disturbing short isn't available anywhere but on YouTube and at the MoMA.

Why you should watch: Because it's a biopic acted out entirely with Barbie dolls. The uncanny thing is, after a while, you forget you're watching dolls and the nasty affair, which delves into the anorexia nervosa that eventually killed Karen Carpenter, becomes more upsetting than should be possible. As Carpenter's body deteriorates, so does the Barbie doll playing her. Haynes would burn and razor away the plastic to capture the wasting away. You won't be able to think about body image again without flashing to these strange, searing images.

Director: Andrzej Żuławski
Running time: 123 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Shot in Berlin during the days of the Wall, Andrzej Żuławski's horror picture generated controversy for its politics and gruesome content. It was the grisliness that saw it released in America in a heavily edited, 97-minute-long version. Prints of the uncut, two-hour version have screened in the States, but you'll need YouTube to watch the definitive version in your home.

Why you should watch: Because it's that all too rare horror movie with a guiding idea beyond simply scaring the viewer. Possession, starring Jurassic Park's Sam Neill and Isabelle Adjani, is really about the collapse of a romantic relationship. If you've been close to a divorce, this movie is going to be scary for reasons that have nothing to do with the gooey creature.

Director: Peter Spears
Running time: 9 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Sesame Street's Sesame Workshop didn't take kindly to this short's use of the classic Bert and Ernie characters, and served the filmmaker with a cease and desist order for copyright violation.

Why you should watch: Because it's the only way to see Bert and Ernie's lives unravel after Miss Piggy breaks up with Bert following some tabloid headlines alluding to a gay relationship between the two Muppets. And then things get violent. Prepare to have your Sesame Street memories warped forever.

Director: Robert Frank
Running time: 92 minutes
Where you can watch it: Daily Motion

Why it's unavailable: Unhappy with how their actions appeared in this documentary, the Rolling Stones got a court order that stipulated the film could only be screened with director Robert Frank present. So, unless you can get Frank in your living room with a print....

Why you should watch: Because it captures the best band in rock and roll at the height of their bebauchery, the 1972 tour for Exile on Main Street. Drugs, nudity, hubris—it's all there, captured by Frank's many cameras.

Director: Art Linson
Running time: 96 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Music rights, again.

Why you should watch: Because Cameron "Almost Famous" Crowe wrote the screenplay and Eddie Van Halen recorded the score. The film's a kind of companion piece to Fast Times at Ridgemont High, and follows a group of teens having a wild night. Randy Quaid plays a Vietnam vet, the role he was born to play.

Director: Michael Mann
Running time: 99 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Music rights. That killer Tangerine Dream score has kept this one from seeing the light of day, though there's been talk of a DVD release for years.

Why you should watch: Did you miss the part about Tangerine Dream? Visionary crime director and American artist Michael Mann followed up Thief with this bizarre horror feature about Nazis and the occult. It's not a masterpiece, but it's surely the best Gothic WWII horror feature to deal with Jewish mysticism ever made.

Director: Robert Nelson
Running time: 33 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: The sad fact of experimental cinema is that very little of it is available for home consumption. Unless you live near a theater that screens avant garde or you can take a college class on the subject, odds are you won't see the work of artists like the late Robert Nelson. (Big names like Stan Brakhage and Kenneth Anger have had their films released on DVD, but they're the exceptions to the rule.) The lower demand for these kinds of movies coupled with oftentimes copywright-infringing content means most of it won't be availble for home viewing.

Why you should watch: Because Robert Nelson is the funniest guy in experimental movies. This particular short takes the form of a game show parody where contestants try to guess the name of boats. This is Tim and Eric before those two were even born.

Director: Robert Nelson
Running time: 11 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: The market for racially charged humor that pokes fun at the "father of American music," Stephen Foster, is pretty small.

Why you should watch: Because it's a polarizing criticism of minstrelsy that predates Spike Lee's Bamboozled by decades. Like so much of Nelson's work, Oh Dem Watermelons—also the title of the Stephen Foster song that loops throughout the work—is uncomfortable, funny, and unforgettbale.

Director: John Waters
Running time: 95 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Made when he was justing coming up, cult director John Waters never secured the rights to the music that tells the story in his first feature-length movie.

Why you should watch: Because it lets you in on the evolution of one of the most singular directors alive. Waters, famous for the shit-eating, chicken-fucking masterpiece of tastelessness, Pink Flamingos, is an American hero, and this is his Started from the Bottom moment. There's no real story to speak of—just bizarre sex, foot play, and chicken beheading.

Director: John Waters
Running time: 82 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: As is the case with Mondo Trasho, Multiple Maniacs isn't available because of music clearance issues. Like experimental bretheren Kenneth Anger, Waters loves him some illegally acquired rock and roll.

Why you should watch: Because of Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions—yes, Multiple Maniacs follows a freak show, an obvious touchstone for Waters's warped interests, and though the results are uneven, the high points rank among his filthiest. See, for instance, the Puke Eater. This film also saw Waters stitch up his core group of actors. Watching them gel is a gross treat.

Director: Bruce Conner
Running time: 12 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: A god among men, Bruce Conner had no respect for copywrite laws, and made his movies by taking footage from pre-existing properties.

Why you should watch: A MOVIE, in addition to being a text of biblical importance for followers of experimental movies, is packed with ideas and in love with the possibilities of cinema. He sets up punchlines and idea collisions through purposeful editing to create a short film that's a parody of the average Hollywood movie. It's also a love letter. Because it's both, it's brilliant.

Director: Penelope Spheeris
Running time: 100 minutes
Where you can watch it: LiveLeak

Why it's unavailable: Music rights, for the hundredth time.

Why you should watch: Because it's a vital document of the punk music scene in L.A. from 1979 to 1980. The performances, from acts like Black Flag, X, Alice Bag Band, Circle Jerks, Catholic Discipline, and Fear, are just as raw and blistering today as they were then.

Director: Hal Needham
Running time: 91 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: No good reason I can find. This very '80s, thinly-plotted BMX showcase was savaged by critics but was one of the most rented VHS tapes for multiple years runnning. Clearly there's demand for this.

Why you should watch: Rad is the grandfather of the action sports Disney movies of the '90s and early 2000s. Cru Jones, our hero, is torn between taking the SATs and participating in a BMX race. Johnny Tsunami, Brink!—meet your stepdad. His name is Rad.

Director: Trent Harris
Running time: 83 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Well, it's awfully weird. Director Trent Harris's Beaver Trilogy has more in common with experimental cinema and videos you'd see projected on the clean white wall of a museum than something in your grocery store's Redbox dispenser, despite the presence of stars like Sean Penn and Crispin Glover. Technically, you can buy a copy from the director's personal website, but if that's your idea of availability, you and I may know each other from digging in other people's garbage for old VHS tapes. So, yeah.

Why you should watch: Because it's a hilarious and smart look at celebrity and storytelling. The first part of the trilogy is a straight documentary about "Groovin' Gary," a man who loves celebrity impressions and Olivia Newton-John. In the second installment, Sean Penn plays Groovin' Larry, a riff on the real Gary, and reenacts scenes from the first. Like a Russian nesting doll, the third film adds another level of artifice, with Crispin Glover playing Penn's role.

Director: Penelope Spheeris
Running time: 90 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Let's all say it together: music rights!

Why you should watch: Penelope Spheeris, director of The Decline of Western Civilization, couldn't leave those L.A. punks alone. A gonzo Western, Dudes follows two city dwellers (Jon Cryer and Daniel Roebuck) on a journey into the great expanses of America. When they run afoul of some rednecks, the guns come out. This is America, after all, and everyone is packing. The film's secret weapon isn't chrome-plated, though. No, this strange gem's got Flea, bassist for Red Hot Chili Peppers, and he's doing way more than he did in The Big Lebowski.

Director: Gaby Monet
Running time: 30 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: None of the old HBO America Undercover docs, of which this is one, have been made avaible on DVD. Like many of the items discussed here, you can find VHS copies on eBay and the like, but that doesn't really qualify as available.

Why you should watch: Because you've become some desensitized to disturbing movies you have to get your fix somewhere. This 30 minute doc consists of an interview with a young girl who suffers from reactive attachment disorder because she was abused at an early age. As a result, she behaves like a violent sociopath.

Director: Michele Soavi
Running time: 71 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: Honestly? No idea. Lack of wide-reaching interest, probably.

Why you should watch: Because it includes unseen footage from the Italian horror director's masterpiece Suspiria, a style-over-substance affair about the coven of witches running a dance academy in Italy. It's just as bonkers as it sounds, and this doc is explores the film's creation in full.

Director: Dennis Hopper
Running time: 108 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: It was such a flop, the studio tried to erase its memory from the face of the earth. (The brutal editing process and nasty reception caused Dennis Hopper to leave Hollywood for a decade.) Hopper eventually acquired the rights to his baby and had mentioned in interviews before his passing that he wanted to release it on DVD, but it never happened.

Why you should watch: Because it's an ambitious mess with a strong vision behind it, the likes of which are rare now. The idea of a studio giving a million dollars to some idiosyncratic talent and telling him, "Sure, go to Peru and do whatever you please" is damn near incomprehensible today. Hopper's movie is about a troubled stunt man who becomes convinced of the danger of cinema. Of course, that description won't prepare you for what you actually get watching the movie, but that's the fun of it.

Director: Todd Graham
Running time: 8 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: The original video mash-up, nothing about this Apocalypse Now x Winnie the Pooh short was done with permission.

Why you should watch: Before YouTube proliferated these kind of exercises in strange juxtapositions there was Apocalypse Pooh, a VCR-made tape that was passed around from excited movie nerd to excited movie nerd like the best porno mag ever. If you're familiar with Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam epic, you can imagine what scenes will be used, but there's something about the appearance of Tigger that you can never prepare yourself for. It's always hilarious.

Director: Francis Ford Coppola
Running time: 17 minutes
Where you can watch it: YouTube

Why it's unavailable: It was only screened inside the Walt Disney Complexes known as Epcot and Tomorrowland.

Why you should watch: Because in 1986, the Walt Disney Company made a short film with Michael Jackson to be shown in 4D at Epcot. (It was later used elsewhere.) Francis Ford Coppola directed. This is real. This is, frankly, #veryrare.