Must-Read: The Best Nude Scenes In Cinema History

By: Rick Mosely

The great nude scene

The nude scene in big screen movies is in a strange place right now. Because of the proliferation of the Internet, and the fact that whoever is naked in a movie is going to have that scene and freeze-framed images plastered in front of every 15-year-old’s computer within minutes of the movie being released on Friday (and sometimes, even before that), the whole “an actress is naked in a movie” doesn’t have the same cinema appeal it once did. When certain actresses in the 80s took it off for the camera, word spread like wildfire to every red-blooded male of age to buy a ticket to see that movie, or underage to sneak into it. And when Halle Berry pulled up topless kind of out of nowhere for the movie Operation: Swordfish, that was basically the entire selling point about the movie.

This little bit of nostalgia is what I felt when reading Maxim’s quick-hitting list regarding the best 9 nude scenes in cinema history. Are there problems with the list? Of course there are. (For instance, yes Kathy Bates in About Schmidt could be considered “earth-shattering” by definition, but that doesn’t mean you really need to mention it, ever, again, for as long as you live.) But they kind of nail the number one spot, in our opinion:

1. Shannon Elizabeth in American Pie

A question for the ladies: If you find yourself in a teenage boy’s bedroom and he happens to leave the room for a second, do you immediately take off all your clothes and admire yourself in his mirror? No? Exactly. That’s why Nadia changed the way we look at movie nude scenes. And that’s why you aren’t Shannon Elizabeth. Well, that and probably some other things, too.

So, then. The question remains. What’s your favorite nude scene?