"What was argued about in coffee houses 40 years ago boiled over into heated outrage on social media this past weekend..."  And what, exactly, was argued 40 years ago?  The brutality of some sexuality? The fact that the brutality was depicted on film?  That the filmed brutality may not have been faked? 

We don't know.  This article doesn't tell us.  I haven't check out social media, so I don't know what the source of people's outrage is today, and, in any case, because we don't know what they argued about 40 years ago, we don't even know if it's the same reason. 

"Actress Jenna Fischer tweeted that all copies of the film “should be destroyed immediately." Indicating we can talk about it, but we can't see it. Well, there's one knee-jerk reaction.  Hey, how about BOOKS that include brutal rape scenes, consensual or otherwise?  Or is it OK to read the depiction? Cue the bonfires.

It'd be easy to take the opposite position: we SHOULD see  the rape--to elicit disgust and loathing.