A record-breaking sensation at the box office, I Am Curious (Yellow) had to win a highly publicized legal battle before it could be shown to American audiences. It aroused interest and discussion because of its direct portrayal of the attitudes and problems—social, sexual, and political—of contemporary youth. Norman Mailer wrote at the time that it was “one of the most important pictures I have ever seen in my life. . . . I felt I had encountered a major work. . . . I think it is a profoundly moral movie.”