70’s Cult Films, Midnight Movies, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show

This week, we discussed cult films of the 1970’s. This topic has been the most interesting topic that we have learned about in class in my opinion. I have always been a huge fan of cult classics. These films marked an important era in film history, the era of the midnight movie. Midnight movie culture began in the early 1970’s with “El Topo” playing in New York City at the Elgin Theater, eventually spreading across America. This type of screening, playing non mainstream films late at night, was aimed at building this community of movie goers, a cult film audience, encouraging social interaction as well as repeat viewing of films. Going back to “El Topo”, this is a film I have never seen before. It is a 1970’s Mexican Western film that was written and directed the star of the film, Alejandro Jodorowsky. This film, marking the beginning of an era, could be considered the most influential of its time, as huge crowds of people swarmed to see this film, and countless amounts of articles and reviews were written about it. In my own opinion, it is not one that I wish to see myself. This is a highly controversial film, showing scenes of rape, and abuse, and the harsh violence is not something that I find entertainment in. Some other films that are categorized as 70’s cult films are “Pink Flamingos”, a film that I had the pleasure of watching this week, “A Clockwork Orange”, and our screening of the week, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”

“The Rocky Horror Picture Show” has been one of my favorite movies since the first time I saw it when I went to a halloween party when I was a freshman in highschool. This was before I knew about audience participation involved in the showings of this film. I have gone to a showing one time, my freshman year here at Alfred, where my closest friend was on stage as “Dr. Frankenfurter”. This kind of community interactiveness is what makes this film so amazing and what makes it a prime example of a cult classic. This movie was taken from a screenplay, and once adapted into a film, starring Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, and many other talents, this film went straight back to the stage with live performances played out in front of the big screen. This was a huge move for the midnight movie goers, as the audience was a huge part of each screening, with props and costumes, and also with following along to the script, which in my opinion is the most enjoyable part of a screening of The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The film has themes that are shown in other midnight movies of that time, it explores sexuality and gender fluidity, something that was much less talked about in the 1970’s than it is today. I believe that this film as well as others of its time have had an impact on the way society views members of the lgbt community, by audiences going to see these films many times for the fun environment, which exposed them to the idea that these nontraditional portrayals of sexualities and gender were not as unusual as previously thought.