Movies & TV Discussions

Tough to actually use words to define it, but like a lot of things you know it when you see it.  Would you consider Putney Swope a cult movie?

(I sure would consider Putney Swope a cult movie).

Yep can be tough to define.....

I would say that a cult movie is a film that is generally not well known but that has a small but avid following. At the upper end of this would be Little Shop of Horrors, Night of the Living Dead and Harold & Maude. Somewhere in the middle would be A Boy and His Dog, Brother From Another Planet and The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Cult films are often low budget and have sensational aspects. They are frequently made by independent filmmakers and often have little-known actors. However, some of the films I mentioned have quite well-known actors (Ruth Gordon, Joe Morton and Don Johnson, for example.)

I dunno... just throwing out some ideas.

--Bob

"The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is the first  film that comes to  my mind. They ended up with such a devoted (obsessive) group of fans. In New York City every year, for years, fans would dress like the characters in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" and attend a special midnight showing. Everyone would be singing along with the songs and acting out the movie as it played.

I would define a cult movie that becomes so popular with a special group of fans who are extremely devoted.

I think sci-fi movies can be cult films also. "Star Wars" and "Star Trek" movies have such devoted fans that they show up at sci-fi conventions throughout the country, dressed as the characters from the movies. They even have competitions for the best costumes.

A film that has a sometimes small but rabid following, that's what I think...like Rocky Horror as was mentioned.  The crowds at the shows themselves when they had them were so involved~!  I only went a couple of times. 

I do think alot of B movies could be catagorized as cult movies, depending. 

"Killer Klowns From Outer Space" comes to mind.  I have never heard of Putney Swope and I'm not a frequent movie watcher, so I'll really leave that up to those who see movies often.

ChrisJarmick said…

(I sure would consider Putney Swope a cult movie).

Yep can be tough to define.....

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Try finding a copy of it.  Awfully hard!

There certainly can be a cult of super fans around Star Wars and Star Treks (Trekkies), even though those films are far too popular to be considered cult films.  

Harold and Maude and Rocky Horror and some others have grown in popularity to become popular films, but their popularity grew due to small groups of devoted fans that built their popularity.   Some films are film-school darlings... like Putney Swope, and were recognized as unique films when they were made and appreciated several years later as important ground-breakers.   Some films are ahead of the curve and pave the way for other films that make a lot more money.

How do you define a cult movie...  older and newer examples if you feel like it.

Putney Swope is at Amazon on DVD for 17.99 right now. .   Was last released in August of 2006. Robert Downey (the father of Iron Man's Robert Downey Junior made it). 

It's a 1969, very low budget movie about a Madison Avenue Advertising Company.  The CEO dies and the board members wind up electing the agency's token black man as the new CEO.  They do this because they all have issues with each other and don't want certain people to get the job... so.. the guy nobody wanted or expected to get the job.. gets the job.. and he devises some of the hippest, most subversive and outrageous ad campaigns ever seen. The satire isn't subtle and it was ten times more outrageous in 1969 as Borat was a few years ago.  It looks pretty crude and dated today.. but is still very funny to some.   I haven't checked but you can probably rent it via Netflix.

His Greaser's Palace is the one that's hard to get.  You can view it via download but it was last released I believe in 2000 and they want collector's prices for owning a copy of the dvd.

A cult movie is something like "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" or "Cannibal Holocaust", meant to appeal to a fringe audience. Doesn't matter if it gets hugely popular later, like RHPS. It's the original target audience that determines its cult status.

I will never watch "Cannibal Holocaust "and from what I hear, neither should you!

So would HST's "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas" be catagorized as Cult?  or more mainstream (with Johnny Depp?)

What about HST's "Where the Buffalo Roam"?  def. fringe in my book, with Bill Murray.

Fear and Loathing had a big budget, was markets and distributed as a quality popular film.   It's not what I could consider a cult film... but... it's perfectly okay if in your mind it's a cult film.  Why would it be?  To you?

Where the Buffalo Roam got mostly terrible reviews when it was released, but some people really like it.   It is closer to what I think of as a cult film...but that's me.  I for instance think Murray and Peter Boyles' performance in the film are very entertaining and quite good.  The film stinks ( I think), but I've seen it a few times because Murray and Boyle are THAT good in it.  It's probably got several people who like the movie or think they do because of the performances...

Both movies are about Hunter Thompson.. who created (his term) gonzo journalism.  He wrote several best-selling books, but he was considered a fringe, anti-establishment character.   His writing style, and voice was utterly unique.

You would not think you could make a compelling fictional film from his work.  Terry Gilliam of Monty Python/ Brazil fame  tried and came close to being successful with FEar and Loathing.   Johnny Depp became closer friends with Thompson when he prepared to play him in the movie.  Remarkably... Bill Murray's performance in the older, lesser  Where the Buffalo Roam movie delivers a performance every-bit as effective and evocative of the real Hunter.

I don't have much explanation for the movies I like, I'm sorry.  I'm too simple I guess and just like what I like.  Fear & Loathing is my all time fave, and Where the Buffalo Roam, I just like anything with reference to the late, great Gonzo.  And I know it got crappy reviews...we're just fringe ppl who happen to like a complicated man.

We have all of HST's books I think, save for a few.  He's my husband's fave too, one of the things that brought the two of us together 8+ years ago, along with our mutual love of all things Neil Young.  We were so sad when Hunter died...we both cried for days...but we tried to understand.

Husband's list, which is much more extensive than mine:

Love and a 45, Omega Man, Repo Man, Videodrome, Vanishing Point, Winter Kills, Reanimator

The original Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a very low budget horror film.  It was made to appeal to horror movie fans.  It was an extreme film, trying out things that few had done in movies.  It actually isn't a particularly gory movie (in what it shows on screen) but it is very disturbing and with its style subject matter, sound effects and effective direction, it managed to give the impression of being of disgusting, over the top gory film.   It's not at all, but... a lot of people can not watch it.  It's very effective.   It isn't really what I would call a cult film, but it was first released in a different era when movies played regionally...and did not open all across the U.S. at exactly the same time.  So people talked about before they could even see it.   it was distributed by a Mafia owned company which created problems.    It's perfectly reasonable that many consider it a cult film, because it was a ground-breaking film like the original Night of the Living Dead was, and Last House on the Left was.  Extreme.

Canival Holocaust is an extreme gore movie.  It was part of a sub-genre of movies featuring white middle class characters clashing with cannibals/natives in remote parts of the forest.  They featured disgusting shots of animals being skinned (often real ones.. yech...) and strange practices shown.  They also featured extreme gore and torture...  Holocaust was very extreme parituclarly for it's day...  simulated cutting off of breasts and genitals and other gross outs including the skinning of a live turtle were shown on camera.   It was the torture horror film  SAW/Hostel  of its day (mid-70s).   I've writtenn about the film and the genre before.   Holocaust has a documentary approach to it, that many thought was the inspiration for The Blair Witch Project.   There were rumors that one of the cast members was actually killed during the filming of the movie... (it wasn't true).    

So is something like Hostel or SAW a cult film?  I think it's a genre film and has been too popular to be a cult film.. but both series and many others were born from cult movies...      

Agree, disagree?  Thoughts?

Hey  I absolutely love HST, respect and admire his writing, what he did.. even when he wasn't at his best I thought his writing was better than most.  I was very upset he took himself out.     

That list of movies has some excellent fringe and extreme movies on it that many consider cult movies.

It's okay to like what you like regardless of labels or what others think.  Better your not a mall rat I think.

Killer Klowns was mentioned earlier.  I think of that one as a cult movie and a very clever funny slightly creepy one at that.  (it's not disgustingly gross and gory--cult films do not have to be gross.. though a lot of them are).

You sound very well-versed in Cult Films, ChrisJarmick..that's for sure. 

Nope, not a mall rat although one of my first jobs was AT a mall lol...

Killer Klowns made me LOVE clowns, I always liked them before, but that movie, no clown could ever scare me now.  That movie practically scared my son to death though. 

I would consider SAW a cult movie, I love gore.  I'm not aware of Hostel?  I'll watch Cannibal Holocaust you guys.  Review to follow lol...

shoot, now I'm the only chick on this thread LOL....c'mon ladies?  Just do what I do, keep telling yourself  "It's only a movie".  LadyMagic?

Fairly unknlown films with a loyal following.

"Barbarella" starring Jane Fonda.

Barbarella's a good campy cult film.

Two excellent cult movies are getting a very rare cable t.v. showing.

Putney Swope  and Greaser's Palace  air on Friday night on TCM.   I just wrote about it and posted it.    They are directed by Robert Down Jr.'s dad.   Worth checking out.

ChrisJarmick said…

Barbarella's a good campy cult film. 

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I agree... fun cheapo film with LOTS of skin. Another early Jane Fonda film that I enjoy is Cat Ballou. It's a good, high-energy western comedy. Good music from Nat King Cole, too.

--Bob

Lee Marvin won an Oscar for playing 2 roles in Cat Ballou.  A fun film indeed.

ChrisJarmick said…

Barbarella's a good campy cult film.

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We saw it for the first time by accident at a drive-in movie. We were getting ready to leave when it started. I never regretted staying. Costuming was definitely interesting.

Combined light sexploitation with science fiction and pop culture.  Unique costumes, lots of bright colors, crazy ideas, really interesting lighting effects, kitschy music and ridiculous dialogue.  Fonda in the see through space outfit during the opening credits, John Phillip Law in his 'angel' outfit and the villian's unique torture device... they didn't make too many like this one and they sure don't make 'em like that anymore.....

RudiXeno said…

ChrisJarmick said…

(I sure would consider Putney Swope a cult movie).

Yep can be tough to define.....

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Try finding a copy of it.  Awfully hard!

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Saw it on Blockbuster.com  for $16.99 if that helps at all.

I think Eraserhead is definitely a cult film. Classic David Lynch all the way. One of the weirdest movies I've ever seen yet I couldn't take my eyes off it.  This is another one that's difficult to find a copy of.

??

Eraserhead has been available on commercial DVD since 2006 and you can get it at places like Amazon right now.  Good weird cult movie indeed it is.    It was only briefly released on VHS and was hard to get for many years prior to 2006 however.  

What Hollyweird has done since the 1970s is taken low budget and b movie material and create big budgeted blockbuster movies out of them.  You could clearly say something like  Silent Running or Boy and His Dog, or It Came From Beneath the Sea, are cult movies.    

We don't say that about tremendously popular movies like Star Wars or Jaws or horror franchise movies like Nightmare on Elm Street or Friday the 13th or Halloween  because they are very popular genre films.  All of these would have been Drive-In Movies, the kinds of things produced cheaply by Roger Corman and AIP.  Star Wars and Jaws didn't have huge budgets for when they were made but they had sustantial budgets compared to any of the low budget horror, creature feature or science fiction movies made before.    The first Friday the 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street movies had modest budgets, but these were substantially larger than the budgets used on the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre,  Night of the Living Dead, or even Halloween.  And the sequels they produced were made for increasingly more money, approaching medium budget movies.    These end of the world epics they spend 150 million and more on now...  Transformers?  2012?   Spending huge money on these would have been unthinkable 30 years ago.  These are the stuff of low budget and cult movies....  Not anymore.   

Some still call genre movies cult films out of habit or because they appeal to a clearly defined audience that isn't meant to include everyone.  You could of course say this strictly speaking about any movie rated R  but we don't. 

You can define a cult movie however you would like of course, but a more accurate Cult Movie is one that's not known by a lot of people--and I mean people who would be interested in it.  It could also be a movie that did not do very well at the box office, but has since developed a faithful following, still relatively small in number that embrace and love the movie.

Since a Cult Movie is thought by some to mean a cool movie... some movies are marketed as cult movies --even before they are Cult Movies at all.   There's a horrible movie called The Apple  which has been marketed as a cult movie for many years and it's just a lousy, dull, awful movie--not fun to sit through unless you're really drunk and with a crowd (and I'd argue you could find better movies than The Apple to enjoy anyway). 

Lots of Midnight Movies are I think safe to call Cult Movies.   Eraserhead, Pink Flamingos, El Topo, are never going to be embraced by large mainstream audiences.   

I guess any movie that has a following of viewers who want to see it over and over again no matter how good or how bad it is would be considered a cult movie. They're out of the mainstream for obvious reasons and I think that's what attracts a movie goer to it in the first place; but that's just my opinion.

Putney Swope is most definitely one of the best films I've ever seen and indeed a cult flick -  as is Repo Man, Taxi Driver Saturday Night Fever and Pulp Fiction.  I believe cult films to be a culture changing, mass media event in cinema that alters the way we look at american culture past, present and future.

I think the "Harry Potter" movies can be a newer series of cult classics. They have quite a large group of dedicated followers particularly with the young people. They dress in costumes for the movies'  openings. Also book stores have special midnight celebrations for the costumed fans whenever the next book in the series arrived.

Perhaps "Twilight" and "New Moon" will also become cult classics. When the actors from these movies have appeared on daytime talk shows, there was so much screaming it reminded me a little of the Beatles early days here when fans would scream for them.