Friday Night at the Movies: So Bad They're Good
Fri May 09, 2008 at 07:59:53 PM PDT
There have been movies throughout the hundred year history of cinema that have taken their place in the pantheon of great art. Films like Casablanca, Raging Bull, Network or Citizen Kane.
This diary isn't about those. This diary is about the garbage.
Other films of dubious quality survive precisely because they are disasters. Watching these flicks is like rubbernecking on the freeway. You know you shouldn't look, but you can't turn away. These films are certainly enjoyable, but for all the wrong reasons.
Robert Altman once said that he learned more from bad films than good ones, because he learned what not to do. With that in mind, let the learning begin.
In my estimation, there are four distinct categories of So-Bad-They're-Good films. The first, and most important of these, are the earnest ones, made by people who loved the craft and wanted to make a good film, but whose talent (or lack thereof) wouldn't allow it. The most famous example of this creature has got to be Plan 9 from Outer Space. Ed Wood, who bears the dubious distinction of being the worst director ever, loved to make movies. He just wasn't any good at it. Plan 9 is infamous for breaking all rules of what good moviemaking should be. The sets are amateurish, the acting sub-summerstock, and yet you can see the love with which it was made. It is so bad it's almost endearing, like watching a third grade play. It's entertaining precisely because of it's flaws.
(See also: the work of Uwe Boll and Roger Corman)
The second type of movie that turns the corner from bad back to good comes at the expense of the actors in them. These are films that could have actually been quite good, if not for the actors in them. One prime example is Mommie Dearest. There is nothing inherently bad about a Joan Crawford biopic. However, when Faye Dunaway got ahold of the role, she went over the top and then some. Just try watching her scream "NO WIRE COATHANGERS" at her daughter and not bust out laughing. It's impossible. It's hard to know who is at fault for a performance like that. After all, Dunaway was a brilliant actress. Did the director push such crazy out of her, or was he begging her to tone it down, and she just disagreed? All I know is, the end result is awesome.
(See also: Nicolas Cage in The Wicker Man remake.)
The third category comes about when films seem reasonable in the moment, but upon aging seems flatly ridiculous. Commie Panic looks remarkably foolish today (just as terrorism panic will look foolish twenty years from now) and it never looked more foolish than in the '80's high-schoolers-fight-off-the-Red-Hordes flick Red Dawn. Besides being totally ludicrous, even then, Red Dawn suffers from the Chicken Little syndrome. Reagan had America convinced that the Soviet Hordes were just waiting to break down America's door, when in fact the Reds were falling apart. Still, even given 20/20 hindsight, Red Dawn looks ridiculous. Who starts and invasion in Colorado, I ask you? Forcing yourself to fight a two front war makes no sense. This particular piece of crap treats war like a high school varsity sport, one in which Charlie Sheen and C. Thomas Howell, of all people, are the starters. Seriously, did this movie even seem remotely plausible at the time?
(See also: Tell Your Children AKA Reefer Madness)
Finally, the fourth category of so bad it's good is a film that you loved as a child, before your filmic palette had developed. It's a movie that if you watch it now, you know it's terrible, but the nostalgia factor alone keeps you from hating it. For me, that movie is Short Circuit. I loved this movie as a kid. It's the story of a robot that gets hit by lightning and then, not only becomes alive but also develops an immediate sense of humor. I didn't know that Steve Guttenburg was terrible. I had no idea Fisher Stevens (a white character actor) portrayal of an Indian man was an offensive cultural stereotype. I had no idea the theme song by DeBarge was worthless. All I knew was it was a movie about a wisecracking robot with a laser cannon on it's shoulder, and when I watch it today, I get a little window into the mind of eight-year-old me, and that is not easy to do these days. They're remaking this movie, and I know the new one will suck. Hard.
(See also: you'll have to come up with some on your own)
So there you have it. The four categories of films that are so bad they're good. Remember, any movie can suck, but it takes a special kind of suck to be thoroughly entertaining while doing it.
