"I'm just a sweet transvestite, from Transsexual, Transylvania."
Within film, music, television, etc., there exists the
cult classic. It's usually a work that wasn't particularly successful when it was originally released, but found a small but loyal audience which appreciated it, and kept the memory of it alive in pop culture (e.g.,
The Rocky Horror Picture Show,
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, etc.). Sometimes that cult of fans grows and grows to the point that the work is no longer seen as fringe, and a popular reassessment occurs. The multi-billion dollar
Star Trek franchise began as a lowly rated and canceled TV show that was brought back to life by a bunch of "geeks" at conventions. Such is the power of fandom.
But what if there is no cult? What if there's just a lonely contrarian out there? Everyone has a "guilty pleasure." A movie, song, book, etc., that everyone else probably thinks is crap, but they love it. And most people have the inverse of the guilty pleasure: the work that you just can't stand but all your friends and family love the hell out of. What are those things that you like, but no one else seems to? Or conversely, what are those works that everyone seems to love, but you just don't get?
Continue below the fold for more.
"No matter where you go, there you are."
"A regular movie is one that a thousand people watch once. A cult movie is one that a single person watches a thousand times." —Bruce Campbell
Whenever there's polling on either politicians or any hot-button issue, usually the comments will invariably break down to the the quality of the pollster (especially for those that dislike the poll results), since some polling firms are the equivalent of Cold War-era, East German judges scoring gymnastics or figure skating at the Olympics. And the same thing is true of columnists and political opinion. There are columnists with whacked out opinions that seem to believe the sky is red and water is something other than wet. Either they're the lone man or woman out there on their own, with narrow and eclectic tastes, trying to sway people to their perspective. Or they like writing columns where they know they'll piss people off and get page views.
So this got me to thinking about the idea of the contrarian, and how a small group of fans can change popular consensus. So what are those things where you feel like the contrarian when it comes to pop culture?
- Harry Potter: For some people, this is akin to not liking sunshine. But I'm not saying it's poorly written, because it's not. And I'm not saying it sucks, because it doesn't. But I have never really been as enamored with J. K. Rowling's book series as others. The villains, including he who shall not be named, can be shallow and one-dimensional. Even though it's set in a world of magic and fantasy, I still feel the series relies on deus ex machina a bit too much. And the romantic relationships of the main characters are problematic. Rowling has admitted that she made a mistake with the pairings.
“Do not pity the dead Harry. Pity the living, and, above all, those who live without love.”
- American Beauty: I mentioned American Beauty when I did the diary on bad movies, but it's also an interesting example of how popular can shift away from a movie. Directed by Sam Mendes and written by Alan Ball, when it was released, the film was critically lauded and won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor for Kevin Spacey, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography. However, the film has not aged well, and it now has a tendency to show up on lists of the most overrated Best Picture Oscar winners of all time. It largely stems from the fact that when you sit down and watch it now, American Beauty comes off as a movie that thinks it's really "deep" in its cultural commentary when it's not (i.e., "You mean upper middle class people have dysfunctions and problems too?!?!"). Nothing exemplifies that more than a scene of characters watching and pontificating on the significance of a plastic bag floating in the wind.
- Starship Troopers: Paul Verhoeven's adaptation of Robert A. Heinlein's science-fiction novel has become a cult film and a satire of propaganda and war movies, after being brushed off as a dumb action movie when it was released. The film gets the most flack from fans of the book, which has been controversial on its own for more than a half-century, since director Verhoeven is said to not even have read it. Reportedly the movie began as an original project, and at some point the production decided to buy the rights to Heinlein's book, reworked the story, and slapped the name Starship Troopers on it. The movie takes on a whole different vibe once you realize the humans are meant to be the bad guys, which is not true at all of Heinlein's novel.
- The Big Bang Theory: This is one of the most popular shows on television, with its fan service pop-culture references. My feelings about The Big Bang Theory is similar to my view of How I Met Your Mother. I don't dislike it, and there have been particular scenes over the years that I found really funny. But I've never been as impressed as others by the series. Too often the characters come off as one-note caricatures, and the humor panders while going through the motions.
"Scissors cuts paper, paper covers rock, rock crushes lizard, lizard poisons Spock, Spock smashes scissors, scissors decapitates lizard, lizard eats paper, paper disproves Spock, Spock vaporises rock, and as it always has, rock crushes scissors."
- Flash Gordon: "FLASH! Ah-AAH! HE'LL SAVE EVERY ONE OF US!" Truth be told, I don't think this movie would have the cult following that it does (e.g., being a story point in Seth MacFarlane's Ted) if not for the Queen soundtrack. It makes absolutely no sense, and it's campy. But it has Max von Sydow as Ming the Merciless and Brian Blessed wearing metal wings screaming "DIVE!!!" at the top of his lungs, so it's awesome.
- The Last Dragon: I saw this movie as a kid, and it's been a lifelong dream to acquire my own crew of goons that will tell me about my greatness. "Am I the meanest? Sho'nuff! Am I the prettiest? Sho'nuff? Am I the baddest mofo low down around this town? Sho'nuff! Well who am I? Sho'nuff! Who am I? Sho'nuff! I can't hear you! Sho'nuff!"
- Hausu: 1976's Hausu (or House) is a Japanese film that's hard to describe. It's not totally a horror or fantasy film. It's not exactly a comedy. And it's not a parody either. It has a similar tone to Evil Dead, but with a sheen of Japanese "WTF?" layered on top. TV Tropes describes it as "a drug-addled David Lynch's version of an even more colourful Suspiria remake."