Cult Movie History

Neal Gabler’s 1998 book, Life the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality, brings up controversial questions about the necessity or unnecessary want of entertainment. Scholars may claim that entertainment breaks family bonds, undermines community, and decreases people’s integrity. Certainly, entertainment in the 21st century in the form of movies, video games, and social media are more widespread than ever. However, not all forms of enjoyment are obscene; sports, television shows, and fan conventions can promote social involvement, reduce stress, and improve collaboration skills.

It has been observed that many movies have gained or lost its reputation over the years. The values, attitudes and actions of people have changed as years have gone by, which is reflected in their changing opinions and expressions; the changing society behavior is responsible for the gain or loss of reputation of a particular movie over a period of time.

Aside from being a source of entertainment and pleasure, films have also taken on a new role, that is, to make visible and critique the different ideologies that are present in society. The word ideology is defined as “a relatively coherent system of values, beliefs, or ideas shared by some social group and often taken for granted as natural or inherently true.” (Bordwell and Thompson, p.503). Ideologies help us to better understand films and their influence on society. They also reveal much about the society from which they originated. In this essay, I will explore the different ideological messages conveyed in films with reference to All That Heaven Allows (Douglas Sirk, 1955).

Although the best reasons for “going to the movies” are to be entertained and eat popcorn, understanding a film is actually quite complex. Movies are not only a reflection of life, they also have the capability of shaping our norms, values, attitudes, and perception of life. Through the media of film, one can find stories of practically anything imaginable and some things unimaginable. Movie-makers use their art to entertain, to promote political agendas, to educate, and to present life as it is, was, or could be. They can present truth, truth as they interpret it, or simply ignore truth altogether. A movie can be a work of fiction, non-fiction, or anything in-between. A film is an artist’s interpretation. What one takes away from a film depends upon how one interprets what has been seen and heard. Understanding film is indeed difficult.

I chose the YouTube video “The Exclusive Brethren – Cult Documentary” for my reflection paper. The persuasive tactics I saw used in the video were: Identification, Deindividuation and social isolation and Ostracism. The Brethren are a group of people who follow certain religious beliefs taught to them by high priests. The members of the cult have limited outside interaction.

To the casual viewer The Big Lebowski, a 1998 film written by film maker brothers Ethan and Joel Coen and directed by Joel, would appear to be a comedy rip off of the 1940’s Los Angeles detective film The Big Sleep by Howard Hawks. It features a hippie dropout from the seventies named “the Dude” (Jeff Bridges) who gets caught up with his bowler buddies Walter (John Goodman) and Donny (Steve Buscemi) in a case of mistaken identity and a search for a presumed kidnap victim. Like Thornhill (Cary Grant) in North by Northwest he becomes a reluctant detective. However, The Dude is the polar opposite of the suave and resourceful Thornhill

“I’m going to make a name for myself. If I fail, you will never hear of me again” Edward James Muggeridge. True to his words he succeeded in making a name for himself and he created the first movie or “motion picture”. Movies are a rollercoaster ride that transcends people into a whole different world fresh out of somebody’s imagination as seen through the genres of horror, drama, and science fiction. The movie business allows people to break through the burden of everyday life. Considering today’s way of life, people would be lying if they did not admit that movies are an influential entity in our culture. Movies have been successful in ingraining values and elements into society. Movies exaggerate, sensationalize and at

A movie’s greatness is often measured by its monetary returns. There are numerous examples of huge commercial successes that are able to draw dollars from people with each iteration of their product even when the movies themselves are less memorable. Think of Fast & Furious or Transformers, hugely popular, even producing a great movie from time to time. Less often, is a franchise that produces a string of great films. Star Wars and James Bond have consistently brought viewers to the box office over decades. Many of those movies will be watched by generation after generation. Then there is the oddity, the financial dud that gets better ratings with time. The Shawshank Redemption didn’t impress on opening weekend. It didn’t have a surge after a limited release with great reviews. It did have a compelling story and superb acting providing the viewer an emotional experience. That experience allowed The Shawshank Redemption become one of the most well-regarded movies of recent history.

What makes a film a cult classic? What makes a bunch of films belong to the same cult classic? I found myself asking the same question a couple of days ago, only to to get bombarded by my own memory of three distinct movies, which just ‘happened’ to have the same composer: Requiem For A Dream, Moon and The Fountain. Coincidence? I think not.

Many people are blind-sighted and tricked into being sucked into the world of celebrities and reality tv. This occurrence is known as celebrity worship syndrome and it can have many detrimental effects. Research has found that celebrity worship syndrome and an addiction to celebrities “has likewise been conceptualized as a search for a solid identity and social role ... and compulsive and obsessional elements are noted at advanced stages of addiction ... Thus, while absorption can partially account for the vividness of delusions related to dissociative experience ... the progression along our hierarchy of celebrity worship might reflect increases in the thresholds of the need and capacity of psychological absorption” (Rockwell). The absorption-addiction model that Rockwell references describes the parasocial relationship of a celebrity and a fan. Typically, due to deficits in a person’s life, a fan will become absorbed into a celebrity's following in order to escape their current life and they eventually become addicted. If an obsession with a celebrity is left unchecked it has the possibility to spiral into thoughts or behaviors that can be harmful to the fan and

10-17). This perspective tries to override the power that fans appear to have over dominant ideology. This mask of passivity labels the fan as an overweight, nerdy or a feminized and eroticised audience. By doing such, the fan appears helpless and weak towards the texts that they consume (Jenkins, 1992, p. 19). Alternatively, other academics allow fans to be active, but they criticise this activeness as they perceive it to be inappropriate, uneducated and of lower class culture (Jenkins, 1992, pp.

The writers of the website Cultographies, Ernest Mathijs and Jamie Sexton tell us that, “Cult films transgress common notions of good and bad taste, and they challenge genre conventions

It cannot be denied the role popular culture plays in the the public’s knowledge and understanding of historical events. For a portion of the population once schooling ends, historical films become the main way people are exposed to history. Because of this it is vital to understand the benefits that are provided by these historical films and how they impact the way viewers think about the past and the world they live in today.

The BBFC has commissioned me to undertake research as part of a project to ascertain to what degree films can be regarded as powerful within contemporary society. In this assignment, I will comprehensively explain the relationship between audiences and films with well explained examples. I refer to the different sectors relating to the topic that include the following:

I wanted not only to watch films, but to learn about them. I wanted to surround myself with film, I wanted to read about it, write about it, hear about it. I had this craving to apply these onscreen visions to my everyday life, and slowing I began to do so. I began to read magazines like Variety and Entertainment Weekly where I tried to understand their views on cinema and what made a movie a hit or miss. Soon I found myself critiquing everyone movie I sat down and watched. I traveled back in time and transported myself to the world of Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn, in hopes that their movies would show the foundation of cinema that seemed to be hidden by all the glitz and glam of today's Hollywood. I opened up to different genres of film and found some of my favorite movies to be of the foreign film category. I based many school projects on the history of cinema such as Hollywood’s Effect on The Great Depression, or the importance of Cult Classic films. Pretty quickly I realized my archive of film knowledge surpassed anything Blockbuster ever would have been capable