Let's start with experience. It is entirely because the title of this cult classic is too loud, and the flaming red lips on the dark night background on the poster are too tense, so I went to check it without knowing much about it. And almost as soon as I saw the gorgeous image with the heavy makeup on the poster, I thought it was disguised as a woman—it could be said that this image was so perfect that I went to see it. I was very nervous when I first watched it. The fame or notoriety of the movie made me mentally prepared in advance, and I didn’t know if I would be able to hold on to it because I was a goth aestheticist. It turns out I thought too much. It only takes one second to go from being nervous to melting all over into this movie, which is one second when the super-textured red lips and white teeth sing under the pure black background at the beginning of the film. I have seen countless movie reviews saying that I was scared by the big mouth in the opening scene, and some people said that the only scary part of this film is the mouth at the beginning, but to be honest, I was hooked by this scene from the beginning. The voice of a non-male and non-female (actually a male singer), with a childlike innocent and serious tone and lyrics, comes from a mouth that is symmetrically painted with lipstick, white teeth, and a dreamy luster, with delicate lips and teeth. closeup. I almost thought it was sung in the tone of the protagonist, but later I found out that it was actually from the audience's perspective. Sure enough, Gothic aestheticism is at work, and this passage has been sung to my heart regardless of its beauty and melody. I haven't found such a movie that fits the aesthetics for a long time, and I was moved to death. The more nerve-wracking is when the opening song sings to Late mid-night double feature picture show. I wanna go. I started to feel very sad, and the movie has not even started seriously. In this way, I completely put down my psychological guard and watched it with the mentality of "this movie won my heart". Although later it turns out that a little mental preparation is actually not safe.
A very successful point is that this film summarizes and expresses things in life that people are accustomed to, and that almost everyone feels the same. Just like the scene where Brad and Janet confessed to each other at the beginning, as the lines say, they are just two ordinary children, they don't think about it, they run on the most mediocre trajectory of life, and people's dreams of love have never happened. . We think that people who love each other should have a heart-to-heart and a tacit understanding with God's help, but they make mistakes again and again, immersed in their emotions and do not realize that the other party wants to kiss. What about the happiest weddings people usually think of, the church with the face has become so insensitive to these kinds of ceremonies, weddings and funerals, and this one is replaced by the next one, compared to family and friends who are stupidly happy at the wedding. They acted absurdly, as funny as clowns. Brad and Janet are also classic stereotypes. If something goes wrong later, a guy with glasses who reads books honestly, a girl who is bound to faint when he sees indecent things, and the same stereotypes are the two of them who are easy to be shaped. characteristic. Such so-called "purity" and "decency" simply cannot withstand temptation and shock. Eddie, who was frozen in the freezer, is also the kind of rebellious teenager we have in our impression. He likes motorcycle racing, tattoos, rock and roll, and meets strange, alien-like friends. This is the reality side. There is also a fantasy side, the castle under the night, the mysterious hump-backed servant keeps claiming that the owner of the castle is "master", exactly the same as the servant of the vampire in Bram Stoker's "Dracula", and there are ignorant young people who stray into the castle. The temperament of a vampire prey, Dr. Cross-dressing's stunning debut song lyrics also contain relevant hints (such as for a bite). Just when I thought it was an alternative vampire story, the plot was led in the direction of Frankenstein because of the laboratory and the artificial man (Frank N. The first two parts of Furtor's name are spelled out a bit like Frankenstein). The knife and axe, the feast of human flesh, and the anti-matter laser gun in the back are all sensory stimulation parts of the B-level film, which are very absurdly integrated. Personally, it's not bad to see this movie as a parady of this type of movie. The scene where Furtor uses Eddie's flesh to hold a dinner party on Eddie's mutilated corpse without the knowledge of the crowd is also reminiscent of Hitchcock's 1948 film "Reaper of Souls." In addition, to say something else, when the heroine saw Riff Raff (played by the musical writer O'Brien himself) who opened the door, I was stunned. My first reaction when I saw him was: Oh my god, it's so beautiful...to be a classic vampire When the black-clothed Dr. Furtor appeared from the elevator and the heroine screamed and fainted, my first reaction was: Oh my god, it's so beautiful! ! !
Well, let's continue as normal. What makes the film even more amazing is the detailing of the film. When Dr. Furtor sang "my faithful handyman" for the first time, Riff Raff and Magenta looked at each other, and just this one glance revealed their disdain for this so-called loyalty, which will be reversed in the future, and the consequences will be the worst. There is also the classic pose, Furtor is lying on the throne in a style, surrounded by a few subordinates, when he said "blond hair", he touched Riff Raff's blond hair, the latter changed his face slightly and looked at To the side, revealing the disgust and conspiracy that the cold-faced servant concealed. As Furtor staggers out of the chair, he gives a close-up of Columbia staring at it, a fascination different from the others who have been infected by Furtor's fanaticism, which later episodes prove she loved (perhaps Also still love) the fact that Dr. Even if the audience's attention is likely to have been completely attracted by the hot Dr. Furtor and cannot be distributed to the supporting characters, the pose of this less than one minute still almost hints at the foreshadowing of the entire movie. Riff Raff and Magenta are hypocritical, Columbia joins the carnival for love, and only Furtor is truly immersed in his own indulgence and can't see it all. And Eddie, who drove a motorcycle out of the freezer, had a bloody scar on his forehead as soon as he appeared, and then Furtor killed him with an axe when he saw him attracting Rocky, and the plot of him serving dinner all implied One thing: Furtor stunned Eddie with an axe and froze him like meat. He was originally used as an ingredient, but Furtor didn't expect him to be strong enough to hear the carnival outside and rush out alive. Columbia's surprise at Eddie's sudden appearance meant that she, perhaps most people, didn't know where Eddie had gone and that Furtor had quietly dealt with him. Furtor said in the cast scene that Rocky treated him the same as Eddie was, perhaps saying that Eddie was frozen by him because of his relationship with Columbia. As for Eddie's identity, the title credits have stated: Delivery Boy, that is, the courier brother. By the way, I have seen many people say that this movie is called "Rocky Horror" but it is not scary at all. This is actually a misunderstanding. In the opening subtitles, Rocky's full name is Rocky Horror, Rocky Horror, this movie The name means "Rocky Show", imitating the appearance of a TV show.
Tim Curry's Frank N. Furtor I don't need to say it, but I have to. My personal favorite is the scene in the laboratory. It is exposed in the cover, and restrained in the indulgence. From the performance point of view, it is the pinnacle. Puffy hair, thick eyeshadow, bright lipstick, high heels, black stockings, rubber gloves, a lab coat, and a mad doctor with an elegant appearance and a frenzied bone, eclipsed all the women present. Especially when there is no difference in body shape, Furtor's evil female charm makes people speechless. Tone, demeanor, action, a little hoarse, a little thick but charming voice, like a mother's tone of teaching Rocky, it's really hard to be an actor. A scene that made me laugh at that time was Furtor saying "even smiling makes my face hurt" after turning several people into plaster statues, and then biting his index knuckle to hold back tears, a little boy scratching his head. Female modality (sorry I know this place is supposed to have teardrops). Furtor is also a tragic character in this film. He is not the big boss who has the overall situation. He is so immersed in the world that revolves around him that he cannot even find the rebellion brewing under his nose. Like a child, he relies on the sympathy and love of the people around him. Like a tyrant, delusional commanding the feelings of the people around him has succeeded and failed, and ended in failure. Frank N. Furtor seems like the devil who can destroy everyone, Frank N. Furtor is the most easily destroyed person in the whole movie. Columbia said, I loved you, but what did I get? Nothing at all. You are like a sponge, you take, take, take, you suck up the love and affection of others. But Furtor himself said that everyone betrayed me, my children betrayed me. Always in need of fresh stimulation and always bored, frantically grabbing one after another and throwing them away, even creating a man himself, grabbing him greedily, doting like a mother, imprisoning like a mother . There was a line in BoJack Horseman, which probably means: You are always looking for new things to fill your life, but in the end you are always empty.
Having said so much, now I try to explain why this is an indefinable movie. You need to remember that this movie is still about Brad and Janet. They are the most common people, the characters most likely to be any of us.
From the perspective of these two characters, the entire film amounts to a process of belief breakdown, bondage contact, indulgence, belief reorganization, and finally a breakdown again. They are two clean little lambs who have strayed into the world of sensuality and sensuality, and quickly fell into it from resistance and disgust at the beginning. After Janet and Furtor had a relationship, she had a hilarious scene where she complained bitterly about how nice it would be if she hadn't been out for a trip, if her car hadn't broken down, if she'd been surrounded by normal people, these things wouldn't have happened. But the audience knows that these are all useless reasons. All these things happen because, you, Janet, you have them in your heart. Furtor probably enjoys this process as well, exposing the fragile hypocrisy of the lambs, bringing the dark side back into the light, watching them remorse and finding reasons to blame. Then both of them are infected, and in the final song and dance performance, each of them reinvents the belief of "Furtor Center", abandoning the decency that saw Furtor faint before, and completely indulges desire. Even Scott, who was resolutely keeping his head clear, suddenly found himself wearing black stockings - the meaning of black silk is obvious, it is desire, everyone has it, hiding does not mean that there is no desire, and you can't hide it forever. The phrase "Don't dream it. Be it." was so infectious that I was so excited that I wanted to cry. If you follow the idea of political correctness, the story should end here. The finale dance was skipped. Frank N. Furtor won. Everything is liberated. Is that so? no. It's not that simple. Brad and Janet watched the belief that they had just collapsed and reorganized vanished in an instant. Frank N. Furtor is dead. Unlike the god-like existence he had worked so hard to manage, and unlike the way he usually held power, he died very easily. Just like another belief that was easily disintegrated by Furtor before, you thought it was indestructible, you thought that you had finally found freedom and found the true meaning of life, but it was equally fragile, equally false, and also left nothing for you. Like Brad said at the end, God knows I've been trying to find the truth, I've even lied about it, but the only thing I know is that I'm bleeding deep inside. What an irony that we lied to find the truth, and every time we thought we found the truth, it turned out to fall apart. Radicalism in one era is backwardness in another era, and rebellion in one era is political correctness in another era. What should we believe? What won't abandon us, won't betray us, won't be a passing cloud? Perhaps the only one who really sees through is the crime expert who is the narrator. There are insects called humans crawling on the surface of this planet, lost in time, in space, and in meaning. We are all kidnapped by time and space, and we think we have found meaning. Our so-called truth may be bondage, and freedom may be shackles. When will we be able to penetrate this puzzle.
This ending reminds me of the musical "Dance of the Vampires", in which the heroine defected to the vampire, hoping to gain freedom beyond the mundane and obtain the truth, but the reason why the vampire accepted her was just to temporarily add some fresh fun to the rotten immortality. What people don't know is that vampires who are beyond death will sing hymns in unison at night, lamenting the death of God, and forgetting them to rest in eternal darkness. People can only sing prayers at night without touching the true meaning of them: whoever can free me must be stronger than me. The villagers think it's God, the heroine thinks it's a vampire, who has found the truth, we don't know, and the musical doesn't give the answer. This is off topic. That show is also divine in my mind.
There is one last tear. The ending of the characters in the lyrics of the ending song does not say Furtor is dead, but says: Furtor lost his creature. Frank N. Furtor, lost his creation.
At the end of the movie, I suddenly understand why the theme song of Science Fiction is so moving. That audience-view narrator, who pops out of nowhere as we get lost in the ending, reminds us that this is just a movie. It was a childlike image of innocence. Addicted to the hilarious and cheap plots of B-movies, unable to extricate themselves, planning to believe them to be true, but not empathizing with the characters, indifferent when we were struck by our beliefs, just singing earnestly and calmly, Science fiction, double feature, I wanna go. A character who is immersed in the world of cinema, a character who is reluctant to leave the dark back row of the cinema, a character who is just like myself.
So, the true meaning of watching this movie is probably not to be kidnapped by anything. Well defined, of course well defined, sexual liberation, LGBT people, transvestites, cult, all right and all, but is that all? Rebellion in one era is political correctness in another era. Are these definitions politically correct in a certain sense? Does anyone know? Can the movie "Rocky Horror Show" be defined by a certain trend of thought or definition - or meaning? I don't think so. This is an indefinable movie. It directly hits not only a specific social phenomenon, but the process of seeking truth. If you watch this movie and think it's nothing, you're good, maybe you don't have these worries and sentimentality, maybe people who don't get caught in the movie have a more solid real life. If you feel shocked and touched after watching it, you are good, maybe some plot here reminds you of a real experience, maybe you have empathy for a certain character. If you think after watching it that it is nonsense in a serious way, you are good, because this movie, whether you don't understand it or not, it is nonsense in a serious way. In this movie, don't fall asleep, or never wake up. As for myself, I'm grateful for not missing the movie.
Late mid-night double feature picture show. I wanna go. I wanna go.
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