Simpson - The Rough Guide to Cult Movies

Publishing information

The third edition published August 2010 by
Rough Guides Ltd., 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

www.roughguides.com

Distributed by the Penguin Group:
Penguin Books Ltd. 80 Strand, London, WC2R 0RL

The publishers and authors have done their best to ensure the accuracy and currency of all information in The Rough Guide to Cult Movies; however, they can accept no responsibility for any loss or inconvenience sustained by any reader as a result of its information or advice.

No part of this guide may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in reviews.

Rough Guides, 2010

ISBN 13: 978-1-84836-213-0

This Digital Edition published 2010. ISBN: 9781405385381
E-Book format prepared by DK Digital, London and DK Digital Media, Delhi.

The movies, where one mans masterpiece is always liable to be someone elses Air Bud: World Pup, is a world where no opinion is final and deciding what makes a film cult can be as intellectually arbitrary as deciding if a film is good or bad. There is also a big difference between the films we watch over and over again and the films which appear in the critics lists of greatest-ever movies.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines cult as: 1) a system of religious worship especially as expressed in ritual; 2) a devotion or homage to a person or thing; 3) a popular fashion especially followed by a specific section of society; 4) denoting a person or thing popularized in this way.

The dictionary, in its linguistic wisdom, assigns the last definition to a cult figure or cult movie. In cinematic terms, the word cult is often applied to films starring fifty-foot women on a mission of personal revenge, killer tomatoes or an entire Western town populated by midgets. Sometimes this has been extended to include movies that are either so bad theyre good (the clichd example of this being any work by the worlds worst director Ed Wood) or are the objects of quasi-religious worship (The Big Lebowski).

The word cult also implies knowledge hidden from the masses. So a cult movie may be the preserve of a select few or have depths missed by the casual viewer.

Umberto Eco, author of cult book The Name of the Rose, identifies Casablanca as a cult movie. This sounds ludicrous, as Casablanca is one of the most famous films of all time. But Eco adds: The work must provide a completely furnished world so that its fans can quote characters and episodes as if they were aspects of the fans private sectarian world, a world about which one can make up quizzes and play trivia games so that the adepts of the sect recognize through each other a shared expertise. By this definition, Casablanca is certainly a cult movie

For this guide, weve reserved the right not to include every title as well known as that, figuring the space would be better given to titles further away from a perennial spotlight. Weve also added a few other criteria to Ecos definition. Any movie reviewed here should: 1) prompt people to go around quoting it to each other or inspire an unreasonable amount of devotion long after the masses have forgotten its existence; 2) be good but underappreciated, possibly because, in a market driven by stars and event movies, they were just too different to have a long run at a cinema near you; 3) be an undiscovered gem, perhaps because its foreign or went straight to video; 4) be so bad its a hoot; 5) be compelling for some other reason the script may stink but theres a song, a stunt or scene that makes it all worthwhile; 6) be a mainstream film that has that indefinable something we call juice; 7) not be a Police Academy sequel.

Weve made a conscious effort to include as many different movies as possible. You can thrill to Battleship Potemkin and still relish the moment Springtime for Hitler breaks into Dont be foolish, be a smarty, come and join the Nazi party; you can feel an irrational exhilaration when you hear John Belushi chant Toga! Toga! Toga!, or be mesmerized by Kurosawas Ran.

For this third edition weve added lots of new categories, from Asian horror to Underground, via Bad girls, Bikers and Mavericks, Psychos and Rock stars plus many more. Film directors with a nose for the unorthodox and intriguing from the legendary Nic Roeg to rising stars like Cari Joji Fukunaga have also told us about their (often rarely seen) favourites. These sections are in special boxes dotted throughout the content. And we have updated all the sections, spending improbably long hours pondering the merits of films to include or to drop. All the while, weve tried to maintain a spirit of fun about the proceedings and the way the content goes about its business, which is to say very seriously in a not so serious kind of way.

Star rated movie

Ari tries to find the truth in a tangle of dreams and memories of the 1982 invasion of Lebanon in Waltz with Bashir, an animated documentary with a graphic novel look ().

Director Richard Linklaters reverse-engineered Rotoscope animation transforms Robert Downey Jr and Rory Cochrane in .

Reynold Browns vivid poster design has justifiably eclipsed the reputation of the film it promoted. With artwork this good, who needs a credible plot? ().

Dont mess with the one-chick hit squad! Blaxploitation icon Pam Grier as Coffy in 1973, a few years before her comeback in Tarantinos Jackie Brown (see ).

A riot of 1970s leisurewear: Will Ferrell creates a splash as sexist Ron Burgundy in .

Richard E. Grant as the dishevelled, eponymous failed actor in , the classic quotable cult comedy.

Harsh landscape, harsh characters, vivid filmmaking: Daniel Day-Lewis as oil prospector Plainview in .

Vietnam veteran turned chancer, Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) lets off some steam in the Coen Brothers .