Exactly forty years ago, in 1975, a cult movie was released: The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
The film is a screen adaptation of the 1973 stage musical The Rocky Horror Show by Richard O’Brien, and is itself still a musical.
I’m sure that … this small cinematic masterpiece, but why is it such as important movie? A movie that’s able to gather millions of fans around the world four decades after its release, and is still nowadays being brought on stage and screened at the cinema?
If the Rocky Horror has a purpose, it’s most definitely that of mocking the American conformist society of the 70s, showing not only its inadequacy but also its fragility. These ideals are indeed personified by the two protagonists, Janet (Susan Sarandon) and Brad (Barry Bostwick), a happy couple that embodies the prototype of American youth: good looking, in love, dressed in pastel colours, with a fresh degree and next in line to get married. In short, two young people of sound principles and high hopes.
Except that their almost idyllic life in a pleasant and quiet town in the US is unexpectedly disrupted when one night, while on their war to visit Dr. Scott (the professor who taught the university course during which the two met), they were caught in a bad storm and pierced their car wheel. Living in the pre-smartphone era they were forced to venture out on foot in the dark to look for help. The only house in the vicinity is an eccentric castle, where the couple decides to knock in the hope of being able to use a telephone. What awaits them behind the door is something the will not easily forget.
Brad and Janet are welcomed by some bizarre characters, who turn out to be the servants of the house. They explain to the couple that they arrived on a very special evening, because the master of the house is about to begin quite a unique event.
Once our heroes enter the main hall, they are surrounded by other strange creatures dancing and singing, who are dressed in totally absurd outfits. Just as the couple insist on not wanting to stay long but only ask to be able to use the telephone, here comes into the picture, like a Deus ex machina, the master of the house, Dr. Frank-N-Furter, singing:
<<Don’t get strung out by the way I look
Don’t judge a book by its cover
I’m not much of a man by the light of day
But by night I’m one hell of a lover
I’m just a sweet transvestite
From Transexual, Transylvania>>
The eccentric doctor is in fact a pansexual and transvestite scientist from the Transexual planet of the Transylvania galaxy, who just like Mary Shelly’s Victor Frankenstein (hence the similarity in the name) has discovered how to create life artificially. The special event of the evening is indeed the presentation by the doctor to all the Transylvania compatriots – the strange creatures who are gathered in the castle for this occasion – of his creature: Rocky.
Rocky is the perfect lover: tall, blond, muscular like a bodybuilder, tanned and attractive. The Doctor created it to “relieve his stress”, or to satisfy his insatiable libido.
With the “birth” of Rocky begins the real delirious Show: it’s a succession of songs and colourful dances, which serve as interludes to the story itself.
The “baptism” – metaphorically speaking, intended more as initiation into life – and Rocky’s birthday are celebrated by Frank-N-Furter giving him gym equipment such as weight, all while singing a song that praises the irrepressible bodybuilder physicality of the creature and ending with the exclamation “In just seven days I can make you a man!”.
One of the key scenes is the one during which, the night after the party, the young couple are held back at the castle as guests (but in separate rooms) and the sinful scientist and master of the house firstly seduces Jane and the Brad, therefore pushing the couple to break their promise of virginity before marriage. In reality, although both at first try to resist and be loyal to their partner, they then surrender to lust and to Frank, who flatters them by exclaiming:
<<There’s no crime in giving yourself over to pleasure>>
The ease with which the two lovers are carried away by the libido symbolizes what kind of world they live in and how their values are more of a façade, because despite all, the primordial instinct is still stronger than the socially constructed rules.
But it’s exactly this overturning of norms and conventions that’s represented atypically in the Rocky Horror Picture Show: the distinctive look of the film is the cartoonish and bold humour. In the opening scenes, it almost seems like being in the Wizard of Oz, with the candid scene of the marriage proposal from Brad to Janet, but this soon this sweet atmosphere gives way to a real horror comedy, grotesque yet sarcastic and irreverent, which makes fun of itself. The Rocky Horror is an “erotic nightmare”: it reverses the canon of what is right and allowed, pushes above and beyond the limits of its own unacknowledged fantasies, but at the same time without coming across as vulgar or distasteful. It’s a transgressive yet ironic film: the light tone of the musical comedy that meets the imaginary gothic-horror go perfectly with a plot openly directed to sexual provocation, resulting in something absolutely enjoyable and addictive. It’s almost impossible not to dance to the rhythm of the songs, and it should also be noted that who is writing this is someone who can’t stand musicals.
The plot ends when Professor Scott makes an appearance, the one who the young couple wanted to go see before they got stuck in the rain because of the unexpected flat tire. The rivalry between the two scientists emerges when Frank-N-Furter fears that the young couple are two spies sent by Dr. Scott to steal the secret of their extraordinary scientific discovery, and just as the atmosphere between the two characters becomes tense, in the presence of a confused Brad, here comes out that Janet and Rocky have spent the night together.
The stay at the castle has indelibly changed the young couple, opened their eyes to discover a part of themselves that before has always been (forcibly) concealed, that is the greed of lust. Both Brad and Janet discover this new dimension, having a bit of the forbidden fruit. The metamorphosis is represented in one of the final scenes in which all the characters are performing in a play similar to the can-can, in burlesque outfits, and then dive together and (very) passionately in the pool.
So back to the original question:
Why was the Rocky Horror Picture Show, and still is, such an important movie?
Because it shows the audience – who spontaneously identifies itself a little bit with Brad and Janet – that in each of us there is a side that likes pleasure, even as an end in itself, and the would like to let go of whatever is keeping it hidden. Because it portrays this truth in a funny and lively way, showing that one’s search for pleasure can be seen in a playful and fun way, as well as sinful. Because talking about sexuality broadly, addressing issues such as homosexuality, pansexuality, transgender and cross-dressing, and especially doing it in the way the Rocky Horror does (provocative yet self-deprecating) would already be out of the norm today, let alone in 1975. Because as Frank-N-Furter says in one of the final scenes:
<<Don’t dream it, be it!>>
Returning to the present, recent news has that Fox is working on a remake of the Rocky Horror, directed by Kenny Ortega, due to release in autumn 2016. According to preliminary official reports, in the shoes of the ambiguous Dr Frank-N-Furter will be Laverne Cox, co-star of Orange Is The New Black. The decision to entrust this role to a transsexual actress was rather unexpected: in the original version of the film in fact, Frank is a transvestite (we see him in corsets, garters and high heels), an ambiguous individual who plays with gender roles to the point of deconstructing them. Although the opposite opinion is quite widespread, cross-dressing and transsexuality are not the same thing, which is why to some this decision is unclear. I was personally surprised by this decision, but in a good way: it’s normal that the remaking of the film tries to bring some element of novelty, as long as it’s done well and it still plays tribute to the glory that is Rocky Horror! At the same time, it must be said that making a new version of a cult film is always risky, even more so in cases like this where a film is part of the unconscious of generations and has a very high sentimental value for many people, but there is no doubt that there is already so much curiosity towards this project. We just have to wait and see the theatrical release next year, and see if it can win the heart of the many fans all over the world.
And you, dear readers, what do you think? Are you excited for the remake or will you remain faithful to the original? Do you like the idea of seeing Laverne Cox in the role of Frank-N-Furter?
Have your say now.
