Cliffs Notes to Cult Movies for Cool People
By Alonso Duralde, Hollywood.com Staff
|
Monday, March 09, 2009
7. A Clockwork Orange
60-Second Plot Summary: Alex is a teen delinquent who loves violence, rape, drug-infused milk and Beethoven. One of his "droogs" (or "friends" — the restless youth in this dystopian Britain of the future use lots of Russian-based slang) betrays Alex to the police, but in prison, Alex opts to participate in an experimental treatment. He's brainwashed into become nauseous at the thought of sex or violence. When he gets out of prison, his previous victims torture him, knowing he can't fight back. Eventually, an embarrassed government undoes the procedure, restoring Alex to his violent old self. Is it a triumph of humanity over technology, or the return of a blight to society?
What to Quote: "the old in-out" (when describing sex) and "ultra-violence" (when referring to his proclivities). Before a rumble, Alex taunts a rival with, "Come and get one in the yarbles, if ya have any yarbles, you eunuch jelly thou!"
Scene to Reenact: Do force your eyes open, the way they do to Alex during the brainwashing process. Don't simulate the explicit rape carried out to the tune of "Singin' in the Rain."
Fascinating Tidbit: A Clockwork Orange was unavailable for viewing in the U.K. for 27 years. Director Stanley Kubrick had the film pulled from theaters in 1973 due to (depending on who's telling the story) threats he had received from the police or because young violent criminals were saying in court that they had been influenced by the film. In 2000, after Kubrick's death, it returned to screens there.
Now, Transition to "Well, Have You Seen …" Kubrick's The Killing, a taut heist film whose splintered narrative — the script jumps back and forth in time to show us how a racetrack robbery went terribly wrong — was a strong influence on Quentin Tarantino's use of time in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.
8. Repo Man
60-Second Plot Summary: After getting duped into helping Bud (Harry Dean Stanton) repossess a car, punk Otto (Emilio Estevez) gets into the repo business himself. Little do Bud and Otto know that the elusive Chevy Malibu that they and all the other L.A. repo men are trying to find is carrying aliens in the trunk.
What to Quote: "I blame society. Society made me what I am," which is what Otto's old friend mutters after getting shot, to which Otto witheringly replies, "That's bulls—t. You're a white suburban punk, just like me." Or: "I don't want no Commies in my car. No Christians either" — what Bud says while driving. And! The spacey Miller's (Tracey Walter) great speech about what he calls the "lattice of coincidence": "Suppose you're thinkin' about a plate of shrimp. Suddenly someone'll say, like, plate, or shrimp, or plate of shrimp out of the blue, no explanation. No point in lookin' for one, either. It's all part of a cosmic unconsciousness."
Scene to Reenact: A drunken Estevez walks down the street, shouting the lyrics to the Black Flag song "TV Party."
Fascinating Tidbit: In Estevez's directorial debut Wisdom, the phrase "plate of shrimp" appears as graffiti on a bus.
Now, Transition to "Well, Have You Seen …" After his success with Repo Man and Sid and Nancy, director Alex Cox went off to Spain to shoot the silly and indulgent (but still sort of entertaining on its own terms) Straight to Hell, shot on sets that had been used for many a low-budget spaghetti Western. The eclectic cast includes Joe Strummer, Courtney Love, Elvis Costello and the Pogues' Shane MacGowan and Cait O'Riordan.
KEEP READING: "The Dude abides."