What Makes a Cult Movie?
Posted on September 13, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Desson Thomson has a great interview with Scott Simon on NPR about cult movies — what (and who) defines them and what is appealing about them. What do the Coen brothers have in common with “The Wizard of Oz” and “Blade Runner?” Listen to Thomson and find out.
Entertainment Weekly has a list of the all-time top cult classics, though I’d argue that some of them, like “Blade Runner,” “Spinal Tap,” and “Willie Wonka” are now so firmly and widely established they are canonical. The A.V. Club has an edgier list and I like the way they helpfully point out the movies influenced by their choices and give their honest view of how well the films on the list hold up.
I don’t think a movie has to be a horror film or low-budget to be a cult classic. It just has to have a small but passionate audience. The best cult films gradually find a broader fan base — or maybe it just takes a while to find its audience — or for the audience to catch up to it. My favorite cult classics include Office Space
This easy-going comic “Northern” (that’s a western set up north) stars John Wayne and the lovely Capucine
Charlie Chaplin memorably turns shoelaces into spaghetti in this Klondike classic.
Werner Herzog’s tragic documentary about a man who wanted to live with grizzly bears is a thoughtful meditation on the impulse to go to extremes.
Hope and Crosby’s “Road” travels take them to Alaska in this silly comedy.
This beloved television series about a naive young doctor is well loved for its endearing characters and understated humor.
, based on a play by Gore Vidal and starring Henry Fonda and Cliff Robertson. Today’s viewers might be confused by the idea that the candidate was not actually selected until the convention but the strategies and moral conflicts will seem very contemporary. 
, based on the true story of the young reporters who investigated the Watergate break-in and found layers of deception and cover-up that led to the only Presidential resignation in US history. And I was glad to see the only Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn movie directed by Frank Capra on the list, 
. He plays an industrialist encouraged to run for office by a manipulative political operator and she is his estranged wife, brought into the campaign because — in those days — a candidate had to have an intact family. I’d also recommend another of their lesser-known collaborations, “Keeper of the Flame.” He is a reporter writing about her late husband, a revered statesman with what turns out to be a very ugly secret. A Congressman once told me the movie that seemed most authentic to his experience in politics was 
, with a sensational early performance by Meryl Streep. And I would also add Capra’s 
and the musical about the political meeting that started it all for the United States, 
.
, the trenchant satire 
, the documentary about Terry Gilliam’s failed attempt to make a Don Quixote movie, 
, Tim Burton’s black and white tribute to the man often named as the worst director ever with Johnny Depp as 
. Demko also includes some movies about television like the story of the Letterman/Leno battle, 
.
, the hilarious saga of a Revolutionary War movie taking over a small college town, 
, David Mamet’s witty satire 
, and of course the all-time favorite about the beginning of the sound era, 
. Here Gene Kelly and Donald O’Connor turn an elocution lesson into a dance number: