The MoFo Top 100 of the 1970s: Countdown

I think anyone who saw ROCKY HORROR PICTURE SHOW only on a small screen on VHS or DVD or on VH1 can't say they dislike it with any certainty.

Although it wasn't produced to be viewed and acted out in midnight screenings with toast and squirt bottles and newspaper and toilet paper and rice and meat loaf and people dressed in costume, that's really the *only* way to see it.

That's the way I first saw it, back in the late '70s, with some friends who knew what props to bring because they were two years older than I was. And it was SO much fun to be a teenager, out that late with friends on a weekend, seeing that movie and participating in it like I was an Anglican taking communion on Palm Sunday.

I now own the DVD and have watched it occasionally, but the only reason it's worth watching that way is because I can remember seeing it the *right* way.

Oh, and Tim Curry is awesome. And so is the music. Catchy whether you like to admit it or not.

This was #20 on my list.

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Oh, I've been to shows. It ain't no Crystal Maze, that's for sure.

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"Critics are like eunuchs in a harem; they know how the Tatty 100 is done, they've seen it done every day, but they're unable to do it themselves." - Brendan Behan

And with The Rock Horror Picture Show, that makes four from my list. I have also seen The Mirror.

Seen 37/56

My list:

11. Mean Streets (77)
13. The Rocky Horror Picture Show (46)
15. Mad Max (70)
24. All the President’s Men (75)

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Fear and Loathing in MoFo... The Gunslinger 45's Top 50 Favorite Films

In the 10 Ring: Gunslinger45's reviews

Mine too. I made my list from memory (checking years of course cos my memory isn't that great any more!) . That's how come I've left so many great films off my list dammit!

I'm wondering about my number 5. I have a suspicion not many others will vote for it but I'm counting on Tatty!

I'm waiting to see the list of films that only got one person voting for it. I like to know the stories behind those. Perhaps we could have some discussion afterwards

A Woman Under the Influence is my number one pick for the 70s. I'm sure the other guy who agrees with me is Hitchfan.

Frightened Inmate No. 2 was the other MoFo who had that Cassavetes as their number one choice. HitchFan97 had it as their fourth overall pick.

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"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra

The Mirror was my #24, but i had two Tarkovsky's higher up on my list. haven't seen Rocky Horror but it doesn't look that appealing.

Now The Crystal Maze is much better. There again, I don't like musicals and love game shows.

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I really don't like all that Rocky Horror stuff . It gives me the creeps. The Wille Wonka film does too.

14 of the last 44 will be movies from my list! Whohooo!

I seen Rocky Horror back in the day at a midnight showing. I guess throwing stuff in a theater is fun. Fun, like pop rocks or pet rocks. Novel yes, great movie no.

I haven't seen The Mirror, but hold in high esteem Solaris. So I will be watching other Tarkovsky films.

Yeah, I just looked at some of the movies that you have on your ballot, and you think Willy Wonka and Rocky Horror are creepy? Alrighty. Seems to be a pretty malleable definition.

That sounds like a nightmare. I thought people just dressed up.

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The insanity varies. I went to one of them and it was beyond dressing up (rice and toast and things thrown at the screen), but not quite as nuts as it can be. I sat in the very back, which probably made the shenanigans a lot more tolerable, since they were all observed and I didn't have to get hit by anything.

Oh, heck no. Dressing up is only the beginning.

At certain lines in the movie (usually involving bad puns for the audience), audience members respond. During the raining scene in the beginning, for instance, audience members who came prepared hold newspapers open over their heads... to protect themselves from the other audience members who brought squirt guns and are dousing everyone around them as if it is raining.

There is also a lot of talking back to the screen. During the scene where Meat Loaf reappears (I won't say more), the audience, of course, yells, "Meat loaf AGAIN?"

And on it goes. It's like an interactive multimedia production with audience participation.

And, having had to clean an old vaudeville theater back when I was a teenager, I can fully appreciate the job those theater workers had to do whenever ROCKY HORROR was playing in one of their venues. God bless 'em. All that water. All that toilet paper. All that rice. Every weekend.

As a movie, it might not hold up. But I didn't go to see a movie. I went for the complete experience, and I wasn't disappointed. It was great fun, and I'm glad I got to do it when it was first hitting it big.

Where is Sexy with his gong now, shouting "this is supposed to be a movie list". I am sure it has its appeal to people who are not sticks in the mud. Two thumbs pointing back at this guy.

I still have not seen it live in the theater. I need to correct this.

Well there's two movies I would never have thought to vote for, but I'm sure that only two or three people would have thought to vote for Richard Pryor Live in Concert, so in that way, I can relate to the personal love of a film that means so much to someone - that seems to be talking directly to you, either in a totally fun or a deeply profound way.

I have never gone to a midnight show of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (intentionally) even though I frequented several theatres that had one every week. As far as the movie goes, unassisted, it's an OK, campy, self-aware sci-fi musical that has fun playing with sex and gender. As has been stated, Tim Curry was born to play Dr. Frank-N-Furter. He definitely makes the movie worth a watch, although there's also a young Susan Sarandon (five years after Joe). I don't have much to add, but I don't think anyone should miss the movie itself, even if they follow my lead by avoiding the audience participation.

The Mirror is one of Tarkovsky's slow, thoughtful and beautiful epics which doesn't hit me on an emotional or personal level (apparently unlike the cleaning lady and some of you ), but for those MoFos it does, I think that's great. I've seen it multiple times, and I will again. I find it much more beautiful than Stalker, and it's more-haunting to me, but it's still lacking something which I can relate to that I get from earlier Tarkovskys. I prefer Ivan's Childhood, Andrei Rublev and Solaris, and although I'm sure that they're loved by many, I've seen all three attacked here as being slow and boring.

The inclusion of both of these movies makes me glad to be a part of MoFo. It does make this list personal for the ones who voted for them and for those who didn't. Afterall it's OUR list. These two films (as well as A Woman Under the Influence) would be in a Top 100 of the '70s of any reputable group. I think this list does have a couple of left-field choices, but what list doesn't? Whenever somebody puts forth a new list to include in our MoFo Lists, somebody always complains that it's missing or includes something to "invalidate" it. That's the nature of the beast. Just be happy that we can add some lists from elsewhere (hint - documentaries and animated - hint) and create our own. Yeah, it should be and is fun, but a sense of seriousness in what we're doing doesn't hurt. For now, that's all, folks!

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I was hoping against hope that "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" would not make the list, but I just knew that it would. Yes, the songs are kind of fun, but it's such a stupid movie.

And yes, I have seen it, in the theater, with all the mayhem, over a hundred times.

When I was in college, it played at the local movie theater every Friday and Saturday night, and that's where all my friends were, so my choices were either go see a stupid movie again, or stay home alone and study. (Sometimes I think I made the wrong choice every week.)

But on the lighter side, I met my college boyfriend because of "Rocky Horror". After more than a year of watching that stupid movie every week, I saw him walking out of the theater in the middle of the movie, so I followed him to see if he was another poor soul who was dragged to it every week, and it turned out that he was. So we switched to the theater playing "Pink Floyd's The Wall", and we talked and became friends over our hatred of "Rocky Horror". We went out for over five years before we eventually broke up.