Themed Thursday p4

Spudguns!  It's Thursday, and yeah I know I missed last week's. But, it's a new month, so we're moving on to the next theme which is...Frankenstein.

Movie: Rocky Horror Picture Show
starring: Tim Curry, Susan Sarandon
genre: Musical, Comedy, Sci-fi,
year: 1975
format: DVD

plot: When young couple Brad and Janet find themselves stranded on one rainy night, they have no choice but to seek shelter in the old castle on the hill. To their fear and slight disgust, they find themselves in the middle of a party being thrown by Dr. Frank n Furter. He's celebrating the birth of his new creation. Before the night is over, our couple find they've faced all kinds of personal and moral dilemmas.

I've talked about this movie a few times over the years, but I just could not do a Frankenstein pack without it. (I'm going to just focus on the Frankenstein element.)

The creature - Rocky- is from all we can tell; made up from not the usual "spare parts" of corpses found in the original Frankenstein, but from those closest to Frank N Furter. ( He uses half the brain of Eddie and half of Riff Raff's hair.) Rocky is then brought to life in the lab, hit with a jolt of electricity not from lightening, but from the mire hard work of Riff Raff, who is constantly turning a crank wheel.
Unlike the original Frankenstein, this version does not have the doctor abandoning his creature in self loathing, but reveling in it. Both literally and figuratively.  Frank N Furter is very proud of his creation. However, he does grow bored of Rocky quickly, leaving the creature to be first tortured by Riff Raff, (he scares it with fire) and then left alone. Rocky then "finds a friend" in Janet; which also to some extent parallels the idea in the original story. (going in search of someone to teach him and find companionship)

I always found it a little odd that even though Rocky can not seem to talk, he can sing.

The original story of Frankenstein is about pushing the boundaries of faith and science. This however, is about pushing personal boundaries of comfort and self expression. Both are stories about morality and mortality.  The original Frankenstein, has the creature as an immortal that can not be physically harmed, where as Rocky Horror, the creature is easily wounded.

The whole idea of not facing the consequences of your actions, is down played till the very end of the film. It isn't until we see Magenta and Riff Raff declare they are going back to their planet because Frank N Furter went too far with his ideas; that any kind of real issue is made. Up till this point the film, is pretty unbalanced with the "cause and effect" of the "creator's" responsibility. It's literally a case of  great party but who's going to clean up the mess?  This is the one major difference between Rocky Horror Picture Show, and pretty much every other Frankenstein version/remake.

When you strip away the other elements and look at the fact the doctor in the original story and Frank N Furter's character here, are both too prideful of their work, you see the real thread that makes the story timeless.  And both end up asking you "how far is too far?"

Well, that's about it for this week.  300 Days till Hallowe'en