Let's Do the Time Warp: 40yrs of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975)

[roamyn]

Today is the 40th anniversay of the release of The Rocky Horror Picture Show .

One of the very few interactive movies ever.

It gave us such great stars, pre-stardom, like Susan Sarandon, Barry Bostwick, Meatloaf, the insanely talented Tim Curry, and the already famous Charles Gray & Richard O'Brien.

There are timeless songs, quotable lines, bi-sexuality, lucious red lips, a final climatic scene reminiscent of 40s movies, a moral to the story.

There is so much to still enjoy and discover abt the movie.

(And it takes place just outside my beloved Cleveland.)

What are some of youe memories - good & bad, abt RHPS?

[revbfc]

I first got into RHPS back in the 80's when I was 11 or 12. It was just such a strange experience and I was fascinated by the lack of logical sense anything in the movie made. I think my favorite memory was when I was in Germany in 87 and saw the home video version of the film. Seeing "Super Heroes" in its entirety was amazingly cool, though even at such a young age I understood why it was cut out of the U.S. version.

[Rick Kitchen]

I saw an ad at a theater that I went to this weekend saying they were going to be having a Rocky Horror shout-along showing coming soon.

[Bruinsfan]

The Plaza Theater in Atlanta has a midnight showing of the movie every Friday, I think with a live cast sing-along.

[Matt K]

I watched it on Saturday which was apparently the first time I saw it in its entirety.  As someone who is not a fan of musicals, I really enjoyed it.  There were a bunch of moments there surprised me (mainly Dr's rape-y scenes).  My favorite parts were where the Criminologist would cut into scenes and especially the songs (the cuts into Time Warp being my favorite).  

[Sharpie66]

The first I had ever heard of RHPS was when I saw the movie Fame in the theater in 1980, which included the scene of two of the kids seeing it. I finally saw it myself in Milwaukee in the mid-80s when I was in college, but the audience was pretty small. The people acting along were good, but the film's incoherence after the mid-point just bored me.

For any fans of the miniseries I, Claudius, the actress who played Magenta was Lavilla, Claudius's sister who slept with Patrick Stewart's Sejanus, and the actor who played Nero was a guest at Frank's mansion.

[Shannon L.]

 

The first I had ever heard of RHPS was when I saw the movie Fame in the theater in 1980, which included the scene of two of the kids seeing it.

Me, too!  I don't remember when I actually watched it, though.  I enjoyed most of it, but got bored by the end.  My husband used to reenact it at the local theater and we went to see it years after he'd stopped doing it and they'd turned into such a sexual show that it wasn't even funny.  He was sorely disappointed in the way they'd taken it. 

 

When it was on tv a couple of years ago, we started watching it with our 15 year old son and, just as Dr. Frank N. Furter whipped off his robe and spun around, our son looked at us with wide eyes and said "What are you letting me watch?!"  We laughed so hard--it was priceless. 

[Petunia13]

It's amazing to me how many people know nothing about this movie.

[King of Birds]

I know it's just a jump to the left! (and a step to the ri-i-i-i-i-ight)

[Rick Kitchen]

I saw the live play in Los Angeles many many years ago, and there were announcements that the audience was NOT to yell out during the production.  Most of the time, they were good, but at the spot where Frank is about to say, "Come!", somebody in the audience yelled out, "What's your favorite high protein drink?", and the actor playing Frank looked out to the crowd and said, "Milk, what's yours?", then went back into character.

[Delwyn]

I costume designed the stage show of Rocky Horror twice within one year, so this movie holds a very special place in my heart - I'm not kidding when I say I have it memorized. We incorporated the character of The Usherette: an actress to sing Science Fiction - Double Feature and to encourage a lot of the famous shout outs from the movie from the edge of the stage. After getting the performers ready for the first act, they would often plant me in the audience to help with the shout outs. Of course the cast were in on the joke: it was a nice way of breaking the fourth wall without disturbing the pacing. Weirdly enough, I find participation viewings of the film itself tiresome now, because I know what it can be like with live actors. I could definitely sing every song from the show/movie by heart, though. Most fun I will probably ever have on a production. And I love everything that Tim Curry chooses to be.

 

A couple years later on November 1st, a friend of mine was telling me about her work on some random set the previous day and how nice Barry Bostwick is and blah blah blah. I smacked her on the arm like ten times and told her she was an idiot because she spent all of Halloween with Brad Majors and never even noticed. Wasted moment!

 

[Petunia13]

Susan Sarandon was so beautiful in this. Her voice was so "Janet" compared to the one she uses in other roles. I still think she's so attractive and such a good actress.

As I mentioned it blows my mind so many acquaintances from work or my neighborhood ages 20-50 know nothing about this film and cult phenomenon. I didn't see The Room or The Hunger or Battlestar Gallactica but I have an awareness of some of the references and what they are. I probably pick up on and retain too much random stuff hahaha.

[nicepebbles]

A friend of mine in high school introduced me to the movie. She got tickets to a showing at a local theater and we went. I loved it! It was so much fun. At various times since, I have sat down and watched the whole thing. It's one of the few movies I will do that with. 

 

The first time I saw it, the only thing I really remembered Tim Curry from was the movie Clue so it surprising (pleasantly so) to see him in this kind of role. 

 

I don't think I've ever heard the lead actors talk about this movie. I don't think they are even asked about it. I would hope they are not ashamed to have done this movie. 

[Rick Kitchen]

Here's Susan Sarandon talking about it:

 

 

And here are Patricia Quinn and Barry Bostwick talking about it:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuUSU5HhJiQ