vs. 
In which I prove that a 17-year-old movie you've never heard of is better in many ways than the huge enourmous blockbuster that some people think actually deserves an Oscar.
vs. In which I prove that a 17-year-old movie you've never heard of is better in many ways than the huge enourmous blockbuster that some people think actually deserves an Oscar.
I'm sure that most of you reading this are here because you love Titanic, and maybe a very few of you are here because you like Shock Treatment. No one has ever heard of Shock Treatment, it was never nominated for any awards, and most critics hate it. So why, you may ask, am I comparing it to one of the most popular movies ever and actually taking the side of the low-budget musical over the blockbuster love story? The answer is relatively simple. I started out comparing Titanic to Good Will Hunting, my Oscar pick, but it was too easy! Then, angry about the record being broken, I set out to compare it to Star Wars--again, too easy. This page is a challenge for me: to compare a movie which I like but which has litle merit to one that I consider even worse, but which everyone else seems to like. Here are the results.
Shock Treatment: A young couple wind up on a TV game show to try to fix their failing mariage, and instead, the man is dragged off to the loony bin. His wife, meanwhile, becomes a superstar as the sponsor of the TV studio that doubles as the entire town plots to have her for himself. Can you find me one, just one other movie with a remotely similar plot? Didn't think so.
Shock Treatment: Who can tell where Richard O'Brien came up with the strange characters inhabiting Denton? Thre's Bert Schnick, the game show host who pretends to be blind for some reason until halfway through the movie, Cosmo and Nation McKinley, an incestuous brother and sister team of false doctors from somewhere in Europe, and dozens of other completely original personas.
Shock Treatment: For some reason, Richard O'Brien and the rest of the creative team behind this movie actually believed in it. There was never any hope of making money off of it; it was made because someone thought it was a story worth telling.
Shock Treatment: There are people who have seen this movie over and over and over again, too. There are also people who spend hours upon hours sewing the perfect costume by hand, so they can go to a convention and yell out the latest clever audience participation lines. People will do that for Titanic when pigs fly.
Shock Treatment: No one has a right to critisize this movie until you've heard "Bitchin' in the Kitchen" or "Little Black Dress" or the title song, "Shock Treatment," among others. The music is fabulous, and it keeps the movie going at a lively pace. All fot he songs are sung by artists with unique voices and interpretations, from Nell Campbell's annoying sqeak to Jessica Harper's deep, rich voice to Cliff DeYoung's duet with himself--complete with two diferent personalities.
Shock Treatment: This is one of those rare movies that actually gets better each time you see it. Every time, the plot becomes clearer, and you can tke time to look around at the set and costumes, and maybe even catch a hidden joke or deeper insight.
Shock Treatment: "The sun never sets on those who ride into it." Think about it for a while. I bet you Titanic fans still won't get it.
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