It's not a cult classic. SW has a pretty mainstream fan based audience.
In general, cult classics are movies that didn't do well at the box office and garnered interest from a particular audience afterwards. A good well known example of a cult classic (but there are many) is Blade Runner: it got slashed by critics when it came out, it didn't do too well, but it has a defintive group of fans that loved the movie and it has gotten more positive press in the years after.
SW was a box office hit. All six movies did very well. Hardly a cult following, it's a very succesfull mass entertainment product.
That's effectively my point in a nutshell, courtesy of Alliance. SW has a cult following, but it is atypical for a "cult classic" because it's following has transcended the boundaries the term is usually defined by.
I mean, Star Wars has created an officially recognised religion of around 600,000 Jedi worldwide. That isn't a cult following? Please.
Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
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It's not offically recognised, geez.
Just because there are some particulary committed devotees in no way makes this a cult movie. It's not transcending any meaning- it's simply NOT that meaning.
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Maybe not by other institutions, but in England and Wales, the census recongnised the Jedi as it's own category, not simply as "other". Surely this makes it officially recognised, by the very people compiling the data.
Some commited devotees? Ush, these people express all manner of cult-like behaviour in the ways Blade Runner or Logan's Run fans would, yet there are simply 100 times as many of them. There can be no true definition for "cult classic" because it's subjective, and to trying to parade "cult films" as simply non-mainstream films is flawed, as Star Wars and Star Trek prove.
Or are Trekkies simply an urban myth?
Last edited by exanda kane on Jun 19th, 2007 at 11:13 AM
Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Chelmsford, Essex, UK
Moderator
It doesn;t matter if they follow what you deem to be 'cult' like behaviour. That does not make Star Wars a cult film because the majority of its viewers and supporters do not fit that type. 'Cult' films have a small but loyal fanbase. That is, in no way at all, even vaguely a definition of Star Wars, which is a populist movie. It's all very well for you to say 'there can be no true definition for cult classic', but with all due respect, that's just you talking rubbish. There IS a definition and it is not something you can just re-define to suit yourself.
Meanwhile, you are wrong again. It is a popular and rather dumb myth that 'Jedi' as a religion got any form of official recognition as a religion in the UK. All it got as recognition was that people were responding with that answer, which means nothing, as the census people specifically pointed out. Half a million people could put down 'cactus' and they would note it, doesn't make 'cactus' a religion. 'Jedi' is not and will not be a religion.
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Last edited by Ushgarak on Jun 19th, 2007 at 11:26 AM
Now, what is rubbish is that you presume there can be a true definition. Now notice the use of true here, for sometimes we must give flawed definitions to things simply so we can make meaning. I suspect you understand that, and I won't insult your intelligence by reiterating it again. Again, do you deny the existence of he most iconic "cult" of them all, the Trekkies? Is Star Trek not mainstream? or will you re-define the meaning to deny the obvious?
Certainly, a populist movie, but how can you dismiss the huge cult following Star Wars has, both from the general cinema goer and the incredibly zealous devotee's.
Actually, I'm completely right, although I certainly use the term "official" liberously, I have no quarrel admitting that. The Census had their own code for the response of "Jedi", not simply "other", because in England and Wales, it was the 4th largest recognised religion.
Your completely right that half a million people could right down cactus, but they did say "Jedi" and it just reaffirms the cult status it has with students (the majority of "jedi" responses came from uni-towns), even if it was done humurously.
I would say that it is because pretty much everybody I know or have ever asked either has loved Star Wars or hated it completely. So, at least in my area, it has a definitive group of fans.
SW is and was no cult. SW was a hit movie. The point about cult movies in general is that they are not box office hits, but have despite their lack of populist success a loyal but small fanbase. If the fan base is not small, there's no need to call it a cult.
And Jedi religion was a joke. It doesn't exist because no one can tell you what it is, where and how to practise it. To even discuss that is ridiculous.
Star Wars - cult classic?
Jun 18th, 2007 07:24 PM
) are a cult in more than one sense of the word. 
