framptonhollis An influence on everyone from Scorsese to Lynch to Waters to most-music-video-directors-and-editors, 'Scorpio Rising' is one of the most important and revolutionarily inventive and subversive avant garde films of all time. Its content is edgy and over the top, and the film is filled to the brim w/obvious flaws and muddled messages, but all in all, it is one of my personal favorite films of all time. It was one of the first experimental films I ever saw, and the totally ironic usage of lighthearted pop songs juxtaposed w/the occasionally brutal and oft-deliberately-offensive-and-blashphemous-slash-sacrilegious content had a huge impact on me and the way I, myself, saw and made movies. So I owe a huge debt to Kenneth Anger and this film, even if, after quite a few rewatchings now, there are a few admittedly somewhat eye rollingly edgy moments, but, in the film's defense, it is important to acknowledge the time in which it was made and who exactly had made it. The "edginess" of the film isn't exactly the same brand of edginess an indie film that would contain some of the images in here would usually contain, as it was genuinely risky stuff to release back in the '60's. This film isn't afraid to intercut footage taken from some cheap and kinda cliche Sunday-school-style religious movie about Jesus w/some punkish occultist Neo-Nazis getting ready to wreak havoc and cause violent and sexual troubles (either respectively or not, depending on the individual wreaking the havoc, I guess), this film isn't afraid to be intentionally over-the-top homoerotic and practically worship the hunky male form, this film isn't afraid to show nudity or weird pervy sex acts or any of that. It is fearless and perhaps a bit ridiculous, but an important staple of experimental cinema and just plain old cinema in general.

erskine-bridge Sometimes experimental films have to be endured rather than enjoyed - this isn't the case with Scorpio Rising, which is utterly compelling from start to finish. This film's imagery has clearly been carefully studied by the likes of John Waters and David Lynch and it's hard to believe just how modern it still looks. My take on this is that it's an exploration of the present day cult of toxic masculinity. Any truly great work of art allows you to suddenly see the familiar in a new way and thus adds to your own layers of understanding. Scorpio Rising looks at western culture through the eyes of a gay man, and through the juxtaposition of images and use of pop songs highlights its absurd fetishisation of masculine power and dominance. This can be seen by the masculine, phallic shapes of buildings and vehicles in western culture, which are invisible to us, as we are integrated into this culture, but clear to any outsider with a rudimentary understanding of Freudian psychology.As I understand it, and I'm no expert, there are twelve Astrological Ages in total; one for each constellation of the zodiac. Each Age lasts for approximately 2160 years. Anger was a student of the work of Aleister Crowley and, like many in the 60s, believed that the present age would soon end and we would usher in the Age of Aquarius, characterised by a dominant world view in which the individual is allowed his/her freedom to actualise as an independently liberated being yet still participate in group life in the spirit of altruism and humanitarianism. The age we are living in now, however, is dominated by Scorpio, which is concerned with issues like sex, power, control and death. As traditionally feminine values are derided in our culture we have built machines in our own masculine image. We have over-powered weapons which can destroy the globe 100 times over and we revel in our mastery over machines. We fetishise cars and weapons in our films and books and we celebrate creativity which is destructive rather than constructive. Our God is an angry father and our religions are male death cults; the cutting between the images of Jesus and the all-male disciples and the images of the all-male biker gang hammer this home. Masculinity has reached its zenith and this celebration of the ridiculous and over-inflated male ego suggests that it will all end as it began - in violence. I loved this film.

arfdawg-1 An army of gay/nazi bikers make their engines roar and ride the way to pain/pleasure as sexual and sadistic symbols are intercut into the dazing chaos and rhythmic experiences of this underground film by cult director Anger. Let's be honest.The ONLY reason this movie gets any traction is because of the overtly gay theme.Standing on its own, the movie stinks. It's crudely made and is boring. The 20-ish minutes feels like three hours.It's really sad that the agenda of the left crowds around inferior product just because of the agenda.

nycruise-1 The film turns out to be a riff on the gay fetish for black leather - and all the imagery/rites associated with it.The Black Leather scene - certainly in the 60s - was very codified, and incorporated drugs (much like all gay culture at the time).The songs chosen have, no doubt, much appeal to the gay community of the time ("Heat Wave" is also heard in "Boys in the Band), most of them citing lustful love from a female point of view.There are coy/blatant references to water sports, anal rape, fisting and "pussy" (in the form of an on screen cat).Anger's black leather queens doll themselves up in leather gear which is uber-accentuated with studs and other forms of steel (no real bikers ever wear that stuff). This is then intercut with footage of genuine, presumably str8 biker clubs (note the motorcyclers in the exterior shots - those racing each other - do not sport all the "accessories" that the black leather queens do, but, rather, "simple" black leather jackets, besides which, the biker clubbers actually seem to be wearing SHIRTS under their jackets - as opposed to the leather queens who do not).There is also plenty of idolization of James Dean and Marlon Brando, two movie stars who, in addition to having gained fame as young punks who wear leather jackets, were also two of the most sexually-ambiguous male stars of their time. Anger, having grown up in Hollywood, might even have known men who slept with Dean and Brando! The whole Jesus/male-bonding thing is ingenious. As for the references to Hitler, well, perhaps Anger was Jewish and put Adolf in there to make it seem as if the life of a black leather queen is one which continually lived on the edge, always testing limits to see how far can go beyond them. Or maybe Anger was simply citing irony in the persecution of gays during the Third Reich compared to the subsequent gay American leather culture of the 50s/60s which is grounded in the role-playing of bondage and domination.