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labingiThe Rocky Horror Picture Show and The Prisoner
A friend has been deepening my awareness of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and one thing that's struck me as I've sat down and really considered the movie is how thematically close it is to The Prisoner.
I'm not a RHPS aficionado, so I don't know if the The Prisoner is commonly known to be an influence, but it makes sense that it would be. It's only about five years older and from the same country, and there's a remarkable similarity in blocking between some of the "Time Warp" ensemble scenes and some scenes of oddly costumed folks running about in the last episode of The Prisoner.
Beyond that visual resonance, however, it didn't initially occur to me to link these two texts. After all, when one thinks of TRHPS, one thinks of sex and lingerie, and The Prisoner is about an asexual aromantic in a trim, black, almost priestly suit and occasionally in well starched pajamas, being immune to all seductions.
But The Prisoner is about the fight for individuality, the determination not to be a number but an "I"--the "One" who is not a "unit of society" but a "free man." It is about a man who will face death, torture, and anything else you can throw at him rather than compromise his sense of self by conforming to the demands of the society he is enmeshed in. TRHPS is about the same thing.
TRHPS features a cast of characters almost all, in some sense, constrained by a social pressures that deny the validity of their selfhood. Brad and Janet appear to be contented conservatives until the film reveals their hankering for kinky sex, but because they've been told all their lives that kinky sex is not acceptable, they can't integrate this newfound aspect of themselves into their previous lives and are left lost and bereft, not knowing where to go. Little Nell is the classic teenager acting out, reveling in the sex and badness she's told she's not supposed to have and yet--even among her new, sexy friends--always a little ignored, just not someone who seems to matter, despite her glitter. Frank reads as a slightly older version of Little Nell: he has his performance down better, and he seems to be performing a role that is more comfortably "really him," yet he can't find acceptance either. At the end of the day, no one seems to care--or not enough. Riff Raff and Magenta read as the most individuated personalities, but they too are socially constrained in ways that perhaps read as more economic than sexual: they're stuck in a place they don't want to be in a job they'd rather not be doing. One might say they have to struggle to escape the constraints of the working class. Even Doctor Scott has family skeletons and clothing tastes that clearly conflict with his stately doctor image.*
Like The Prisoner's Number 6, these characters all feel their true identities to be at odds with requirements of social conformity, and to a greater or lesser extent, they are all prepared to battle to remain (become) themselves. If Number 6 seems less conflicted about the whole thing, it may be because he is that unusual person who really doesn't need other people very much. He actually is okay being "the lone wolf." The people in TRHPS, however, like most of us, need love. And there's the rub: they need to be who they are, and they need someone to love them, but they face a society that will not love them for who they are; it demands they be something else. And so they're faced with a choice between self-integrity and isolation or a fundamental denial of self and a different kind of loneliness. The only full exceptions are Riff Raff and Magenta, who truly love each other as they are, and thus, have infinitely less to lose in striking out alone (together). No wonder they are the only ones truly to escape.
* I'm not sure where Rocky fits in here. He reads as a very young child who has not yet reached this stage of identity-seeking.
A friend has been deepening my awareness of The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and one thing that's struck me as I've sat down and really considered the movie is how thematically close it is to The Prisoner.
I'm not a RHPS aficionado, so I don't know if the The Prisoner is commonly known to be an influence, but it makes sense that it would be. It's only about five years older and from the same country, and there's a remarkable similarity in blocking between some of the "Time Warp" ensemble scenes and some scenes of oddly costumed folks running about in the last episode of The Prisoner.
Beyond that visual resonance, however, it didn't initially occur to me to link these two texts. After all, when one thinks of TRHPS, one thinks of sex and lingerie, and The Prisoner is about an asexual aromantic in a trim, black, almost priestly suit and occasionally in well starched pajamas, being immune to all seductions.
But The Prisoner is about the fight for individuality, the determination not to be a number but an "I"--the "One" who is not a "unit of society" but a "free man." It is about a man who will face death, torture, and anything else you can throw at him rather than compromise his sense of self by conforming to the demands of the society he is enmeshed in. TRHPS is about the same thing.
TRHPS features a cast of characters almost all, in some sense, constrained by a social pressures that deny the validity of their selfhood. Brad and Janet appear to be contented conservatives until the film reveals their hankering for kinky sex, but because they've been told all their lives that kinky sex is not acceptable, they can't integrate this newfound aspect of themselves into their previous lives and are left lost and bereft, not knowing where to go. Little Nell is the classic teenager acting out, reveling in the sex and badness she's told she's not supposed to have and yet--even among her new, sexy friends--always a little ignored, just not someone who seems to matter, despite her glitter. Frank reads as a slightly older version of Little Nell: he has his performance down better, and he seems to be performing a role that is more comfortably "really him," yet he can't find acceptance either. At the end of the day, no one seems to care--or not enough. Riff Raff and Magenta read as the most individuated personalities, but they too are socially constrained in ways that perhaps read as more economic than sexual: they're stuck in a place they don't want to be in a job they'd rather not be doing. One might say they have to struggle to escape the constraints of the working class. Even Doctor Scott has family skeletons and clothing tastes that clearly conflict with his stately doctor image.*
Like The Prisoner's Number 6, these characters all feel their true identities to be at odds with requirements of social conformity, and to a greater or lesser extent, they are all prepared to battle to remain (become) themselves. If Number 6 seems less conflicted about the whole thing, it may be because he is that unusual person who really doesn't need other people very much. He actually is okay being "the lone wolf." The people in TRHPS, however, like most of us, need love. And there's the rub: they need to be who they are, and they need someone to love them, but they face a society that will not love them for who they are; it demands they be something else. And so they're faced with a choice between self-integrity and isolation or a fundamental denial of self and a different kind of loneliness. The only full exceptions are Riff Raff and Magenta, who truly love each other as they are, and thus, have infinitely less to lose in striking out alone (together). No wonder they are the only ones truly to escape.
* I'm not sure where Rocky fits in here. He reads as a very young child who has not yet reached this stage of identity-seeking.
no subject
Date: 2012-02-29 09:35 am (UTC)The comparison/contrast with the cast of RHPS is genius, and when you put it this way, it's hard to imagine that any piece of subversive English pop culture of around this vintage didn't have any Prisoner influence given what a monoculture England was at the time and how many people tuned in at least to "Fall Out."
no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 02:33 am (UTC)...they offer him all sorts of complex roles and roleplays, friends, lovers, a new body, a computer, and a clone of himself.
Boy, I need to watch the series again!
no subject
Date: 2012-03-01 07:41 pm (UTC)Also, seriously, we should watch a couple of episodes next time I'm down there. I don't think I've seen "Prisoner" with you since my first viewing of "Arrival."
Speaking of influential things that were never big in the US (but increasingly are now), there's a cute tiny display of fanmade Daleks at the Multnomah County Library. Made me smile.
no subject
Date: 2012-03-04 06:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 12:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-03-02 02:38 am (UTC)