From the Angelfire website: http://www.angelfire.com/in/rockypics/right/meaning.html
The Meaning of The Rocky Horror Picture Show
I believe that Rocky can't have it's full meaning for the younger generation of fans. For those who saw it when it first came out it was a symbol of its era. I can't really think of any 'modern' parallels. In the movie "Mr Holland's Opus" at one point there is a series of stills of symbols of the '70s, including Frank by the throne in Sweet Transvestite. This really brought it home to me. Rocky was, for the first generation of fans, the ghost of past decadence and it was a home to a homeless class of people. Just remember that while reading the rest and try and keep it in mind afterwards because the attitude of fans towards the movie has changed. Now a lot of people are only interested in having a night out, AP, and picking out continuity faults etc. Just think on it and work it out for yourself. I guess I'll get a load of complaints for saying this but it's my site and my opinion and you're entitled to your own. If you feel really strongly about this, mail me with the link at the bottom. I haven't really explained it very well but maybe you know what I mean.
This movie really does mean completely different things (or nothing) for different people so don't take my word as law or anything. This is just the meaning I have found in it.
Richard O'Brien (the author who also plays Riff Raff) has taken the innocent kitsch fantasies of the 50s - horror movies, Charles Atlas muscle ads, sequinned pop stars (Columbia is a groupie) - and turned them into the high camp sensuality of the 70s.
The moral of this movie is the "Don't dream it; be it" and this works very effectively.
It is also a homage to B-movies: "Science Fiction - Double Feature" is full of their titles and actors. Frank is a parody on a kind of cross between "Dracula" and "Frankenstein" (hence his name?). Blood-sucking, when "Dracula" was written, was the sex-substitute of a repressed society, and in "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" they just use the real thing. Brad Majors and Janet Weiss are a typical American, middle-class, repressed, pre-pill couple who are to be the innocent victims of Dr. Frank 'n' Furter. The "Time Warp" is a kind of worrying ritual, unique to the inhabitants of Transsexual, like the witches in "Macbeth". It is quite an interesting idea to have this song which is similar to a national anthem but includes their whole world.
Brad and Janet are used to live out the audience's fantasies for them. This also warns us against ourselves and our sense of judgement. Columbia's speech:
"My God, I can't stand anymore of this, first you spurn me for Eddie and then you throw him off like an old overcoat for Rocky. You chew people up and then you spit them out again. I loved you, do you hear me? I loved you. And what did it get me? Yeah, I'll tell you: a big nothing! You're like a sponge: you take, take, take and drain others of their love and emotion. Yeah, well I've had enough. You've got to choose between me and Rocky, so named after the rocks in his head."
shows that people can make unreasonable demands and also that if you love someone, or think you do, then you won't want to disappoint them and you let them make demands of you which you wouldn't let other people make.
Rocky symbolises the early loss of innocence: in the seven hours he lives he is chased by a transvestite, witnesses a murder, tries two kinds of sex (gay and straight) and witnesses two more murders before being killed himself. He is also a parody on Frankenstein's monster: he is beautiful but has his faults just like the rest of us:
"I'm just seven hours old,
Truly beautiful to behold,
And somebody should be told,
My libido hasn't been controlled,
Now the only thing I've come to trust,
Is an orgasmic rush of lust,
Rose tints my world,
Keeps me safe from my trouble and pain."
Like Frankenstein, when he starts to build his 'monster' (Rocky) leaves his lover (Columbia):
"It was great when it all began,
I was a regular Frankie fan,
But it was over when he had the plan
To start working on a muscle man,
Now the only thing that gives me hope,
Is my love of a certain dope,
Rose tints my world
Keeps me safe from my trouble and pain".
On Cosmos Factory it says that by "a certain dope", Columbia means Eddie (in the Floorshow part a:- Rose Tints My World) but I'm not so sure, if it said "the only thing that gave me hope" then yes but Eddie is dead and that wouldn't give you hope, seeing the man you love murder the man you "very nearly loved".
The "Floorshow" is very significant and is where a lot of the morals and ideals behind the movie become apparent. The
"don't dream it; be it"
comes up and also the line at the end of a lot of the verses:
"rose tints my world
Keeps me safe from my trouble and pain"
tells us that we all have a kind of comfort blanket and that this is different for everyone.
We all have a bit of Brad or Janet in us although we probably wouldn't want to admit it after we first saw the movie. Any normal person should try to hold back from what is considered immoral by the society they live in. The problem for Janet was that she liked to show all her feminine weaknesses. Brad thinks that if no one knows about something then it will go away and does not matter. Like after he fucks Frank - he thinks that's perfectly OK as long as Janet doesn't find out. They both show hypocrisy in that they both sleep with someone else (in Janet's case twice!) yet expect the other to stay faithful.
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