The most polarising movie in cinema history, according to science
All art is subjective, and its merits are held entirely in the eye of the beholder, so there aren’t many movies that can truly be called universally adored. There are films regarded as classics that certain people hate, just like there are some awful films a hardy band of supporters will defend to the death, but what’s the most polarising picture ever made?
It’s a loaded question, and one that doesn’t have a definitive answer. No filmmaker is confident or arrogant enough to believe that every audience member will instantly fall in love with their latest feature, and no director sets out to make a bad movie on purpose.
The movies that split opinion like no other are in the middle of that spectrum. Some folks adore them, and others abhor them, and it can’t be measured in box office dollars or awards season glory. Marvel Studios is responsible for several of the highest-grossing releases of all time, but it’s an understatement to say that not every cinephile gets their kicks from superheroes and comic book adaptations.
Along similar lines, Shakespeare in Love and Driving Miss Daisy both won ‘Best Picture’, and it’s not as if they’re fondly remembered as deserving winners of the Academy Awards’ most prestigious trophy. As the old saying goes: opinions are like assholes. Everybody has one, and when they exist in direct opposition to each other, you’ve got yourself a wildly polarising work of cinema.
If anything, the methodology used by Stat Significant makes perfect sense. In order to determine which movie more viewers loved to hate or simply loved more than any other, the boffins sifted through over 20 million user-generated ratings collected between 1995 and 2015 to find the film that fluctuated the most between one-star and five-star assessments.
Then again, the results may not be as convincing as anyone would expect from science when the most polarising movie in cinema history was deemed to be Ed Wood’s Plan 9 from Outer Space, which only creates more questions. Yes, it’s generally seen as one of the worst affronts to the good name of cinema committed to celluloid, but that’s why it’s become a cult classic.
It’s an irredeemably shitty movie without a doubt, but it’s so crap that it’s come full-circle and is now beloved in certain quarters, based entirely on how shoddy it is in every respect. In a way, it’s Wood’s masterpiece because it’s arguably the only one of his features that has enjoyed a lengthy shelf life.
On the other hand, nobody could call it a good film with a straight face, so does that really make it polarising? For obvious reasons, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ is second. When it hit cinemas, it was the top-earning R-rated movie and the highest-grossing independent flick ever, but it goes without saying that it catered to a specific demographic.
The first instalment in the Twilight franchise is third, which ticks a lot of similar boxes. That said, John Waters’ Pink Flamingos takes fourth place and undoubtedly hits the criteria. However, science is science, so Plan 9 from Outer Space it is.
