Robert Rodriguez names his favourite cult movies
Although he’s recently gotten into bed with major studios and massive conglomerates like 20th Century Fox, Disney, Lucasfilm, and Netflix, Robert Rodriguez will always be renowned for using his signature brand of guerrilla-style filmmaking to build a long-lasting career on his own terms.
His debut feature, El Mariachi, was famously shot on a shoestring budget of only $7,000, but he never lost that do-it-yourself work ethic when he graduated to the big time in Hollywood. Founding Los Hooligans Productions in 1991, Rodriguez eventually established Troublemaker Studios, a sprawling multimedia organisation that allows him to maintain a rare level of creative control.
In addition to being a writer, director, and producer, Rodriguez has also been credited as a sound editor, music editor, sound effects designer, camera operator, composer, production designer, visual effects supervisor, Steadicam operator, and music producer on a number of his productions, making him one of the most well-rounded and versatile talents in the industry.
El Mariachi, Desperado, Sin City, and Machete are just four of his features to have attained cult status in one way or another, making it an arena in which the filmmaker is vastly experienced. As a result, it’s far from shocking to discover that the curated list he provided to The Daily Beast features some of the cultiest cult films that have ever culted.
Sharing an appreciation of Rolling Thunder alongside Quentin Tarantino, Rodriguez admitted that “you see its influence in just about every one of my movies.” John Carpenter is another clear and obvious inspiration, with two of the legendary director’s titles making the cut.
For Rodriguez, Escape from New York “opened up my eyes to the kinds of movies I wanted to do and be a filmmaker for because of the freedom that it suggested,” while The Thing “showed me how malleable material can be” and instilled a key aspect of his writing process, which always finds him “trying to get the most out of the actor with the character” after being blown away by Kurt Russell’s MacReady.
Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead II was “a big influence on films like From Dusk Till Dawn,” John Landis’ An American Werewolf in London was a touchstone “in terms of the weird juxtaposition of laugh-out-loud comedy mixed with really horrific sequences,” while screenwriter Eric Red’s The Hitcher and Near Dark are also mentioned, with their influences apparent on everything from The Faculty to Planet Terror.
The gloriously cheesy Flash Gordon “certainly wasn’t perfect,” but Rodriguez instead offered that “you end up loving things for what it is,” and the fantasy fable is certainly a widely popular cult classic. The first two entries in George Miller’s Mad Max franchise taught the aspiring filmmaker a lot, too, but not in the expected fashion.
“What was surprising about Mad Max is that the first time I saw it, it was dubbed with American accents,” Rodriguez said. “It was a real lesson in dubbing and how important sound is, because they seemed like the worst actors in the world due to the poor voice acting. When they finally reissued it with the Australian accents, the performances are so amazing.” Miller’s dust-and-blood thrillers are a clear and obvious forebear to Machete above all, Rodriguez’s opinions on cult cinema in general are hardly out of left field, but nonetheless, films most would agree on.
Robert Rodriguez’s favourite cult movies:
- Rolling Thunder (John Flynn, 1977)
- Escape from New York (John Carpenter, 1981)
- The Thing (John Carpenter, 1982)
- Evil Dead II (Sam Raimi, 1987)
- An American Werewolf in London (John Landis, 1981)
- Near Dark (Kathryn Bigelow, 1987)
- The Hitcher (Robert Harmon, 1986)
- Flash Gordon (Mike Hodges, 1980)
- Mad Max (George Miller, 1979)
- The Road Warrior (George Miller, 1981)
