There's only power, BIM is the power.
February 5, 2016 11:51 AM Subscribe
In 1980, Menahem Golan showed us a harrowing vision of the power of rock...in 1994 The Apple is a futuristic, dystopian disco rock musical that also manages to be a druggy, sexy biblical allegory.
It's dystopia. It's disco. It's a rock opera. It's biblical allegory. It's parable. It's insanity.
The Apple is a wildly ambitious film set in a near-future when an evil fascist disco record producer (who is probably the devil also maybe?) named Mr. Boogelow rules over a population held in tightly-controlled sway by pop music.
The resulting film is a heady cocktail of glittering disco style, mylar, endlessly futuristic production design (in which even mundane items like champagne flutes and saxophones become shiny and angular), and energetic production numbers about sex, temptation and amphetamine use whose lyrical metaphors wouldn't be considered thinly-veiled under the most charitable of circumstances.
If it was a fetish or affectation in the late 1970s, chances are it gets some screen time in this movie.
The film also has the single most insane example of deus ex machine you're likely to ever see in a motion picture.
Released in an age before irony, The Apple was savaged critically and ignored commercial upon it's initial release, where it was released at all.
Critics tore into it for its "relentless bad taste" while audiences reacted more immediately by hurling their complementary copies of the soundtrack album at cinema screens.
This week Earwolf's How Did This Get Made podcast takes this trash classic on in front of a live audience decked out in their own BIM marks.
Coinciding with this, /Film has also put together an oral history of The Apple where they talk to the film's writer, editor, composer, and its star Catherine Mary Stewart.
For an even deeper dive, The Projection Booth has an extremely in-depth episode of their podcast where they talk to several people involved with the film's producition.
It's dystopia. It's disco. It's a rock opera. It's biblical allegory. It's parable. It's insanity.
The Apple is a wildly ambitious film set in a near-future when an evil fascist disco record producer (who is probably the devil also maybe?) named Mr. Boogelow rules over a population held in tightly-controlled sway by pop music.
The resulting film is a heady cocktail of glittering disco style, mylar, endlessly futuristic production design (in which even mundane items like champagne flutes and saxophones become shiny and angular), and energetic production numbers about sex, temptation and amphetamine use whose lyrical metaphors wouldn't be considered thinly-veiled under the most charitable of circumstances.
If it was a fetish or affectation in the late 1970s, chances are it gets some screen time in this movie.
The film also has the single most insane example of deus ex machine you're likely to ever see in a motion picture.
Released in an age before irony, The Apple was savaged critically and ignored commercial upon it's initial release, where it was released at all.
Critics tore into it for its "relentless bad taste" while audiences reacted more immediately by hurling their complementary copies of the soundtrack album at cinema screens.
This week Earwolf's How Did This Get Made podcast takes this trash classic on in front of a live audience decked out in their own BIM marks.
Coinciding with this, /Film has also put together an oral history of The Apple where they talk to the film's writer, editor, composer, and its star Catherine Mary Stewart.
For an even deeper dive, The Projection Booth has an extremely in-depth episode of their podcast where they talk to several people involved with the film's producition.
I also love this movie! It's such a trip. If you haven't seen it, please seek it out. You will be disappointed in the most thrilling ways!
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:04 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:04 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
My coworker downloaded the Rifftrax but was having trouble burning it to disc, so I did it for him today. I want to see this (and any other Cannon/Golan-Globus film) very badly.
posted by infinitewindow at 12:04 PM on February 5, 2016
posted by infinitewindow at 12:04 PM on February 5, 2016
[spoiler] The first time I saw it I did not pick up on ANY of the GLARINGLY OBVIOUS allegorical stuff and was totally blow away by the Buick ex machina ending.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:05 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by everybody had matching towels at 12:05 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
The Apple, loved wholly and genuinely by me (Rifftrax? How Did This Get Made? Please... the movie is all kinds of awesome on its own), is also featured in the very entertaining documentary Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films. If you like disco cinema, I'd recommend watching the Bollywood film Disco Dancer.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:14 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:14 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
When Kelly Clarkson's 'Heartbeat Song' came out, I couldn't help but snicker, thinking about the opening portion of the movie.
The reggae part, though. Actual pain.
posted by cobaltnine at 12:16 PM on February 5, 2016
The reggae part, though. Actual pain.
posted by cobaltnine at 12:16 PM on February 5, 2016
I'm pretty sure this was the inspiration for WHAS's "Electro-City."
posted by Navelgazer at 12:18 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Navelgazer at 12:18 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I got it on DVD many years ago. The subtle themes woven throughout really need time to be digested; the nature of life, love, our place in the universe. It can be enjoyed as just a beautiful film, but it’s really much deeper than that.
posted by bongo_x at 12:21 PM on February 5, 2016
posted by bongo_x at 12:21 PM on February 5, 2016
Yeah, when I saw The Apple, my first thought was "Ha ha ha ha, they thought the music industry would be powerful in the future!" and my second thought was, "Wow, Bim's 'exploitative' contract would have given that singer 50% of her album revenue! Not only is that not exploitative, that's insanely favorable!" Combine that with government-mandated midday dance breaks, and The Future has never looked brighter for musicians!
Bite the apple!
posted by panama joe at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]
Bite the apple!
posted by panama joe at 12:22 PM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]
The thing about this kind of film is that it cannot be made while winking from a safe remove.
You have to honestly, and earnestly, be reaching for something ambitious and you have to mean it.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 12:23 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
You have to honestly, and earnestly, be reaching for something ambitious and you have to mean it.
posted by Senor Cardgage at 12:23 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
Yeah, it's kinda like Birdemic in that regard.
posted by panama joe at 12:24 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by panama joe at 12:24 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
... er, excuse me. I meant to say Birdemic : Shock And Terror.
posted by panama joe at 12:25 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by panama joe at 12:25 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
If you're into The Apple, may I wholeheartedly recommend Voyage of the Rock Aliens?
Full movie here
posted by wyndham at 12:26 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Full movie here
posted by wyndham at 12:26 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Seconding the recommendation of the Cannon Films documentary Electric Boogaloo.
posted by vibrotronica at 12:27 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by vibrotronica at 12:27 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also, here's a recent AvClub interview with Nigel Lythgoe, choreographer for The Apple and coincidentally (or not?) producer on American Idol and judge on So You Think You Can Dance.
posted by panama joe at 12:30 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by panama joe at 12:30 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
Also: Nathan Rabin covered the Apple in his My Year of Flops column
posted by Kiablokirk at 12:32 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Kiablokirk at 12:32 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I had such a brutal time getting through that movie, yet I had to respect it.
posted by ignignokt at 12:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by ignignokt at 12:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
It is also the only Disco movie to ever reference Moose Jaw, SK.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:48 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:48 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
I had such a brutal time getting through that movie
Oh man I have watched it... many, many times.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:49 PM on February 5, 2016
Oh man I have watched it... many, many times.
posted by Ashwagandha at 12:49 PM on February 5, 2016
Oh, the fashions. Oh god the fashions in this movie are remarkable. BEARD GLITTER!
Also the movie itself is very silly. It ran at the Boston SciFi Film Marathon a few years back.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:00 PM on February 5, 2016
Also the movie itself is very silly. It ran at the Boston SciFi Film Marathon a few years back.
posted by rmd1023 at 1:00 PM on February 5, 2016
Wow, that's spooky. Unlike most of you kids, I was around in 1994 and that is exactly what it was like.
posted by Naberius at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
posted by Naberius at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
Is BIM on his way?
posted by porn in the woods at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by porn in the woods at 2:01 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Also the movie itself is very silly. It ran at the Boston SciFi Film Marathon a few years back.
And if I recall correctly, the film broke ten minutes before the end and the crowd (at least the riff-raff in the balcony) cheered.
Which was a little premature, because we were eventually treated to one of the greatest literal deus ex machina endings ever committed to film.
posted by Spatch at 2:33 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
And if I recall correctly, the film broke ten minutes before the end and the crowd (at least the riff-raff in the balcony) cheered.
Which was a little premature, because we were eventually treated to one of the greatest literal deus ex machina endings ever committed to film.
posted by Spatch at 2:33 PM on February 5, 2016 [3 favorites]
It's glorious. It's a succession of how-will-they-top-this? moments.
I saw it cold and the ending made me and Mrs. Sauce stand up and cheer.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:40 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I saw it cold and the ending made me and Mrs. Sauce stand up and cheer.
posted by Sauce Trough at 2:40 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
The How Did This Get Made episode is available on their RSS feed, and the guest is ..... Andy Richter! I'm looking forward to this.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:04 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by benito.strauss at 3:04 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Is it just me or does that one guy look an awful lot like Will Farrell?
posted by scalefree at 4:00 PM on February 5, 2016
posted by scalefree at 4:00 PM on February 5, 2016
My mom and dad wrote this movie, and I'm always surprised when it turns out anyone has heard of it, let alone seen it, let alone liked it, so it's nice to have it pop up on the Blue.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 4:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [31 favorites]
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 4:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [31 favorites]
I visited a friend of mine in New York after it came out on DVD. The minute I got in his apartment, he gave me his pot pipe, telling me I needed to partake before he put in something that I had to see. "You'll need it," he said, and he was right. I also watched it a lot when I was studying for my Ph.D comps. It was totally appropriate for both situations.
posted by heurtebise at 5:00 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
posted by heurtebise at 5:00 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Thanks for this; I recall seeing bits of what was almost certainly this whilst channel-surfing in my childhood, and wondering what it was. My hypothesis was that it was some preachy Christian allegory about Satanic Rock Music, possibly made as a tax writeoff.
I did remember the scene with the Centre-Of-Goodness couple, dressed in white and singing a duet, being a piano ballad at a white grand piano, and possibly involving some white doves as well. Do any of those appear in the actual film?
posted by acb at 5:01 PM on February 5, 2016
I did remember the scene with the Centre-Of-Goodness couple, dressed in white and singing a duet, being a piano ballad at a white grand piano, and possibly involving some white doves as well. Do any of those appear in the actual film?
posted by acb at 5:01 PM on February 5, 2016
Hoist, your parents are interviewed in the /Film oral history up there ^
posted by Senor Cardgage at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
posted by Senor Cardgage at 5:16 PM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]
I know! I'd say it's kind of embarrassing, except that they already made The Apple.
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:18 PM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]
posted by hoist with his own pet aardvark at 5:18 PM on February 5, 2016 [9 favorites]
My mom and dad wrote this movie
HWHOPA, if my parents had written the Apple, I think I'd be incredibly proud. Yeah, the Apple isn’t... I don’t know… the Red Shoes? But how many of us can say that our parents wrote a ridiculous disco movie? It's true, no one is going to cite the Apple in a history of cinema class. But…
Here’s my take. It's easy to dismiss movies like the Apple as incoherent, sloppily made, cheesy, poorly acted, wrongheaded or whatever. And yes it has problems. But it is never mediocre - it is distinct & memorable, silly & earnest. Qualities, in my mind, which make it better than most films. It is those intensely human failings that make something like the Apple charming & entertaining for me and, I'm sure, for other people. Like that stray cat you can't help but take home and love.
Look at it this way - we are talking about the Apple, 36 years after it was released. People are interested in it, are watching it, seeking it out and reading about it. One of the highest grossing films last year was The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I literally cannot remember a single moment of that film and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I doubt we’ll be talking about Age of Ultron or whatever mediocre Hollywood product 36 years from now.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:33 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
HWHOPA, if my parents had written the Apple, I think I'd be incredibly proud. Yeah, the Apple isn’t... I don’t know… the Red Shoes? But how many of us can say that our parents wrote a ridiculous disco movie? It's true, no one is going to cite the Apple in a history of cinema class. But…
Here’s my take. It's easy to dismiss movies like the Apple as incoherent, sloppily made, cheesy, poorly acted, wrongheaded or whatever. And yes it has problems. But it is never mediocre - it is distinct & memorable, silly & earnest. Qualities, in my mind, which make it better than most films. It is those intensely human failings that make something like the Apple charming & entertaining for me and, I'm sure, for other people. Like that stray cat you can't help but take home and love.
Look at it this way - we are talking about the Apple, 36 years after it was released. People are interested in it, are watching it, seeking it out and reading about it. One of the highest grossing films last year was The Avengers: Age of Ultron, I literally cannot remember a single moment of that film and I'm sure I'm not alone in that. I doubt we’ll be talking about Age of Ultron or whatever mediocre Hollywood product 36 years from now.
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:33 PM on February 5, 2016 [10 favorites]
Hoist, I have watched The Apple, I have introduced it to my girlfriend, I have told my friends to watch it. It's not, I don't know, the Godfather, but it's FUN, like a lot of fun. And it's memorable. And it certainly had a point of view no one else had. That's SOMETHING, and they should be proud.
posted by gc at 5:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by gc at 5:46 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
I just paused the Rifftrax version because I could swear that I just saw the actress that played Professor Sprout in the Harry Potter movies in a bit part.
posted by LindsayIrene at 5:55 PM on February 5, 2016
posted by LindsayIrene at 5:55 PM on February 5, 2016
I could swear that I just saw the actress that played Professor Sprout
Because you did. Miriam Margolyes plays the landlady.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:00 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Because you did. Miriam Margolyes plays the landlady.
posted by Ashwagandha at 6:00 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Seriously, I want more people to know this movie so I won't just be a weirdo with Future Clothes and a holographic sticker on Halloween. Sitting on my porch, waiting for Bim and handing out candy.
posted by cobaltnine at 7:03 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
posted by cobaltnine at 7:03 PM on February 5, 2016 [4 favorites]
Released in an age before irony, The Apple was savaged critically and ignored commercial upon it's initial release, where it was released at all.
The age before irony? That’s always the previous decades, right?
TV Guide stated "The Apple was clearly designed to duplicate the success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and failed dismally, in large part because the music is so stupendously banal... The lesson: Making a cult hit is harder than it looks."
The Apple was not a successful movie in 1980.
Meanwhile, Rock of Ages is still running right now. The original Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances, closing on January 18, 2015 as the 27th-longest running show in Broadway history.
posted by bongo_x at 7:22 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
The age before irony? That’s always the previous decades, right?
TV Guide stated "The Apple was clearly designed to duplicate the success of The Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975) and failed dismally, in large part because the music is so stupendously banal... The lesson: Making a cult hit is harder than it looks."
The Apple was not a successful movie in 1980.
Meanwhile, Rock of Ages is still running right now. The original Broadway production ran for 2,328 performances, closing on January 18, 2015 as the 27th-longest running show in Broadway history.
posted by bongo_x at 7:22 PM on February 5, 2016 [2 favorites]
Because you did. Miriam Margolyes plays the landlady.
THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME OF THAT! Oh my god I almost forgot about that. How, in the middle of this bizarro future disco dystopia, you've got this random 1950s Brooklyn Jewish mom character who offers our protagonist a delicious bowl of chicken soup.
TIME-TRAVELING JEWISH GRANDMA!
posted by panama joe at 7:48 PM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]
THANK YOU FOR REMINDING ME OF THAT! Oh my god I almost forgot about that. How, in the middle of this bizarro future disco dystopia, you've got this random 1950s Brooklyn Jewish mom character who offers our protagonist a delicious bowl of chicken soup.
TIME-TRAVELING JEWISH GRANDMA!
posted by panama joe at 7:48 PM on February 5, 2016 [8 favorites]
TIME-TRAVELING JEWISH GRANDMA!
*scribbles*
Well, it is pilot season in Hollywood.
Sadly, I don't think Hollywood is actually ready for Miriam Margolyes.
posted by Mezentian at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
*scribbles*
Well, it is pilot season in Hollywood.
Sadly, I don't think Hollywood is actually ready for Miriam Margolyes.
posted by Mezentian at 7:54 AM on February 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
TIME-TRAVELING JEWISH GRANDMA!
Miriam Margolyes has got my vote to be the next Doctor after Capaldi. Chibnall take note!
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
Miriam Margolyes has got my vote to be the next Doctor after Capaldi. Chibnall take note!
posted by Ashwagandha at 5:09 PM on February 6, 2016 [4 favorites]
Miriam Margolyes has got my vote to be the next Doctor after Capaldi. Chibnall take note!
She's moved to Australia, I believe, and is a citizen.
They'd have to shoot it here, land of Mad Max and Hobbits (and a dollar that a fraction of the pound), where there are skilled film and TV crews and a deep and abiding (if niche) love of the show.
WHAT COULD GO RIGHT?
posted by Mezentian at 4:43 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
She's moved to Australia, I believe, and is a citizen.
They'd have to shoot it here, land of Mad Max and Hobbits (and a dollar that a fraction of the pound), where there are skilled film and TV crews and a deep and abiding (if niche) love of the show.
WHAT COULD GO RIGHT?
posted by Mezentian at 4:43 AM on February 7, 2016 [1 favorite]
What do hobbits have to do with Australia?
posted by shelleycat at 6:40 AM on February 7, 2016
posted by shelleycat at 6:40 AM on February 7, 2016
Hobbits were sent to Australia as convicts. Mostly pipe-weed convictions I understand.
posted by Ashwagandha at 3:44 PM on February 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
posted by Ashwagandha at 3:44 PM on February 7, 2016 [5 favorites]
She's moved to Australia, I believe, and is a citizen.
Where she plays Phryne Fisher's pearl-clutching Aunt Pru.
posted by Naberius at 6:12 AM on February 8, 2016
Where she plays Phryne Fisher's pearl-clutching Aunt Pru.
posted by Naberius at 6:12 AM on February 8, 2016
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posted by Malla at 11:54 AM on February 5, 2016 [1 favorite]