Scorpio Rising (2013)

This movie, which runs for only a half hour, is a lot of fun. The movie is filled will oldies, like Devil In Disguise and Hit The Road Jack. There is no plot, just a man fixing his car and then going for a ride in it. Because of that, you don't have to watch it. Just listen to it while you do chores or something! It's a lot of fun either way!Note: A guy pees in a bucket near the end-in case that would offend anyone.

This is an art-house movie, that is being shot as a documentary but without really telling a story. I like it! Yes, as weird as the concept of this movie sounds and its execution may seem, this is really a great short to watch. The style of filming and editing as simply superb and seemed to be ahead of its time. I can definitely see how this film inspired some well known film-makers and why this is a relevant movie to show in movie classes for instance.It's a movie filled with great looking shots and some nice quick editing, which provides the movie with an unique looking style. It all got shot on the spot and without a script, which is the reason why this movie comes across as a documentary, while it isn't trying to tell a story really with its images. It's just simply a movie that you have to experience.A special nice touch is that the movie features no dialog or spoken lines at all. All the movie consists out of are popular and well known '60's musical tracks. And as far as music goes, the '60's of course wasn't the worst decade for it. It truly enhances the mood and style of the movie.Don't let the subject scare you off, this is a movie well worth watching.8/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

I saw this movie when the Filmmuseum in Brussels held an Anger marathon, and I was hypnotized by this masterpiece of work from the very beginning, with that great soundtrack Fools Rush In (sung by Ricky Nelson, I believe) mixed with images of leather and bikes shot in a Brooklyn garage. It's really fascinating to see how 'Scorpio Rises'. But Scorpio isn't only the kind of hero in this movie, it's also the sign Anger has with 'Scorpio rising'. Interesting info. I enjoyed this movie, because I like biker movies, such as 'The Wild One' with Brando, and 'Rebel without a Cause' with James Dean. But I was a bit disappointed too, I found it not so homo-erotic as everybody thinks it is. Surely, there are some things like a gay party and the whole leather outfits, but I wasn't actually thinking that this was a gay film. Some other short films directed by Kenneth Anger I liked, Kustom Kar Kommandos and Lucifer Rising, for example. But nothing caught my eye the same way this one does. The thing I liked the most about 'Scorpio Rising' was the title shot. A red wall is seen on the background, and suddenly appears this man dressed in leather in front of the camera. We see his back, 'Scorpio Rising' spelled in very big letters. I'll never forget these opening credits. I recommend this movie to everyone, but if you're not keen on leather or bikes, please do not see this movie.

When Jonas Mekas, Alfred Leslie, etc sat down to compose the mainfesto of "The New American Cinema" in 1961, the amount of films made under this artistic statement doubled. Out of this period, we see the creation of some of the greatest underground films the world has seen. Taylor Meed's The Flower Thief, Bruce Conner's A Movie and Report, and most importantly Kenneth Anger's Scorpio Rising.Scorpio Rising's devices are fundementally simple-didactic montage, ironic sountracks, and archival footage. What seperates SR from the realm of mediocre is its deep underooted message of sexual perversion, S&M, and the cruelty of sexuality to a point of Nazist ideology. Scenes such as young man with a smile on his face being "raped" by leather clad bikers is a point of sadio-estasy. To say that SR is not a 22 min. perversion is to ignore its fundemental principles and the principles of its filmmaker Kenneth Anger. Anger has emerged himselfin both the terror of the haunte monde of Hollywood in the 30's (hence the birth of his hugely read Hollywood Babylon- a study as perverse as SR) and the drug and sexually illusioned world of the 50's/60's lower bohemia.Scorpio Rising is a film of a generation. As Allen Ginsberg put it: "a generation starved on madness". It's signifigance ranks up there with Keroauc, Ginsberg, and Burroughs. Anger's film is a portrait of a world so far from our 90's train of thought- yet so strikingly fimiliar.