Salon just published an interesting analysis of the Snakes on a Plane movie phenomenom:
This reveals the meaning of the cult classic. The C factor lies not in the shittiness of the film but in the agreement between moviemaker and moviegoer on the film’s shittiness. The moviegoer goes to see a movie and thinks, « Wow, this movie is going to be terrible for X, Y and Z reasons. » The bad movie delivers reasons X, Y and Z. The cult film responds, « Oh yeah? You think you know X, Y and Z? We’re gonna show you some X, Y and Z! »
« Snakes on a Plane » is an agreement, but one born of an unlikely power shift. It’s an agreement between moviegoer and Hollywood. It’s an agreement between David and Goliath, where Goliath slips up and calls himself a knuckle-dragging retard giant.
[…]In this sense « Snakes on a Plane » is more than just a title and more than just a cult movie. It’s an exposure of the inner workings of Hollywood. It’s an admission on the part of movie writers, directors, producers and distributors that this movie is, as Samuel L. Jackson has put it, « Motherfucking Snakes on a Motherfucking Plane! » Through a tiny crack in the façade of the movie industry, moviegoers saw that the industry itself doesn’t believe in its own magic. It’s not just that the emperor wears no clothes when he parades through the streets; it’s that everyone inside the palace freely admits that he’s naked.
[…]Americans don’t just love the culture industry; they fetishize it. But Americans are also savvier than most theoreticians believe. The lamest and most transparent attempts of the culture industry to deceive us are defeated not by outright rejection, but by assimilation. The worse the slogan, the better the T-shirt. A secular humanist wearing a T-shirt that says « Jesus Is my Homeboy! » is the same as a movie fan loving « Snakes on a Plane. » It’s an act of dissent that also strangely supports the establishment. It’s like cheering for the emperor’s nakedness.
