Scorpio Rising (film)


Scorpio Rising is a 1963 American experimental short film directed by Kenneth Anger and starring Bruce Byron as Scorpio. Themes central to the film include the occult, biker subculture, homosexuality, Catholicism, and Nazism; the film also explores the worship of rebel icons of the era, such as James Dean and Marlon Brando. Like many of Anger's films, the film does not contain any dialogue; it instead features a prominent soundtrack consisting of 1960s pop, including songs by Ricky Nelson, The Angels, The Crystals, Bobby Vinton, Elvis Presley, and Ray Charles.

Release

The film premiered in October 1963 at the Gramercy Arts Theater in New York City.
When the film was screened at an art theater in Los Angeles, it was protested by the American Nazi Party on the basis that it insulted their flag. The police were ultimately called to the site and arrested the theater manager for public obscenity and canceled the film's run. The case went to the California Supreme Court, where the case was settled in Anger's favor. Anger explained in an interview:

Soundtrack

Scorpio Rising is considered by some to be the first drama film to feature a rock & roll soundtrack. Another of Anger's films which utilizes a rock & roll soundtrack, though filmed fourteen years before Scorpio Rising, was not completed until 1972.
  1. Ricky Nelson – "Fools Rush In "
  2. Little Peggy March – "Wind-Up Doll"
  3. The Angels – "My Boyfriend's Back"
  4. Bobby Vinton – "Blue Velvet"
  5. Elvis Presley – " Devil in Disguise"
  6. Ray Charles – "Hit the Road Jack"
  7. Martha and the Vandellas – " Heat Wave"
  8. The Crystals – "He's a Rebel"
  9. Claudine Clark – "Party Lights"
  10. Kris Jensen – "Torture"
  11. Gene McDaniels – "Point of No Return"
  12. Little Peggy March – "I Will Follow Him"
  13. Surfaris – "Wipe Out"

    Critical response

Scorpio Rising was praised by West Coast critics upon its initial release. When it was screened in New York City in 1964, Scorpio Rising garnered additional positive reviews from The New Yorker, Variety, and Newsweek.
Nora Sayre of The New York Times reviewed the film in 1975 stating, "Oddly enough, the references to the nineteen-fifties, which seemed dated and rather ponderous in 1965, don't make the film appear old-fashioned now. Admittedly, one then saw it in an unfortunate context – draped in the mystique of the underground, when a number of inferior films employed some similar imagery, such as the juxtaposition of Christ and hipsters, or close-ups of all-purpose skulls. But after a decade's education in put-ons, one can savor the impudent freshness of "Scorpio" today."
Directors Gaspar Noé and Nicolas Winding Refn cited the film as their influence on their filmmaking.

In popular culture