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Originally Posted by MellySingsDoom
Although my reaction this time is not as negative as it was on my initial viewing all them years ago, I can't help but feel that I'm either totally missing the point of this film, or a case of me simply finding this sphere of "underground" film-making not to my taste at all.
If you are a follower of this genre of cinema, I guess that you should give it a go at least once. Otherwise, I'm afraid to say that I can't recommend this one to the casual viewer.
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As much as I still love it, it's maybe more historically significant now than anything else. I'm sure plenty of those who originally mentioned it as an influence when the whole Queer Cinema and B Movie revival thing kicked off never actually saw it. Prior to the web it was really hard to see, even compared with a lot of other underground films, so a lot of its classic status is probably based on reputation more than from actually watching it. And its rarity obviously enhanced its cult status among those who had. But there's also a cult that's built up around Jack Smith himself, which increasingly seems to exist separately from his actual output. I went to a conference on him a couple of years ago and even that was largely just a lot of old East Village types trying to outdo each other with funny anecdotes about him. Either that or linking him to other cultural currents. But invariably it was about him rather than his work.