I’ll agree with one thing that this clip brings to light, camp can in fact be a good thing for a film. If a movie takes itself too seriously then it’s bound to flop and flop hard. The issues however with too much camp in a movie is that it tends to ruin the movie through a couple of different ways. For one, the movie grows to be far too intellectual for its own good, or at least poses like it. This allows the movie to be looked at by others as something that’s possibly way ahead of its time, or is thought-provoking, or in some way brilliant despite the horrible delivery. In other words too much camp defies the imagination of the viewer and makes them search for something that isn’t there.
People don’t want to believe a movie can be this bad, and as a result will begin to look for positives in a film that don’t exist or are so small that they’re easy to miss. Claiming that films are so bad that they’re good is a very intellectual statement that goes beyond the simple good or bad definition of any movie. It is the hope that there is some redeeming quality that can be found so as to make the film worth the time that was just wasted watching it. Too much camp can kill a film, while too little can do the same thing since in order to have a successful movie there must be many elements at work in any film that fit together to make the entire production work.
A good example that it is shown in the clip is The Princess Bride. It is a well-written story that has a very serious plot and yet still has plenty of camp to keep it just light enough that the audience feels they can relate to it and enjoy it. There plenty of serious points in the movie but there are also moments that are used for nothing but humor and add a little spice that liven up the film in a way that allows it to remain a favorite of many. Growing up with this movie many people didn’t think twice about the more campy moments, but now that we’re adults we can recognize just how improbable some of the scenes were.
But it still doesn’t matter. The movie was a success because the working elements all fit together and were brilliant as a film. The enjoyment came from experiencing the entire film as it was intended, not from nitpicking every last little detail and claiming how improbable the movie was.
Perhaps the worst example of being so bad it’s good is The Room. It’s just bad, period. The acting, the settings, and the interactions between the actors and their environment was just way too campy. It’s actually convinced some people that it was far more than just a simple film with a discernible plot, that it was a metaphor for this or that in life. It was a horrible movie, with horrible dialogue, and equally horrible acting. In terms of being campy, it fooled itself into thinking that it was a great movie.
Being campy is not about being able to convince yourself that the movie is a hit, it’s about bringing a level of entertainment to a film that makes it possible to enjoy the experience.
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