The Misfit Audience

Research Progress

My research topic, previously introduced, investigates countercultural portrayals through dialogue, behavior, characters, or settings in cult classic films. I am analyzing 11 movies from the decade 1965-1975 and another 10 from 2015-2025, 21 movies in total in order to obtain a representative sample of films from each decade. Throughout my data collection process thus far, I have utilized a notebook in which I record the time stamp, categorize the scene into one of the overall countercultural messages through a highlighting color code system (as seen below), assign it a sub-theme, and finally, I provide a brief description of the scene and/or write down any dialogue that contributes to the countercultural message. By the end of the movie, I list the most common and overarching portrayals including any characters that represent a countercultural theme. 

The data collection process began in January 2026 beginning with the movie Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1961) to remain consistent with my approach to watching the films in chronological order in order to preserve a sequential and linear understanding of the data. As a result, the very last movie I will watch is Licorice Pizza (2021). At this point in time I have watched: Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1961), The Producers (1967), Head (1968), Flesh (1968), Putney Swope (1969), M*A*SH (1971), Fritz the Cat (1972), The Long Goodbye (1973) and Female Trouble (1974). In other words, I am halfway through my data collection process!

Challenges encountered

Throughout my data collection thus far, the most prominent challenge I have faced is identifying countercultural portrayals within the films. While some of the scenes are quite explicit in their messages, I often find myself overthinking and overanalyzing the movie for data. This causes me to second guess myself quite frequently and prevents me from obtaining a well rounded view of the movie, ultimately causing my data collection to be less efficient and potentially less accurate. However, something that has helped me overcome this issue is reminding myself that if what I think to be a potential portrayal does not fit anywhere in my previously discussed coding key, then it is most likely not a countercultural portrayal or it is not data that benefits my research. Moreover, after discussing with my mentor, Alex Belth, he suggested to not read a description of a movie before watching it (something that I had been doing up until that point) in order to avoid knowing what happens and expecting it. After analyzing a few movies using this method, it has been easier for me to collect data due to the element of surprise, something that aids in a more reliable identification of countercultural messages and leads me to be more confident with my analysis.