# Top five no-budget films
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [January 11, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851 "2003-01-11T00:01:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/1 "2003-01-11T00:01:59Z")
Forgive me if this has been done before; I don’t recall seeing it. The recent thread [**What’s Up With Kevin Smith Movies?**](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=155465) reminds me that many of my favorite films are, for some reason, those that were made on next to a zero budget. I don’t know, maybe it’s the fact that expectations are lower going in; maybe it’s that many are first films by previously unknown directors, maybe it’s because the filmaker has to be much more clever and cagey with the script when there are no car chases to distract the viewer; hell, maybe it’s that grainy black and white stock that so many cheapo flicks seem to have been filmed with. In any event, here’s my top five no-budget (less than, say, $200K) flicks, in no particular order:
_Killing of a Chinese Bookie, The_, John Cassavetes, 1976
_Eraserhead_, 1977, David Lynch
_Stranger Than Paradise_, Jim Jarmusch, 1984
_El Mariachi_, Robert Rodriguez, 1992
_Clerks_, Kevin Smith, 1994
Yours?
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/2 "2003-01-11T00:06:51Z")
Dark Star.
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### Author:  [@TheRealJohnPeat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheRealJohnPeat)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/3 "2003-01-11T02:01:43Z")
Pi - a film which probably cost less than the Blair Witch Project’s web-marketting budget 🙂
Clerks is also KS’s best work by a country mile - which suggests that there’s something in the idea that ‘less is more’.
Not sure that Withnail and I is truly ‘low budget’ - but it’s no blockbuster and is truly a classic film…
TTFN
JP
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### Author:  [@Andrew\_Makepeace\_Ladd\_III](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Andrew_Makepeace_Ladd_III)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/4 "2003-01-11T02:25:12Z")
I have twice rented a movie called Tape, based on a one-act play ( by I can’t remember who and am currently too lazy to search for it) I won’t go into details, but the first time I saw it I was really impressed. There’s also both versions of Twelve Angry Men. Both of these were filmed(with some short exceptions on the latter) in one room and can’t possibly have cost that much. Of course, neither of these were necessarily original films, both being based on earlier stage plays.
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### Author:  [@Torgo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Torgo)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/5 "2003-01-11T02:36:16Z")
Surely **Night of the Living Dead** has got to be one of the most influential, plus it’s one of the true pioneering “independent” films.
**Benji** was another zero-budget, independent affair that made millions. Ditto **Billy Jack**.
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### Author:  [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/6 "2003-01-11T02:40:55Z")
**Liquid Sky**.
**Billy Jack**.
**The Texas Chain-Saw Massacre**.
BTW, **Tape** was directed by Richard Linklater, I dunno who wrote it. Most of Linklater’s movies have been great low budget flicks, or crappy big budget movies.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/7 "2003-01-11T03:13:47Z")
**Hollywood Shuffle** Alas, Robert Townsend never lived up to that promise.
**Clerks**
**El Mariachi**
**Dark Star**
**My Dinner With Andre** – its budget’s not listed with the IMDB, but with two characters just talking, it couldn’t have cost very much to produce. It is fascinating.
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### Author:  [@unclviny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclviny)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/8 "2003-01-11T03:54:05Z")
“love and a .45”, an awesome movie that features Renee Zellwegger running around in her panties and music by the Reverend Horton Heat.
unclviny
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### Author:  [@Raymond\_Luxury\_Yacht](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raymond_Luxury_Yacht)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/9 "2003-01-11T05:25:21Z")
I’ll put up two that haven’t been mentioned
_She’s Gotta Have It_ - Spike Lee’s first and the debut of Mars Blackmon (who Lee gained fame with in early Air Jordan spots)
_Chan is Missing_ - by Wayne Wang. A terrific view into Chinese-American culture.
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### Author:  [@Fred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fred)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/10 "2003-01-11T06:32:44Z")
Following - by Christopher Nolan.
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### Author:  [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/11 "2003-01-11T06:52:21Z")
**Swimming to Cambodia** - Spalding Gray
**Monster in a Box** - Spalding Gray
**Tapeheads** - John Cusack and Tim Robbins
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### Author:  [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/12 "2003-01-11T07:00:43Z")
You know what I’ve always wanted to know? Where do all these directors - who claim to have been broke, dropped out of college, living in a ditch smoking crack and eating dog biscuits - get $200,000 for a movie?
I really want to know because I would _love_ to make a movie and I’m not half as broke as they claim to have been but I couldn’t even come close to finding the time or the money to make an independant film. Were they all rich kids or what? Seriously, I would love to know.
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### Author:  [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/13 "2003-01-11T07:26:35Z")
“Slacker”… Richard Linklater.
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### Author:  [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 7:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/14 "2003-01-11T07:49:02Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Cisco \*
> \*\*You know what I’ve always wanted to know? Where do all these directors - who claim to have been broke, dropped out of college, living in a ditch smoking crack and eating dog biscuits - get $200,000 for a movie?
>
> I really want to know because I would _love_ to make a movie and I’m not half as broke as they claim to have been but I couldn’t even come close to finding the time or the money to make an independant film. Were they all rich kids or what? Seriously, I would love to know. \*\*
Kevin Smith ran up lots of credit cards, borrowed from everyone he knew and sold his comic book collection.
Robert Rodriguez, according to the IMDB “earned most of the $7000 it cost to make El Mariachi by subjecting himself to experimental drug studies.”
Also, “One of the experimental drugs that was tested on Rodriquez was a “speed healer.” He has two divots in his arms as a result of the removed sample.”
Kevin Smith said on his website that anyone could do what he did but that you have to be very confident in your material since if the movie’s a bust you’re up shit creek big time. . .
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### Author:  [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/15 "2003-01-11T08:37:48Z")
The Blair Witch Project…horrible film but made a ton of money.
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### Author:  [@Apos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apos)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/16 "2003-01-11T08:58:02Z")
I just didn’t get Slacker. It bored me stiff, and I had the embarrasing misfortune to actually invite a person to come watch it, thus wasting her time as well as mine.
I also don’t get My Big Fat Greek Wedding. It was a NICE film, very sincere and downplayed. It wasn’t an incredible film, by any stretch. And yet I hear that it’s now the top grossing romantic comedy of all time.
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### Author:  [@Mith](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mith)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 9:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/17 "2003-01-11T09:05:49Z")
Slacker is pure genius.
I suppose you have to be a “people watcher” to appreciate it though.
The entertainment isn’t just handed to you. It’s in the sublte nuances.
I’m sure you didnt’t enjoy Linklater’s other flicks… “Before Sunrise” and “Waking Life”…the list goes on.
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### Author:  [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/18 "2003-01-11T15:00:38Z")
Heh. I forgot about “Night of the Living Dead”. And I really need to get around to seeing that Spalding Gray stuff one of these days. And “Love & a .45”, of course (mmmm, Renee…)
> [@](#):
>
> Robert Rodriguez, according to the IMDB “earned most of the $7000 it cost to make El Mariachi by subjecting himself to experimental drug studies.”
No cite, but I seem to recall an article in one of the film mags, some years back, in which a former friend of Rodriguez claimed that the real cost of _El Mariachi_ was more like $200K. Of course, that would spoil all the fun, so I choose to believe the lower figure.
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### Author:  [@Emilio\_Lizardo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emilio_Lizardo)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/19 "2003-01-11T17:04:29Z")
Mark Pirro’s **Polish Vampire in Burbank** and Gerry Cook’s **Only a Buck** which never even made it to video.
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### Author:  [@vibrotronica](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vibrotronica)
#### Post date: [January 11, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/top-five-no-budget-films/147851/20 "2003-01-11T19:29:52Z")
I’ve seen LOTS of no-budget digital movies in the last couple of years. The real surprise is that there’s no shortage of talent out there. Here are a couple of the best ones that you’ve probably never heard of but should watch if you get a chance.
1. \*\* The Breathing Show \*\* A movie set in San Fransisco revolving around two video artists who stage elaborate pranks in the name of performance art. An incredibly well-written and acted movie that cost next to nothing to produce.
2. \*\* Someday Central \*\* I think the only place this one has been shown is the Indie Memphis Film Festival, but it should be making the rounds this year. Southern Gothic meets Gabirel Garcia Marquez, only it’s funny.
3. \*\* The Poor and Hungry \*\* The story of strange love triangle between a car thief, a two-bit lebian hustler, and a cello player set in Memphis. Directed by the incredibly talented Craig Brewer. One of the best movies of the last five years made for any price.
And of course…
1. \*\* Slick Lilly vs. The Grand Canyon \*\* A live action political cartoon in which the two major political parties (the Bankers and the Banksmen) run inanimate objects and abstract concepts for president instead of humans. Starring yours truly as John Q. Citizen, an ordinary guy who is picked at random to ask a question at the presidental debate. With a cameo by the SDMB’s own \*\* jackalope \*\*
And be on the lookout for…
\*\* Six Days in the Life of Mims \*\* A rich playboy and his hard drinking friends find out the Rapture is coming and plan an end of the world party to end all end of the world parties. Co-starring \*\* jackalope \*\* with a cameo appearance by \*\* vibrotronica \*\*, this masterpiece will make its premier this summer.
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