A gang of three go-go dancers that are used to take whatever they want, may it be with sex or with violence, are after the big money. Do they get it through ransom, seduction or killing?
A sexploitation cult classic from independent filmmaker Russ Meyer (1922-2004), who could be considered as the counter model of Ed Wood: Despite very low budgets, Russ Meyer continued to deliver sexy, wild and fast paced softcore action flicks catering to the grindhouse audience. A great example for an auteur who successfully turned his personal obsessions into art – with disregard to authorities or studios. Owning the rights of almost all of his films, he retired as a rich man in the Seventies, continuing making millions through selling videos and DVDs until his dead.
A part of his success derived from the choice of his actresses who all stand out through their impressive physicality. In “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” we can admire “Miss Japan Beautiful” Tura Satana, and the exotic dancers Haji and Lori Williams. Not much to say any further, enjoy this type of “exclusively American” picture!
IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059170/?ref_=nv_sr_2
American Film 
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) is by far the worst, piece of crap movie I have ever seen. Ever. It kind of sheds light on how bad low budget movies can be. The plot made no sense, the acting was terrible. At times I found myself asking (out loud I might add) “what is the point of this movie again?” There was so many plots going on, so many conflicts. It’s like…pick a crime and go with it. Don’t try to make this movie about 10 different crimes with half naked women. I see why it is a sexploitation cult classic. There is a point to this film. The point was to show four, scantily clad girls on a screen for about an hour and a half. It was kind of set up to be a low budget porn movie without the actual sex. The fighting and the way that Tura Satana’s character fought with the two men was strikingly very sexual though. I was trying to figure out the main actress’s ethnicity for most of the film. So she was Japanese. I don’t really know what to say about this movie. It was just off (plot wise, character development wise, etc) completely. Is it just me or did anyone else never hear the character’s names? Why are movies like this allowed to be made and sold? Furthermore, why do people like it? I guess there really is an audience for everything.
LikeLike
Michi, even I didn’t hear the character’s names while watching it. Wonder whether anyone else did?
LikeLike
While you think that showing these half naked women was a bad point, I thought it was fantastic that they did that. I agree that nothing else in the movie made sense, but it made up for it with hot girls.
LikeLike
The point of this movie was to entertain, and it did that very well.
I completely disagree that it is a piece of crap. You have to watch this movie in the right state of mind.
LikeLike
What the heck did we just watch? What an unbelievable piece of rubbish that was! But then again, I guess it was one of those “so bad, they’re good” films…? However everything was so poorly executed, except for a few camera shots/angles here and there, it is hard to believe that there are people out there who might enjoy this type of thing?
“Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” (I mean, even the name does not make any sense) is absolutely meaningless and so artistically worthless, the plot (or plots, rather) were all over the place, the acting was terrible, music was weird, full of meaningless dialogues, incoherent script… this list just goes on and on and on… But I bet that they had a lot of fun filming this though…
Nonetheless I guess at the end of the day you are supposed to treat the whole thing as a bit of a laugh and just enjoy the madness. If you enjoy Kill Bill and that sort of stuff, watch this film. It’s like Tarantino. On acid.
LikeLike
Tim! I laughed so hard while reading your post. It was quite a silly film, but I guess there are people that enjoy this type of thing.
LikeLike
This movie from the start took me by surprise. It was successful in keeping you guessing about how it is going to end, and of course I never could have guessed that the ending would be the way it happened, simply because I was kept from even needing to think by the unexpected dialogues and actions of the characters.
I think the director Meyer was able to sell this movie because of the many references to sex and nudity in the film. The film distracts its viewers from the lack of story value and production value (gorgeous scenes, props etc.), by the sexual references and nudity of the women. It is clearly a film targeted to a niche audience that would be satisfied with watching the film for the near pornographic elements rather than for any artistic elements. However, it will be unfair to say the film lacks all art as the director does use good angles to imply emotions and features of the characters. One such example would be nearing the end, when Tura was fighting the elder brother, she was shot from a low angle, where you get the sense that she is powerful and gigantic – while she was winning the fight. He also introduces very powerful female characters for the time period the film was made. It was also interesting how the director kills off all the villains at the end of the story, and hurts the less intelligent brother who also did some evil deeds according to references made during conversations by the father in front of the sons (though as we later find out, his actions were as a result of misguidance by his dad). It was as if the director wanted the ending to show that justice will prevail – the good will conquer while the bad will suffer at the end. My opinion is that even though, it did vanish around 1968, maybe this victory of good over evil at the end (especially at the hand of the “frail” “conventional” (compared to the other three) woman) was due to some lasting influences of the hays code.
LikeLike
I am surprised that nobody else in class liked this film. Yes, I agree that it did not make any sense and the plot was terrible, but what it lacked for in quality it made up for it in hot chicks and fast cars. When the movie had started, I knew it was going to be either really silly or just plain terrible because of the dancing girls and the random dude screaming, “faster, go!” While I was thinking that the movie was going to be dumb, the images of these shaking butts on the screen kept my attention and made me like it. The movie started off great, two sexy girls fighting. What more could a guy want? That is probably why this film was popular (or at least to its fans) when it came out. And you got to love the leader of the gang, the half Japanese woman with very large breast half exposed. She had a temper and attitude that only a handful of men on earth could handle, much less tame. She even beat that dude to death with her karate chop action. That is a whole lot of woman right there. I think we should screen this film again next week!
LikeLike
Ah, I enjoyed the film as well… Hot cars + Babes = 🙂
LikeLike
Wow! Wow, I really don’t know what to say about this film. I mean it isn’t a bad film. It’s really not, it just is so crazy I can’t put it together in my head. Like I don’t understand what this film is about. Some could argue that the film is a message about woman breaking the mold of the stereotypical housewife. Others can argue about how this film shows the break down of civil society.
Anyway at fist glance this film seems bad. The acting is pretty bad, cinematography isn’t that great, sound effects were wrong in a few scenes (tires squealing on dirt) but actual the writing is good. I mean it’s not great writing but it’s not bad either.
But I think, in my opinion, the saving grace of this film, is the interesting characters. They’re interesting people. They have crazy back stories and the sway so far from average the viewer gets sucked into these completely crazy people’s lives. That’s what makes this film interesting not a bad film.
LikeLike
Hey, finally we got a bit of a matter of dispute here! I am looking forward to the next posts, hehe… Surely, this film is not for everyone’s taste. It also might not be a good film. But there is a point about this movie. If there were never films made like these, we still might be today at a level of films that exclusively are “allowed and sold” by the establishment – which of course wants to keep an audience conform to (their) moral guidelines. People like Myers and even Wood were pioneers (although their passion derived from their obsession rather than from a political agenda) who prepared the way for modern filmmakers like Tarantino, Rodriguez, Snyder, Roth etc., their protagonists (esp. assertive, physically strong females) and their style.
LikeLike
I guess if I had never seen this movie, I wouldn’t be able to appreciate a “good” movie as much as if I hadn’t seen this.
Oh boy, this was quite hilarious. The script was so ridiculous that it was funny in addition to the bad acting. I remember at times in the movie, Valra would go from speaking to shouting and it just felt like listening to a oversized child whining. And were those exaggerated karate chops meant to show a stereotype, that all Asian women know martial arts or something?
I also agree with one of the commenters above, that there was no clear direction. I kept changing and making up for the confusion by focusing on women’s body parts and sexual scenes.
But I think Karl brought up some good points like, this film portrayed women as strong, beautiful? and no-nonsense type leaders. In comparison to the silent and obedient housewife. And that Myers was a pioneer, I guess you can’t know how something is going to be received unless you try.
I think it’s good that everyone has different feelings about the film. Personally, I don’t care for this type of stuff, but I feel like this was targeted more for the male audience of that time.
LikeLike
“It* kept changing and making up…”
LikeLike
This movie really caught me off guard.
I wasn’t too sure whether or not I enjoyed this film or found it just utterly ridiculous, but I do know that I was able to get some laughs out of it.
I do see how this movie has made an impact on the different ways women are portrayed in films, in comparison to previous movies where they are obedient housewives. But I feel as if perhaps it went too far with the sexualization of the female characters.
Aside from that, I did not enjoy the story all too well. In fact, I’m not sure if I completely understand the whole point in the story. Why were they racing towards the lake? Why did the two start fighting at the lake? What happened to the body? And what was with the karate-chopping?
I thought Janey (↑)’s question about whether or not they were trying to stereotype how all asians know marital arts was quite interesting. The leading role is half Japanese (?), even though some may not realize, but was this something incorporated because of her roots?
I also did not enjoy how they were constantly yelling. Why can’t they speak in normal tones and be civil with their conversations? It just felt like there was too much over-reaction acting in the film.
I definitely have mixed feelings about this film. I can get laughs out of it, but I do think it is because of those amazing one-liners and the very unnatural acting.
LikeLike
Faster Pussycat Kill Kill was an interesting movie. While I’m not really sure of the motives behind Varla’s killing of Tommy however I reckon it doesn’t really matter. The film was quite cool. However, it understandably comes of very dated. The dialogue in the film was funny to say the least. I like how the innuendo didn’t necessarily jump out at the audience all of the time. In fact I am left wondering what kind s of phrases would have been considered innuendo at the time this movie was made. The plot itself was kind of non substantial . I was definitely interested in the story that didn’t really exist. I couldn’t necessarily get too deep into the story. It felt like a movie the whole time. I kinda felt as if I were watching a porno movie without any actual sex scenes. I am however, interested in watching more of Russ Meyer’s films. I definitely like the combination of sex and large breasted women with silly stories that don’t necessarily have any merit. This is definitely something I’d play during a light party at my house.
LikeLike
Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was quite an interesting and very sexually entertaining erotic adult film for me. This film has a great cast of characters, especially the main three ladies that did go-go dancing in the very beginning. Those ladies had such incredibly attractive and curvaceous features of their bodies that really caught my attention and stare at them for so long, especially their large breasts. I find them to be quite surprising in how exceptionally powerful they are in being capable to fighting against men throughout the film, and even killing them in the process as well. For me, I really thought the leader of the three women, played by Tura Satana, did a very impressive performance in not only looking so sexually appealing with her massive cleavage of her breasts revealed from her outfit, but also how tough she acted as well. Heck, I didn’t even know she was actually part Japanese until I did some research while I watched the film, since she didn’t look Japanese to me at all, and I was surprised by how she spoke English fluently without any accent at all! I enjoyed the entire plot with its abundance of sexual themes and jokes that kept me laughing and entertained, like when the man at the gas station stared at Tura’s gloriously exposed cleavage as he expressed his desire to go to America someday, only to be scolded by her, and also the dinner scene when the question of “breasts or thighs?” arose regarding the choice of chicken. The music was also quite engaging and suspenseful at times too. Also, the dialogue was quite hilarious between all the characters as well, especially from the seductively attractive trio of ladies themselves.
Overall, I really enjoyed this film, and this may very well be one of my favorite films I watched in this entire class. I never thought such a film like this that focuses so much on its sexual themes with their scantily clad and well-endowed and busty women could actually be this hilarious and entertaining for me. I sure hope to see more sexually and erotically entertaining films like this more often as well.
LikeLike
Although the film had never got me bored, Faster Pussycat Kill Kill was poor in content. The story was quite thin and very much predictable for most scenes. Nevertheless, the film had its entertainment value, which makes audience to stay awake and actually watch. It was sharp and crisp. Start from the beginning, I was amazed that women can be portrayed as having that much power in film compare to other films portraying them as submissive women. Never had I thought that woman could kill a man without using any weapon. Throughout the film, three women did not use any machinery weapon; instead they use their own hands to combat obstacles. The man of the owner of the house always had the gun in his hand so I was not quite sure why the women did not own any weapon in the car or somewhere close to them.
The concept of three women as main characters seems to have a lot of Charlie’s Angel element in it. One Asian, blonde and one more other who has a different characteristic. The story ended abruptly considering all those story of building up the portrayal of harsh women; she was hit by car and done.
I am not quite sure if I enjoyed this film( like what other says) but the film never got me bored with all those factors scattered in the film…
LikeLike
My initial reaction after the credits start rolling was “….okay, that was interesting”. The film was extremely fast paced and I found some parts a bit difficult to comprehend the logic behind the character’s intentions or the situations. Two things I could complement about the film is the music and the stunts for the race scene, I enjoyed the 60’s groovy and funky upbeat music. The type of music used in the film was very good. Despite the low budget, the race scene was well done and shot.
The whole setting of the film was rather random and ridiculous like many have commented already, it was pure rubbish. The cause and the effect of events occurred was nonsense. As an audience the lack of suspension of disbelief and the ridiculousness pulled me away from the film, I couldn’t watch with seriousness. The scene in which Varla tries to kill the farmer’s son with a car was hilarious. I felt that scene just went on for a little too long and it just got silly. All I could do was just laugh at how cheesy it was.
The portrayal of women is very different to any films we have screened and they truly left a huge impression on me. I think they are the first 3 characters that I clearly remember their appearances. I am rather conflicted with this representation of the 3 go-go dancers, Varla, Haji and Lori Williams.
Meyer had established an image of these women to be strong, independent and confident however, at the same time they are objectified as a sexual object with their very distinct appearance (Curvy and big breasted). I felt they came off as too overpowering and fake.
Overall, it felt as though the film was just a big compilation of elements that would sell to the general audience, women, sex and action, except there was too much of everything and lack of storyline.
LikeLike
This film was shocking. I have never seen anything like this before. Killing, romance and sexuality this film shows are extremely exaggerated. When it first starts, the sexy women appear on the screen and I have never expected to see such a thrilling film at that moment. The sexuality and killing sometimes go together, just like in this film. This film reminds me of Quentin Tarantino’s Sin City, which is also very sexual and scary. Although this film seems to be very unique and has niche appeal, it has its own atmosphere throughout the whole film. The director of this film, Russ Mayer, used to be a war photographer. What makes me more surprised about this film is his prior career. What he shows through this film does not seem to be related to his earlier experience. Moreover, it is hard to find the theme he was trying to convey through this film. However, this film does not make viewer bored either. Those extremely exaggerated scenes make viewer shocked and, people, thus, can have some curiosity how this film goes. This film contains many violience and kill inning scene but it does not really show lots of blood to make it look more realistic. Therefore, It was not so hard to watch this film in that way. People have different perspective toward arts and this was probably the artistic film for the director, which is very unique.
LikeLike
This film was…interesting. Perhaps the meaning went over my head, but I found the plot to be oddly structured with too many plot points occurring at once. A movie focusing on sex and violence is not typically something I would choose to see, but I can see why this film has reached cult classic status. I think this film embodies the spirit and mantra of all that is “B-Movie cinema”. Poor script, amateur acting and low to modest budget are my main qualms with this work. However, these qualities are typical of B-Movie cinema. Despite the things I disliked abut the film, I thought the female leads were portrayed in an interesting and actually strong way (despite the blatant over-sexuality). Even if the story and acting were subpar, the female anatomy makes for the best and cheapest special effects, so I’m sure audiences can remain at least entertained (I’m looking at you Ken). The interesting characters, and their back stories may be the only saving quality of this work. Russ Meyer is a fairly big name in the film world, I am surprised that the direction seemed subpar, but perhaps this was all about of the artistic intent. All in all, this was an intriguing piece of american cinema, but for me story is always more important that oddity.
LikeLike
Where do I start with this one.
Well, first of all regarding the actual story of the film itself. It was incredibly thin and full of holes and I really had no interest in the actual plot at all. The technical aspect, such as the actual filming and direction was surprisingly well done, and there was some good imagery as well, but I really didn’t enjoy this film, aside from the one liners that were so horrible that they were really amazing. (The dialogue and delivery of the dialogue in this film was painful at times)
The characters themselves, they were very shallow and 2d in my opinion. There was no sense of a real person in any of them, I felt like they were just there to be there and this way just because they were. If there had been some kind of character development as to why they were like that it would be one thing, but it was all shock and cheap sleave value to me.
Which is obvious considered the genre of this film is called sexploitation, but I just found it offensive and in poor taste. Which I’m not arguing that films like these shouldn’t exist because I agree completely with what Karl said in class about thesis and anti-thesis. I think it’s healthy for any industry to have these kind of differences and I am against censorship, but this just really was not my cup of tea.
The characters did not feel like strong, empowered women at all to me. Because they were just sexual objects, and there was nothing deeper under the surface. If they had more of a CHARACTER I think I would have understood that more. I really disliked this portrayal.
All in all I thought this film was awful at its highest points and unwatchable at it’s lowest points, but I think it’s important to watch as a film student.
LikeLike
Overall, the film “Faster Pussycat Kill! Kill!” including its movie title was not the type of film I enjoy or I am interested in. This is another black and white drama, the story is based on the life of go go dancers get bored in desert and make problems by theirselves. It does not have much fun parts exept every scene in the film is pretty serious. The story was not very smooth from the beginning to the end and I felt that the film shows meaningless violence and sexuality. I don’t doubt if it was rated worse than it actually was. The camera works and connections between every scene were well-done I think. The story was just not as interesting as the others we have seen in class so far.
The reason the film is not interesting to me is because of its plots and storytelling. The script could have been better to have a better storytelling from the beginning to the end. It is because the cost of the film was low, the actors and actresses were not well trainned so their actings were not great either.
I feel that Russ Meyer just wanted to make a film about what he think it is interesting, not aiming on a big success. The cost of film was low so it does not have a big risk when the film did not become a hit and loses money. On the other hand, the big film productions can not really make this type of film as one of their works.
LikeLike
…Even now I am still unsure on what exactly I watched, and I have to say I didn’t really enjoy it all that much. The opening was really exciting and sexy and I think it started off well, the main problem I had with this film is I think it went to overkill really fast. I actually liked all of the shock themes, girls, and character stories…just I wish they could have varied it up a tad. The plot points were highly interesting with the dad, the sons’ backstories, and the train, I just wish they could have drawn them out a bit slower so it wasn’t just huge shocks one after another.
Again, the girls were sexy, just I wish it was a bit more varied because they were showing the same ‘images’ over and over again and after a while it just got rather old. (Although learning about Meyer’s work, that seems highly unlikely that that aspect would ever be varied at all.) I did rather like the younger girl though, the kidnapped one. She was the cutest, although Billie? (the blonde one) was my favorite out of the main three. In the beginning I was rather curious on how the main one would turn out, because her poses were so confident and masculine and that intrigued me, but then she just got too crazy for my liking. I’m still a bit confused on Rosie though…..they seemed to hint that she was in love with the main girl and that’s why she stuck by her? I’m not sure but it seemed to me like they were hinting at that at times…..the overall character relationships throughout the film were just really complicated and confusing though.
Overall, I think I might like this movie spread out over several doses rather than seeing it all at once. There were some things that were going for it, but then I think it was just too much, all at once, and at much too fast a pace for my liking.
LikeLike
“Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” Was my first Russ Meyer film and definitely not my last. The first thing about this film that stood out the most were the outrageous outfits. I honestly did not even know that such raunchiness was even around during the mid-sixties in films, I was under the impression that there was still a lot of reserve for such things. As was brought up in class, Russ Meyer was one of the first films to cash in on exploitation films.
I wasn’t expecting much of a story with this film, but there ended up being a somewhat interesting story, well, enough of a story to keep me interested enough to keep watching. With exploitation films though, most people come into the theater expecting outrageous acts and not-so-much of a solid plot. The introduction was very interesting to me, in the sense of that I had no freaking idea what was going on. During the chase scene, I was thinking that Billie was the protagonist spy character and the other two were the antagonists, attempting to capture and kill the protagonist. Although this was actually somewhat accurate in the sense that Billie was trying to be more of a good character rather than evil, all three of the women were technically evil in this film.
Varla was the ringleader of these hip cats. She led with fear. She was basically a dictator, always threatening the others when they didn’t do what we wanted. It seemed she especially had it out for Billie, mainly because Billie was such a free spirit who only cared about staying happy and having fun. It seemed like Varla knew of Rosie’s infatuation with her because of her use of Rosie as a sort of second-in-command.
Rosie was my least favorite character in this film. I didn’t like her for many reasons, but one thing that bothered me about her was her accent. Now, it’s not that I dislike people that have accents, hers just sounded way too fake and forced. She has an infatuation over Varla, and it is apparent, as Billie points out during the film. I favored Billie out of the three because of her carefree attitude and how she didn’t care about the money that may or may not be on the premises.
The father of the two sons was not such a great person. I didn’t care for him too much either. He saved a girl from a train and because paralyzed from the waist down. She did not show any signs of gratitude over the ordeal and he became very bitter over it. He has also gained a dangerous fascination over young women. During one of the first scenes we see the old man and the large son together, he hints at something very dark that has happened in the past with one unlucky young lady they acquired.
The eldest son, Kirk is the level-headed one of the family. He sees good in his younger brother while their father only sees a broken thing that cannot be fixed.
The film ends with basically half of the characters dead. Kirk and Linda flee from the property and then Varla chases after them. Varla tries running the two over, but is not successful. She finally corner the two and gets out of the truck to kill them. Kirk and her fight it out with very intense karate chops and then finally, Linda hits her with the truck and saves Kirk from Varla’s deadly chops.
This movie was fun. I really didn’t know what to expect out of this film, especially with a name like “Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!” I have already recommended this film!
LikeLike
“Pussy Cat Kill Kill” is one of the best black and white films that I have seen thus far. The sexuality of the film played a role in opening many doors in which allowed other directors to do so and not be scared to express themselves. Those three strippers are by far not your average stripper. The leader of the group was Varla (Tura Satana) was very fierce and executed the role as a good leader based on her aggression, determination, goal planning, team managing and ability to defend herself. My favorite part of the movie was when the strippers made an encounter with the couple in the desert and Varla began was belittling Tommy (Ray Barlow) in to a race by using many cleaver yet insulting lines. Whoever made the script for this film should win an award for their wittiness and genius story board. The film was primarily shot in the same location, yet the director used various angles and fully utilizes the surroundings to make the best film possible. Also the casting for this film was very diverse; everyone’s role fit their image. For example “The Vegetable” in which was played by Dennis Busch, had the physique of a body builder and the mind of a child. The way how he played that role was brilliant. In conclusion, I would recommend this movie to anyone that’s a fan of vulgar films.
LikeLike
So the film we watched last week was a bit different from what I’m usually use to. I enjoyed it for a little bit, but was a little bit predictable. Towards the middle when they were trying to steal the money i pretty much figured out the ending and the rest of the movie. I liked the cinematography through out the film. It was pretty well done for such a low budget film. Also Russ Meyer’s choice to cast all female characters that had the fem fit ail thing to them. So just use the men for their money. Over all this film wasn’t my favorite, but i appreciate it because of how edgy it was for its time period. It having all that sexuality in such an early tim period it kind of made him famous. Plus his films are in the MOMA so you have to have some sort of appreciation for what he did or does for this industry.
LikeLike
This film reminded me a conversation from Ed Wood which we watched last time.
Edward D. Wood, Jr.: Well, I started thinking about what you were saying about how your movies need to make a profit. Now, what is the one thing, if you put it in a movie, it’ll be successful?
Georgie Weiss: Tits.
For me, this conversation made perfect sense now. No tits but lots of sexual images the Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1965) had. It was the way how this kind of B-movie made a profit. Even though the story was crazy, it seemed the sexual images made big impacts on everyone in class.
I was kind of surprised by fighting scenes. Men didn’t hesitate to punch the black girl in her face at all. She was strong enough to kill men. That could be a reason. But they were like fighting with a monster. This kind of scene is hard to find in recent films. The blonde girl finished the black girl by hitting her by car and that was also surprising. These scenes made this film have B-movie type of mood more I thought.
It was surprising, crazy and enjoyable. This is all I can say.
LikeLike
I actually thought this was a good film.
It was very artistically shot. It was almost like it came straight out of a graphic novel.
The story is of course ridiculous, but most people didn’t go to these films for the story. They came for the women and the action and the cars. This movie appeals to young people. Don’t search for some kind of deeper meaning about the universe through this story. You won’t find it. However if you just sit back and watch and take the film lightly, it is very entertaining.
I have to admit, it took me a little bit to get into the feel of the movie. Like many of the other commenters, I did not enjoy the movie at first. The dialogue is so outrageous and hilarious though. This movie is worth watching with a group of friends and just having a good time. After watching this movie, my friends and I are still karate chopping each other.
LikeLike
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was NOT a good movie. I usually try to have an open mind and look towards positive aspects, but this film made it very difficult. First, the acting was horrible and made the film almost unbearable to watch. The constant over acting from all the characters made anything in the film believable. The storyline of the film was logical in a sense… it was just not good. This was just a classic example of bad writing combined with bad acting. Russ Meyers clearly did not intend to make a film which relied on its deep dialogue or intriguing story telling. His goal was obviously to deliver and market sex, violence and woman far from the ordinary damsel.
A way he sells sex is by featuring the gang of women as go-go dancers in the very beginning of the movie. They then sell violence by bullying an innocent couple. Eventually things get a little violent and the leader ends up killing the boyfriend and kidnapping his girlfriend. These women are far from ordinary in the sense that before this time, women were depicted and weaker and more decent individuals. The role of a strong woman was greatly new at the time. The sexploitation approach by the cult classic filmmaker Russ Meyer really catered to the grindhouse audience because they grew tired of mainstream’s previous style. The ideas of big studios did not match the taste of these specific audiences and Russ Meyer did an excellent job at going against these big studios. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean his movies are good. They just offered what the audiences wanted at the time. Faster Pussycat! did exactly just that. Forget all the cinematography, the special effects, the deep meaningful story. All it needed at the time was strong sexy woman, action scenes by the dozen and an underlining plot to tell a story. What was nice about the film though, was that Meyers did go deep enough into the story to create different personalities for each of the three women. The leader being the strongest both physically and in mind. The dark haired girl who is loyal and short tempered. Finally, the blonde who in contradiction is a loose canon that refuses to let anyone hold her down.
LikeLike
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! was one of my favourite movies I watched in the class. Even though the story and the dialogue was kind of shallow, it was extremely entertaining. The movie was so bad that it was good. I loved watching the unrealistic way of fighting of the main character, and I loved how she would try and use strong arm tactics to bully around her other group members.
Even though this movie was a b movie and was supposed to be kind of different from the mainstream, I thought it was interesting that all 3 of the girls died. Pussycat! Kill! Kill!’s main characters I thought fell into the classic fem fatale trope where the “evil woman” has to die at the end. So it made sense for Varla and Billie to die because of everything they did, but I was hoping that because Pussycat! wasn’t a mainstream movie Rosie wouldn’t die because she didn’t really do anything “bad” like the other two. But despite my expectations Meyer’s used the fem fatale trope fully and had them all die.
LikeLike
Also,
If this movie were to be restored with colour I think this movie would have been even better. The black and white wasn’t terrible, maybe its because I’m used to colour movies, but that is my only other complaint with the movie which can be forgiven because of the year it was released and its budget.
LikeLike