The term "exploitation film" is loosely defined as a film that uses lurid material to attract an audience.
That's pretty broad. I believe there are borderline exploitation films and then there's Savage Streets (1984)
I'll give an example of a plot line in each category.
Boarderline exploitation film- rape/revenge
Savage Streets (1984) - rape of a deaf and mute girl and murder of her friend/revenge from her crossbow-using sister on a biker gang.
The poster for this movie reveals the quality we are dealing with here.
The poster is terrible, The first part of the tagline goes over a spectrum of shades, and they used yellow font. It's difficult to read the words "was" and "crime", as there isn't enough contrast with the light sky behind them.
Linda Blair is the star!
Savage Streets starts out with a refreshing change in exploitation movies- male objectification.
Not only is there male objectification, there's an attempt at diversity!
This is a progressive exploitation movie.
The guys get into a car and drive. The girls walk around Hollywood and gawk at things. An incoherent song plays.
Brenda (Linda Blair) takes a good look at Chekov's crossbow.
The blonde girl, Heather, is the innocent Catholic schoolgirl and Brenda's sister. Linda Blair is the one wearing the cross necklace because, you know, safety after past experiences.
Heather wanders into the street and the guys almost run her over. Brenda helps her up and another girl yells at the guys that her sister is deaf.
This is the second movie I've reviewed in which a character is almost run over by a car so that the line "I'm/She's deaf" sounds natural.
Two movies do not a cliché make.
The main gang member, Jake, tries to get with Brenda but she rejects him.
Jake intercepts someone who owes the gang money for weed. The other guys grab his girlfriend and rip her top off. Jake beats up the debtor.
Clearly this scene was necessary to establish that the gang is bad.
Also, the movie reached a respectable 8:50 before a topless woman shot,
The girls giggle over a picture of a naked man in a magazine.
"Would you check out the schlong on him? You know, I bet he has to put it on the nightstand when he goes to bed!"
I would say "They should make a movie about that", but someone probably already has.
I bet it's called something like One Night-Stand (197?)
The girls decide it woud be a good idea to take this gang's car for a ride.
I like the juxtaposition of Charlie Chaplin in a movie about a mute girl. It's better than my other interpretation of Charlie Chaplin looking horrified that this movie is being made.
The girls taunt the gang and then get ice-cream while talking about sex.
The ice cream scene is about sixteen seconds long. My theory is that the director had this extremely specific fetish and wanted to put it in.
The guys find the car crashed and Jake screams.
The gang busts into the high-school, past a gratuitous all-girl gym class, and intimidates Debtor. The principal breaks it up with the following line:
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| "Go fuck an iceberg." |
He tells them to leave because they are clearly too old for high-school.
This attractive guy, Wes, leers at the cheerleaders. Then he leers at girls in gym class. But it's okay because
Some movies have audience surrogates. Wes is Savage Streets's (1984) male gaze surrogate.
The gang is still on the school property. They also leer at the cheerleaders.
The cheerleaders have a very inappropriate cheer
Our backs are breaking
Our skirts too tight
Our hips are shaking
From left to right
To the left
To the right
To the left, right, left
It's inappropriate because none of them are wearing skirts.
Heather walks into gymnasium to meet Brenda. Cindy walks in and tells Wes not to look at Brenda, or they are breaking up.
Heather gives Brenda a necklace for no reason other than she's about to get assaulted
S-L-O-W shot of girls showering. This isn't even the male gaze; it's the male leer.
Brenda's friends talk about a wedding while getting dressed for no reason other than to justify having a scene in the shower.
Heather takes off her shoes and does ballet in the middle of gym for no reason other than she's about to be assaulted.
The sexual assault scene is by far the most brutal thing I've watched for this blog.
It's ten minutes long and cuts between the assault and Brenda and Cindy getting into a catfight, the two of them going to the principal office, and then Brenda smoking and walking with her friends. So the assault in the story is much longer than ten minutes.
This does not disappoint in being an exploitation film. This scene almost makes the assault scenes in Red Sparrow (2018) seem tasteful by comparison. And they both feature ballerinas.
The one important thing is that one guy, Vince, is reluctant to join.
The girls find Heather and rush her to the hospital. Brenda and her mother stay with Heather.
Brenda goes home, looks at Heather's room, and then goes to talk to her friends at a rock and roll club. Some choice lines:
Charlene: So what's your school gonna do about about it?
Brenda: Put us in the gym and give some speech. Even the cops are a bunch of pussies.
and
Brenda: It's up to us to do something about it.
and
Charlene: You've just gotta believe
Brenda: In what, God? I gave up when my father died.
I've noticed that sometimes there are attempts at social commentary after particularly exploitative scenes in exploitation movies. Maybe the directors feel guilty?
The male gang force Vince to join them at the club, The girls talk about moving to the country and getting a farm.
The guys enter the club and collect money from the Debtor. They sit at the table and mock Vince. One of them grabs and molests a blonde waitress. Then they grab and molest another girl from the Satan's.
The female gang is called the Satans. Perhaps knowing that before the midway point of the film would have been helpful.
The debtor attempts to the stop them and a fight breaks out. The Satans join. It ends with Charlene slashing a guy with a knife and the cops come.
The next day, Ms. Young reads the poem Dover Beach by Matthew Arnold. Some of the writing in Savage Streets (1983) is truly poetic.
Her name is Ms. Young because she looks younger than the students.
Richie tells the class a poem. Notice the poster of Shakespeare in the background. This builds on the previous scene where Chaplin watches this movie.
Disco Sucks
Punk is Dead
Give me Rock
Or Give Me Head
Would you believe that Savage Streets (1984) has a really clever and funny scene?
Ms. Young writes the poem on the chalkboard and has the students analyze it.
She claims it is a real poem because "it has rhythm, it rhymes, and it has meaning."
I did not know that those were three satisfactory conditions for "real poetry", but I didn't go to high-school in Savage Streets (1984)
It escalates to the question "How do sex and death connect?" and Francine replies "Like, till death do us part?"
Oh, and after class, Ms. Young tells Brenda that she is sorry about Heather. which is why she went into detail about death and sex in the lesson.
Vince runs to the Scars. The Scars and the Satans. This movie...
Vince worries that Heather is going to die. Jake tells Vince not to worry as long as he doesn't tell anyone they did it.
Cindy insults Heather in Health class and a catfight breaks out. Brenda rips off Cindy's top. Of course she does.
The prinipal suspends Brenda because she is already in trouble from the first fight.
Francine is picking up her wedding dress later that day, further confusing the age of the high-school students.
The Scars...
He literally has a scar. This movie...
The Scars chase down Francine to a bridge. Jake picks Francine up and tosses her off to her death.
In daylight, as cars pass.
There goes the bride
She's all drenched in red
This movie has a couple fun lines.
Vince attacks Jake and runs away. The remaining Scars hop into their car and drive off.
...The entire point of the marriage was to make Francine's death worse. (?)
The Satins are worried because Francine hasn't returned yet. Brenda decides to go to the hospital to check on Brenda.
Vince enters the hospital and walks into Heather's room without checking on or anything. Even in 1983, was this possible? Considering what he just went through, he probably has a lot of germs on him.
Heather is asleep so she doesn't see one of her rapists.
Brenda walks in as Vince apologizes because the other Scars "forced him." Brenda attacks him and Vince runs away, intercut with scenes from the sexual assault.
So, 1983 hospitals were as tolerant of violence as 1983 high-schools.
Brenda goes home and vows revenge while a song plays. I think this is supposed to be the female empowerment section. but it's hard to tell as it plays over an extended shot of Brenda naked in the bathtub.
Playing with hearts
Is a dangerous game
So don't play with mine
I'll put you to shame
This sounds more like a break-up song than a revenge song.
It's an eye for an eye
You're in a blind rage
Know what it costs
Before you commit
Don't start a fight
I won't let you win it.
They hold on the "win it" as if they are really proud that they almost rhymed with commit,
She's wearing the necklace. Heather gave her. We know this because of the extended shot of her cleavage.
Brenda grabs a pocket knife from her drawer. Someone calls the house and Brenda's mom answers. She learns of Francine's death and runs upstairs, but Brenda has gone out the window.
Brenda goes to Vince's house, but his father tells her that "Vincent" isn't allowed visitors on school nights.
Every so often, the movie throws in a good line.
Brenda attacks Vince,
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| Female empowerment? |
How does he know if he ran away right after Francine's death? Never mind.
Jake drives the two other Scars (Red and Fargo) to the garage and drops them off because he doesn't want them to watch him assault another girl for some reason.
Fargo reminisces about how Francine bounced when she hit the pavement.
Brenda appears and unzips her top to lure Red and Fargo in.
 |
| Female Empowerment |
Farg grabs an axe. Brenda laughs and taunts them.
Not really, cause Fargo finds a tape recorder with Brenda's voice.. And then he finds a couple of bear traps. This is the movie that inspired Saw (2004)
Brenda appears in an aisle.
Fargo: The Game's over
This is Saw.
Brenda loads her Chekov's crossbow and aims it at Fargo with the most amazing line.
Brenda: Too bad you're not double-jointed.
Fargo: Why?
Brenda: Because if you were, you'd be able to bend over and kiss your ass good-bye.
I think that all the writing talent in this movie went to that one exchange.
Brenda shoots Fargo in the throat. Then she starts moaning to lure Red. Then she shoots Red.
Jake sees Vince bring a girl safely home, so he runs him over.
He just happened to see Vince in this alley on his way back from assaulting someone?
Fifteen more minutes to kill Jake.
Jake opens the garage door and sees the corpses of Fargo and Red tied up and bloody. Brenda, hiding in the trees, shoots him in the knees and he falls to the ground.
There's an almost-effective gore shot of Jake pulling the arrows out of his leg. It would be effective if the blood looked less like strawberry jam.
Jake tries to shoot Brenda.
Jake: Brenda? I didn't get you, did I?
Brenda: No Jake. You didn't get me. But I'm definitely gonna get you.
Eh, they used up all the writing talent for the double-jointed line.
Brenda intentionally misses and says she has to go to the car to get some more. Remember, they have to drag this out to fifteen minutes.
Jake manages to drag himself off the steps of the garage and towards the car. Brenda closes a gate and, when Jake tries to open it...
Brenda approaches Jake with a knife and reveals that Francine was pregnant.
I don't know whether that supposed to be a reveal to the audience or if I missed it.
Jake manages to shut the gate, knocking Brenda to the ground, and frees himself. He climbs on top of Brenda, but Brenda stabs him in the genitals.
Brenda runs away (in high heels) and climbs....back into the garage.
Makes sense. Probably couldn't afford a new location
Brenda runs to the other end of the garage, gets behind a gate, and waits for Jake on his injured legs.
Then she sees...
Killing Jake has taken about ten minutes.
Brenda opens a flammable liquid container right as Jake sneaks up behind her, She yells and turns, splashing the liquid on him. (and herself). She lights a lighter and...only Jake gets set on fire.
Jake's arms were around Brenda, and some of the liquid definitely splash onto her clothes, but only Jake is affected.
The police come and Brenda watches Jake burn up on the street.
Cut to a peaceful scene in a graveyard. The Satins plus Heather bring flowers to Francine's grave. I assume Brenda got into no trouble with the police.
Heather takes Brenda's flowers and puts them on the grave. And the movie ends like a generic tear-jerker.
Until the song starts:
No More innocents
No more
No More innocents
No more.
Savage Streets (1984) delivers on it's promise of camp. misogyny, violence, and gore.
So it definitely is a successful movie. Does that mean that it is a good movie?
Probably not. This is no masterpiece like The Candy Snatchers (1973).
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