Stripper

Here's ol' RavenGlamDVDCollector@gmail.com again reviewing something he saw decades ago, and therefore cannot vividly recall, and there is but a snowball's chance in hell to ever see this on DVD. I encountered something like an offer to digitally download this, but you have to be a subscriber and you'll need a computer and installations and technical know-how and if anybody out there could help me, I'd gladly reward you, name your price.

STRIPPER is a documentary featuring girls competing for the Golden G-string award, not for this in itself, but as a springboard for their careers, be that as models or dancers, and with hindsight I didn't have back then, I suppose as porno stars or high- class call girls or whatever. Point is, these girls are all psyched up to win that trophy (while it is, of course, something of a questionable honor, especially to their more well-off fortunate sisters). Us menfolk do not complain, we got to see lots of bare flesh, but the real nudity in this one is the girls' tormented souls. Which makes for quite a view. This is the forerunner of reality shows, a prototype that could hardly be lived up to, as this is the really real thing, and involves bare skin by the score.

By today's standards, judging from snippets seen on the Net, the hairstyles are totally outdated, and this does make it seem like antique material, but, gee whiz oh golly shucks, what I wouldn't give to see this again, wow!

She's got style, she's got grace, she's got long, long legs, she's got savoir faire... I remember that song clearly, although it's been about 23 years since I last saw the film. It was released on the South African video circuit around 1991, I think. At a time when our very strict, absolutely Draconian censorship laws were cooling off. There was no chance whatsoever to see it here legally during it's year of origin. Americans have no idea how fortunate they are to have grown up with freedom of choice.

To try and get back to an actual review, there is this very emotional scene at the end with a shattered dream, a dashed hope, a contestant being consoled by her mother. Ain't no reality show ever which can beat that, people!

Yet, for some reason, this screen gem is mostly just collecting dust somewhere. Release it on DVD, aim it exclusively at the video rent market as a classic of a by-gone era, just ensure there's a pretty girl on the box cover... (sigh, sob)

This movie was interesting to me because it showed the behind-the-scenes of strippers' life, which I knew nothing about. I just thought it was a sleazy profession that degrades women, and never thought about the women themselves. I found the story of the single mother especially touching.

This movie revealed to me the sad and human, and sometimes satisfying, side of this profession. There was, of course, some peeping in watching it, but I didn't get aroused by the naked women - it is Not a porno movie, it is a Documentary.

I'm not saying that I'm going to be a stripper myself after I've seen it, but that I view strippers more humanly. All I need now is to watch a movie about the motives of men watching strippers, and maybe that'll change my mind about them too.

Basically it's about several different strippers that are gearing up to participate in a competition at a stripper convention in Las Vegas. The documentary filmmakers follow the girls, get their back story, and watch how things turn out for them at the big show.

In many ways, it prefigures a lot of the "reality" TV stuff that would come out twenty years later. The hook is to develop rooting interests in each of the contestants and see how it all unfolds.

To that end, "Stripper" has both good points and bad points. The good is that the production values are high and it is moderately entertaining to get invested in the dancers' ambitions. It could have been much more exploitative but tries gamely to be, well, a documentary. To a point, it succeeds. The bad is that, like much reality-based drama, many of the scenes feel manufactured and staged for the cameras. The final competition might just as well have been assembled for the purpose of making this film.

A fair amount is superficial and can't be taken seriously. It's the softest of the soft core porn, so those looking for arousal should look elsewhere. But there's more than a glimmer of entertainment and human insight to be had, especially considering that this was done a generation before every empty-souled schnook looking for attention went on reality shows and both producer and viewer alike knew what to expect.

This film does it well back before people started doing it poorly.

The overall story is pretty mild. Life as usual for some women.

For the viewer it can be fascinating to get glimpses into that life. Sure, the scenes seem to be well dressed and not very realistic. But in the moralist context I doubt anyone can show the real footage for the simple reason that the two gangs accept only the extremes: the glamour or the gross and the disgusting. Not taking sides would mean having both gangs against you. And from this stand point the production team does a good job not leaning in any direction.

Also, it's hard to imagine how they did it without the tech common for the 2018.

I remember when this video hit the old time Mom & Pop video stores in the mid 80s. It had a big promotion, large posters on the walls. Places that would not carry the harder sex videos carried these, or, if you were too embarrassed to go into the "back room", you could still rent this from the front. That's primarily it with this video. It was marketed that way and the box made it look like sleaze. Various strippers are shown and, as filler, we get to see the bahind the scenes of their lives. If it was JUST stripping, it wouldnt qualify as a hoity-toity "documentary" and would have been in that fabled back room. A Stripper's Convention was put together obviously by the video producers (It's a "First Annual"...c'mon ) as an excuse to have a grand stripoff at the end. It's a good look at where stripping was at back then. This was just before "Gentlemen's Clubs" became little more then steroid and silicone driven hard-body gynecology lessons. The ladies are pretty, the dancing may seem a little tame by "Showgirls" standards (which it would make a good double-feature with, call it the "Fast-Forward Film Festival").