Chastity

She was born in a wagon of a travelin' show, her mama used to dance for the money they'd throw. Yes, it's pre-nose-job Cher in her absolutely wretched dramatic debut, as a sullen and surly hitchhiking runaway with a heart of pressed tin. With her grating voice and punk-ass demeanor, she can often be misconstrued as acting, but do not be fooled - she is simply a marionette in the hands of producer Sonny `Svengali' Bono (whom one can also presume was also the never-heard-of-before and never-heard-from-again director de Paola). Chastity is a disturbed young woman who hits the road to escape her dreary, unhappy life, and finds more dreariness and unhappiness. In this turgid and lugubrious script, she takes her anger out on men by picking them up, leading them on and then `not letting them get anything.' She works as a prostitute without ever having to give up `the goods,' and winds up in a Mexican whorehouse for a lesbian madam who would like Chastity to be something more than an employee. With a creepy introspective/philosophical voiceover narrative by Cher, it is hippie-age BS and you can definitely see her *Gypsies, Tramps and Thieves* period looming on the horizon. Chastity is perplexing in a way that is peculiarly unintriguing, and despite all her woes, she is supremely unsympathetic. Her eventual confession of being abused as a child may have been shocking in 1969, but in retrospect, it is entirely predictable. There are some who will dig deeply to find some merit to this film, but it should strictly be taken as what it is: pure camp - meaning, of course, that's it's hysterically funny while it tries desperately to be serious. Would *you* name *your* child after this? `Chastity.pick her up if you dare.' Indeed.

In Cher's first attempt in a dramatic role she is found drifting through her young teenage life searching for her identity.She hitch-hikes to Mexico picking up truck-drivers as well as a boyfriend along the way.Her dysfunctional family and abuse follows her ,haunting her as she lives out her escapades wearing the same top and jeans till it makes you a bit nauseous! Her foray into the comfort of lesbianism,is short-circuited by her traditional American values,and Chastity tries the "straight life" one more failed time.The script is trite,and the story jaded .Cher has said the rough stuff was excluded,as Sonny Bono couldn't stand to see his wife do "those things". All in all a cool 60's trip,with an amateurish and weird aura! Chasity later became the name of Cher's daughter conceived during this movie!

Sonny Bono, in his autobiography "And the Beat Goes On," maligned his own debut as a writer/producer of serious cinema. But "Chastity" does not deserve a bad reputation: on the contrary, the film is a well-thought out and entertaining exploration of a runaway (played engaging by Cher in her first film as a dramatic actress) trying to discover herself, and in the process, find out what life is all about.

While at times the film strives to be a little too philosophical (it is clear that Bono wanted to make a statement), the film is both visually and aurally creative. From the opening sequence in which a montage of Chastity's thoughts flash through a sketch of her profile and the subsequent telephoto shot of her running towards the camera (she wants to go somewhere - but ends up going nowhere!), to the scene in which she wanders through a Mexican brothel, "Chastity" always keeps the viewer interested in the film itself, and more importantly - caring about its young protagonist.

The film is low budget - and possibly due to casting constraints some of the actors seem rather stiff - but overall the low budget helps to give "Chastity" more of a realistic look. The movie was obviously not filmed on sets - but instead on real locations - and the camerawork at times even gives it a "cinema verite" feel.

Of course, Sonny Bono was primarily a song writer and producer, and his use of music (most of which he wrote) is creative. The title theme is a haunting, beautiful composition that must have been influenced by Ennio Morricone and the music he wrote for Sergio Leone's spaghetti westerns. For those who may be familiar with the Atco soundtrack album, the music works very nicely in the context of the film.

In any case, "Chastity" is no masterpiece, but it is an entertaining (though downbeat) film that deserves to make its way onto a commercial video release. Bono deserves a lot of credit for writing, producing and scoring the film (and according to his autobiography he even edited a good portion of it). And as the soundtrack is out of print, it would give the viewer the opportunity to hear the Bono theme music and the classic opening tune "Band of Thieves."

I have watched this movie several times and get more out of it each time I watch it. Whether artistically or what the movie conveys.Cher in her 1st solo movie.Screenplay by Sonny. He used many things about Cher's life and put them in to his screenplay.The pre-Cher,that is. The opening sequence shows an outline of Cher's head with many images running through it,reminds me of how many things I think about and how they get shuffled about.Do we get answers to them? We see Cher running.What is she running towards or away from. We don't know that until the end until we get the story. Chastity is an old enough to runaway.At that time,there were many runaways from whatever they may have experienced in their home life. She uses men.Her wits. Her sharp tongue.Her curiosity about life.She uses the streets to survive by any means. Yes,Chastity is looking for the love she craves for.When she gets it she is afraid and runs. She makes her way to Mexico.Ends up in the hands of a madam.With the madam,I believe she is looking for the love from her own mother. She gets it but this woman wants more.Chastity runs back to the lawyer wanna be.She seems settled but her she can't escape her past that happened at an early age and we find out why she runs. Its no female version of "MIDNIGHT COWBOY",but does ask a lot questions and how we would handle it if we were in her situation or whatever makes us run or stay.Some uses the street to survive.Others use the streets to get off. We all look for love. Some people don't get it. Some feel they don't deserve to be loved because of whatever they had encountered.

Sonny Bono saved up his money and made this film starring his wife and its really not bad. You shouldn't expect great acting but Cher does show her early raw style here and even in scenes where she's required to cry she does it admirably. Script isn't bad either but all the talking she does to herself gets annoying after a while and I really didn't buy the whole Mexican brothel part at all. Her character is just to smart and in control to do something so brash and foolish. Now, about the nudity. There are two scenes where Cher is supposedly nude and in one scene you don't see her face at all so I'm assuming its a body double. But in the other scene it kind of looks like her though her hair is in the way and the room is dark so while I'm not 100% sure I do think it might be her where you see a glimpse of Cher's breast. The film ends on an emotional level where the voices in her head let us the viewer find out what's wrong with her and the last scene of an emotional Cher on the side of the road I think is just a solid job of acting. Solid effort by all including Sonny who produced, wrote and scored the music. I kept expecting to see Sonny pop up in a cameo but he never does. Interesting hippie flick with solid acting.