Belles de l'Ouest

The idea of making a Western with women in the leading roles was an interesting one, but the casting was not exactly ideal. Don't get me wrong, the women in "Bad Girls" look great in their Western outfits, and they do a fine acting job as well, but only Drew Barrymore really convinces as a "bad girl" - you can see the fire of intensity burning in her eyes (Madeleine Stowe is a close second - at times she is convincingly defiant). And for a "feminist" Western, the women get mistreated rather frequently. But the biggest problem with this film is an unfocused script that never really takes off. "Bad Girls" was a big commercial and critical flop, but I don't think it's such a bad movie - it's just not as good as it should have been. (**)

When the prostitute Cody Zamora (Madeleine Stowe) shoots a military man in self defense and is about to be hanged, she is rescued by her three companions (Masterson, Barrymore, MacDowell). They want to leave for Oregon, but are pursued by Pinkerton agents and their paths cross with Kid Jarrett, the local thug, and his mob.

The movie itself is pretty fine; the problem is that it appeared too late. After such landmarks as "Unforgiven", or even "Dances With Wolves" - not to mention the classic antiwesterns of the 1960s and 1970s - a western which is nothing more but a pure entertainment appears somewhat empty and unfocused. Also, it is somewhat underwritten: the good chicks are individualised, clean and smart, the bad guys are a mass of dirty, drunken, constanly sinisterly laughing, idiotically-behaving, stereotypical villains. In the 90s? please! The movie could have worked as a tribute to classic old westerns, but what worked fine in the case of "Silverado" is here neglected - sadly, because this would significantly improve the picture. All in all, not a bad movie - just nothing new and original. 5/10

This silly story of four sexy hookers on western take a ride in "the Quick and the Dead" which had more best reviews, Bad Girls use a sexual oriented direction, but not too seriously, surviving on this kind of sexploitation, one of best scenes when Drew Barrymore as Lilly tries seduces the Deputy to distract him to your mates have enough time to set free Eileen from the jail, best scene of the picture, the bad guy played by James Russo is a crap with all gang members, anyway the movie summarize on sexual appealliing from the four bad girls!!

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First watch: 1997 / How many: 2 / Source: TV-DVD / Rating: 6.25.

A girl-power western for the MTV generation, Bad Girls blatantly rehashes plot elements from The Wild Bunch and Unforgiven but lacks the depth of characterisation, the moral seriousness and the real feeling for the Western's history that made those films such outstanding examples of the genre. Director Kaplan seems to think he's pulling off some revisionist coup by putting women in the central roles, but he offers only lame stereotypes which combine the hoariest of old Western cliches (they're prostitutes!) with the emptiest of post-feminist attitude-striking (they're the Spice Girls on horseback!). The real offence of the film, though, is its opportunism and dishonesty. These foxy chicks are ostensibly rebelling against the oppression of women, specifically their objectification as sexual objects. But as they kick ass Buffy- or Xena-style, the camera lingers on thier hot bods as it would in any soft porn exploitation flick. There's even a lesbian subtext to titillate the most jaded of gentlemen's palates. What purports to be some kind of feminist fable in fact has the sexual politics of your average issue of Loaded magazine. Better seek out the surreal Freudian poetry of Nicholas Ray's Johnny Guitar (1954) or the down and dirty realism of Maggie Greenwald's The Ballad of Little Jo (1993) for Westerns that have something substantial to say about sex and gender.

Jonathan Kaplan's Bad Girls leaves an interesting taste in my mouth. It is an energetic and fun film, offset by its ridiculous characters and plot. The believability factor in this flick is low, which encourages its audience to view it as a swirling maelstrom of metaphor and symbol. Woman, as defined by the early 90's, can overcome any impediment and still be beautiful, no need to become manly (and lose her femininity) to assert herself. The Western genre serves as a perfect tableau for this discourse because it is one traditionally dominated by men. Likewise, the men in Bad Girls each represent an institution of American culture that is dominated by men and their mentality, conveniently dispatched by the bad girls.

Four whores raise hell by killing a Colonel and running out of town, complete with unnecessary slow motion of Drew Barrymore shouting "heeyah!" and the humiliation of every man who crosses their path. The military, traditional justice, and Christianity are trampled upon, left wondering how these motivated and hard working women could escape their clutches. The film from here takes some twists and turns, and several complete circles. In short, the whores chase a dream of establishing a home for themselves around a mill that Mary Stuart Masterson's late husbands owned, countering the murderous advances of men with their own sexual flaunting. Gunfights, smarmy dialogue, pseudo-lesbianic encounters, and female flesh fill the film to to a near bursting capacity, much like Barrymore's bosom.

It is not what I would call a smart film, however it does present itself as an interesting fable about the empowerment of women by women who remain women. I would liken Bad Girls to that of the Freudian dreams of those who struggle against "the man." I feel that it deserves to be seen at least once.