Switchblade Sisters

Starring:Robbie Lee, Joanne Nail, Monica Gayle, Asher Brauner, Chase Newhart, Marlene Clark, Kitty Bruce, Janice Karman, Don Stark, Don Marino, Helene Nelson, Bill Adler, Paul Lichtman, J.S. Johnson, Kate Murtagh, Bob Minor, Clint Young, Frances E. Williams, Michael B. Miller, Roy Engel
Director: Jack Hill
Studio: Miramax
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Jack Hill's 1975 drive-in opus, Switchblade Sisters, has all the requisite cheese and then some: girl fights, gun duels, sex-starved reform school guards, flashes of nudity, and even African-American-Maoist-revolutionary-butt-kicking chicks who don't take nonsense from anyone. The story is a prime example of how the influence of great filmmakers can be reprocessed into pure exploitation: Maggie (Joanne Nail), a smart, new member of a distaff gang, presents a threat to the group's established leader (Robbie Lee). The intricacies of their subsequent relationship--love, betrayal, and a battle for control--has numerous echoes of the films of Nicholas Ray and Howard Hawks, and Hill plays it all with a seriousness that underscores the heart within this trash classic. No wonder Quentin Tarantino became this film's latter-day benefactor, promoting its 1998 theatrical re-release under the auspices of his revival imprint, Rolling Thunder Pictures. --Tom Keogh

Description

Jack Hill's SWITCHBLADE SISTERS is the outlandish, action-packed story of a tough gang of teenage girls -- the all-female Dagger Debs -- who are looking for love and fighting for turf on the mean streets of the city! Bad girls to the core, these impossibly outrageous high school hoodlums go where they want ... and create mayhem wherever they go! A riotously entertaining mix of sex, jealousy, and massive firepower that critics loved -- don't miss your chance to see one of the wildest films ever made!

Customer Reviews:

BEWARE!.......2007-05-09

I don't know what these other reviewers are thinking but this movie is not the campy fun it leads one to believe it is...your better off with 'slime people' or 'faster pussycat' -stuff like that...I think Jack Hill was quite serious with this film through most of it. I don't recall laughing too much, it was kind of sad when her boyfriend was killed at the skate rink. Just a heads up for those of you looking for a stupid-silly low budget trash fest.

you gotta love it.......2006-06-06

you really need to enjoy this genre to appreciate this movie. If you watch it with some popcorn and some good blacksploitation movies to follow, you will love it.

Great one liner quotes,and more.

the movie itself actually is really entertaining for its day and style.

"Stop that fighting, girls.".......2006-02-08

It's 70s. It's camp. It's sexploitation, but to categorize "Switchblade Sisters" as just these three things simply doesn't do this film justice. I've had a copy of "Switchblade Sisters" on my unwatched film shelf for some time. Thanks to the enthusiasm of the reviewers here, I decided to take the plunge and give the film a go. I loved it!!

The Dagger Debs are an all-female gang led by the pixie-like, leather clad Lace (Robbie Lee). Lace's man is Dominic (Asher Brauner) the leader of the Silver Daggers. When new girl, Maggie (Joanne Nail) arrives on the gang's turf, she fights her way into the gang, and a short stint in the local jail bonds Maggie and Lace. As Lace says, "it ain't healthy to lone it," and Maggie soon becomes Lace's best friend and one of the more aggressive gang members.

Meanwhile another gang led by "capitalist gangster" Crabs (Chase Newhart) is about to muscle in on the Silver Daggers' action, and the stage is set for a major showdown. When the male gang members fail to match the aggression of their female counterparts, the Dagger Debs stop being just arm decorations and seize control.

A communist Mao-quoting, all-armed-all-girl gang, a corrupt principal called Mr. Weasel, a food fight, frumpy, boozy housewives, and a war between sadistic female wardens and female inmates using toilet plungers as weapons--yes, it's all here, and it's all marvelous entertainment. "Switchblade Sisters" had me hooked from the beginning to the very last brutal scene. The film has its extremely clever moments--in one scene, for example, a timid high school teacher tries to teach the gang members a lesson on the theory of "laissez-faire" government.

Most professional film critics pan this film, but Quentin Tarantino selected "Switchblade Sisters" as a serious, solid film from a much-slammed genre--and he's right. "Switchblade Sisters", from director Jack Hill is a wildly entertaining cult gem--and it really should not be missed--displacedhuman

Switchblade Sisters Transcends the Genre and Then Some.......2005-01-29

Forget all the condescending snobs who dismiss this movie as no more than memorable camp. Granted, this movie has plenty of camp, and it is memorable; but it has a lot more going for it as well. Jack Hill was one of those directors who could recognize the potential in the lowliest of genres, making great movies like "Coffy" and "Switchblade Sisters" and still delivering as much fun as the wildest B-movies could ever pack.

Roger Ebert started taking his vacation from cinematic reality when he panned this movie. (He cancelled the return trip back to reality, apparently, when he raved about "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," but that's another story). As the movie started getting under way, I was surprised and impressed that it had nothing to do with the "so-bad-it's-good" spectacle other reviewers were describing. This is a good movie and it is actually a lot less cheesy than other seventies action films like the preposterous "Marathon Man."

The plot is typical exploitation movie fare: teen gangs, radical militants, evil female prison guards, and lots of assorted weaponry. In other words, yes this movie contains a lot of camp. It also contains an inspired performance by Monica Gayle as the Iago-like Patch. While we're on this topic, I found her Patch a much more compelling performance then Kenneth Branagh's melodramatic, loudly whispering, offensive stereotype of a gay man that he tried to pass of as Iago in his version of "Othello," but I digress. Not all of the acting is equal to Gayle's, but it is better than what you will find in nine out of ten big-budget Hollywood productions.

In summary, if you despise anything but Bergman and Brakhage--"Switchblade Sisters" isn't for you. If you already made up your mind not to like the movie when you heard the title, it isn't for you either. More importantly, if you just don't like the subject matter of so-called "exploitation" films (including rape in this movie), you may want to pass even though "Switchblade Sisters" deals with the conventional topics in a thoughtful way. The label "exploitation cinema" hardly does justice to this move, but I realize the genre is not for everyone.

If you are looking for a good movie with fast action, moving drama, and a couple of memorable performances and some of the best quotes in cult-film history; and if you are not too high falutant for a healthy dose of camp mixed in with your drama and character studies, then see "Switchblade Sisters."

"Everybody's Gotta Be In A Gang!".......2005-01-03

I saw this gem way back before Quentin Tarrantino rereleased it on Rolling Thunder Pictures, and I dug the hell out of it. Not trying to prove how old school I am with that, but it's odd how this film was universally reviled before, and now is considered a cult classic. It's still the same movie it was before Tarrantino put this DVD out. I just wanna make it known that this is one person who always liked it.

First of all, this is not meant to be a realistic portrayal of what life is like for girls in gangs, nor a cautionary tale of the future. It's meant to be trashy fun. Jack Hill actually did research about gang life before he made this movie, but then threw it all out, because he didn't think stark realism would work well with chicks in hot pants. It's set in the near future, or possibly an alternate present, but it is in no way meant to be taken seriously.

Believe it or not, Switchblade Sisters is a neo-futuristic retelling of Shakespeare's "Othello." And it is so much cooler than the Josh Hartnett vehicle, "O." The movie opens with a girl gang called The Dagger Debs, the counterparts to the male gang, The Silver Daggers. The Debs' leader, Lace, (the "Othello" character, for those of you paying attention) is brilliantly played with much gusto by Robbie Lee. Her boyfriend is the leader of the Silver Daggers, Dominic.

The Daggers and their Debs are chillin' in a fast food joint when they notice a blond babe who won't leave "their" table. They hassle her, but to their surprise, she impressively defends herself. Her name is Maggie, and after they do a little jail time together, she and Lace forge a fast friendship.

Lace isn't the only one Maggie has impressed, however. Lace's boyfriend Dom is after her. Maggie admits that she has feelings for Dom, but would never betray Lace. This is just enough for Patch (aka Yago) to use to manipulate Lace into believing that Maggie is her enemy.

One great scene is when Maggie must prove her loyalty to the Dagger Debs by retreiving the medallion worn by Crabs, the leader of the rival gang. It's hilarious to see her manipulating him by playing the bad stereotype of a ditzy woman in order to hide her intelligence and skill. "Um...I'm trying to get into the Dagger Debs? And I'm supposed to deliver a message. I don't know what it means!" And of course this girl comes right out and tells the creepy looking Crabs that she's from a rival gang, and yet he believes that she wants to fool around with him, rather than steal his medallion! I'm not knocking that as an unbelievable plot point, cuz we all know that's how it is with guys like him.

From a feminist perspective, it's hard to overlook the rape scene between Maggie and Dominic. First of all, I've seen lots of exploitation movies, and lots of rape scenes that were far more offensive than this. Many of these rape scenes are shot so that the audience becomes voyeur, and the woman is exhibited for the audience in the same way she is exhibited for her attackers. These rape scenes are meant to be titilating, but usually leave me feeling disgusted, and guilty for watching women being exploited. But in this scene, Maggie is not being exposed, and most of what happens is in the dark, or on the other side of her door. What we see is not excessive, but it also doesn't look censored. And at the end of it, I'm feeling pissed off, but for the right reasons.

It may seem offensive, or just strange, that after this happens, Maggie is still on speaking terms with Dom. But the point of this is not to say that what Dom did was acceptable. He's a gigantic pig, and not good enough for either Lace or Maggie. Yet, any time he does anything to reveal what a low life he actually is, both girls turn a blind, codependent eye, and convince themselves that it isn't really his fault. Of course this is wrong, but it's the tragic flaw that tears their otherwise loyal friendship apart.

We can see it's gotten too far when Lace conspires with a rival gang to have Maggie killed. Luckily, it backfires, and our heroine lives to see another day, but with disasterous consequences. "I had to do it! He was treating me like a little gutter cat!" At this point, Lace actually believes that Maggie's presence is causing Dom to be a jerk, rather than Dom himself.

There are some real zingers in here as far as dialog is concerned, and many of them are punctuated with the actors' enthusiastic delivery, particularly in the case of Robbie Lee as Lace. However, one of the most notoriously bad lines, "If you leave, it's all gonna turn out bad!" sounds ok to me. Lace is pleading with Dom to stay with her, and in a moment of scattered desperation, it sounds like something a girl her age would really say. Lace really believes she can't be happy without Dom. I guess it got such a big laugh from audiences because the rest of the dialog ("My old man, God rest his ass!" or "Hey, Crippledick, everyone knows your crank could hook a tuna!") is so wild and unexpected that this line sounds silly by comparison.

Another one of my favorite scenes is when Maggie decides that the Dagger Debs will no longer be defined only by their male counterparts ("We're nobody's Debs anymore!") and decides to change the gang name to The Jezebels.

I wasn't too fond of the audio commentary track with Jack Hill, the director, and Quentin Tarrantino, the Guy Who Really Likes This Movie. I was hoping Tarrantino would be interviewing Hill, and encouraging him to say more about his experience making the movie. Hill is very soft spoken, and unfortunately, Tarrantino keeps interrupting him throughout. I want to hear about Jack Hill's experience making the movie, not a bunch of stuff Tarrantino once read about it, or worse, what his famous friends thought about the movie when he showed it to them.

I've seen a lot of exploitation movies that claim to be all about female empowerment by having a female lead. But this film is one shining example of feminist exploitation cinema. I don't know if such a term exists, but if it doesn't it should be created just for this classic. I never thought I'd say this, but I agree 100% with Tarrantino when he says, "You start out laughing at this movie, but about halfway through you realize that you actually care about these people." If he can do that with trashy exploitation, Jack Hill is one of the most underappreciated directors of our time.

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