Bitch Slap
Sony
R4 DVD
What
a movie ! Bitch Slap is a homage to exploitation films from women-in-prison
classics to crime spree and lesbian love-ins. It is Directed by Roger Corman
protégé, Roger Jacobson, so what would one expect ? At the same time one could
argue it is a post-feminist exploitation film as it celebrates women in charge
and wild women’s sexuality at that. It is packed with sex, violence, action and
boobs. The women are all over each other and seem to want to make out in the
most inappropriate locations.
The
film opens with three overdressed women (Hel, Camino and Trixie) slowly
climbing out of a car in the desert. The focus is on their footwear and their
tightly clinging outfits. They pull a badly beaten man (Gage) out of the boot
and beat and torture him to gain the location of a treasure of some form,
diamonds it seems. After his hand (and balls) are crushed, he tells them where
it is, but as he is about to reveal some significant information about one of
the girls he is shot in the head.
As
the girls look for the treasure, the story is told in flashbacks which move
back in time finally focusing on a shootout at the Glory Hole Casino. The
flashbacks are nicely presented, deliberately filmed with a certainly lack of
reality with obvious blue screens to aid the fantasy look of the film. Each
episode reveals another secret about the ladies and, of course, presents them
in new outfits from lesbian nun to a bikini in the snow. Along the way they
beat the hell out of or make-out with anyone who stands in their way. The
cinematography is excellent revelling in an “exploitation” look with slow pans
over the women’s breasts, legs and shoes, cut scenes and carefully edited
violence. The film also is loaded with fast wit, double entendre and some of
the filthiest dialogue you will ever hear.
As
the story moves on we hear about Pinkie, a notorious gangster who runs all
manner of crime syndicates and has a taste for extreme violence. We also come
to understand that Hel is actually agent Foxy69 working for some spy agency
sent to retrieve a germ agent which Gage is trying to sell. But who is actually
running the agency and is Trixie really as powerless as she first seems ?
The
clichés abound in this celebration of sex and violence with stereotypes turned
on their heads and some of the most amazing twists and turns every found in a
movie plot. The characters are marvellous with the girls supported by a nutty
redneck, a Japanese women in a schoolgirl uniform with a razor edge yo-yo, a
dwarf with a machine gun, lesbian nuns and too many more eccentrics to mention.
The
violence is deliberately extreme with an absolutely mind bobbling 30 minute
fight sequence at the end. If you think you have seen women fight, think again
! There is boob grabbing, hair tearing, snatch biting and more than enough to
keep you absolutely glued to the screen.
Bitch
Slap takes the exploitation film to the level of an art-form, refining and
expanding old themes, adding a 21st century approach to sex and violence and
walking a fine line between men’s fantasy and women’s empowerment, watch it and
make up your mind. I loved it !
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