Truly Dreadful Film

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Are the four titular lead women really all that bad in Jonathan Kaplan's 1994 Western thriller Bad Girls? Perhaps it's the nature of what they do lined up against what's expected of them that makes them so "bad", that is to say, putting their necks on the line and obliterating whatever male dominated spectrum exists within the world they occupy as they strive for independence and individualism. Perhaps that's what makes them bad, the fact that they refuse to roll over for the majority of the men in the film and act like good little whores suitable to be looked at but nary heard. The titular girls do kill people, but most certainly in self-defence; they fight and they battle away, but do so against fair degrees of sexism; they're on the run, but their running is purely a result of pent-up rage and sustained marginalisation. As it happens, Bad Girls is a guilty romp through a west you couldn't really entitle "wild" about four gals just wanting a 'straight' American dream infused life but having to fight both misogyny and false charges brought against them along the way.The film covers the misadventures of a handful of women in pre-20th Century America, the ringleader and toughest of the lot of whom is Madeline Stowe's Cody Zamora; a woman nary afraid to stand up to men nor those lecherous and out to harm either herself or one of her kind, evident when we observe her react with violence to a patron's over exuberance at sampling the services of Drew Barrymore's Lilly Laronette. Stowe's reaction lands her in some seriously hot water, the death sentence carrying with it an air of disenchanted inevitability about it in that Zamora stands before the gallows on account of preventing the elderly man from having his way rather than defending a girl from rape. After a straight faced Zamora demands the execution party "gets on with it", her three accomplices, with whom she has been working most of her life and will spend the majority of this film with, bound out of the wilderness and save both the day and Stowe's neck before charging off with her in tow. Fugatives to the law, Zamora; Laronette; Andie MacDowell's Eileen Spenser and Mary Stuart Masterson's Anita Crown hole up out of town after a verbal demonisation from those back at the party point out they are both the enemies of the people, religion and all things righteous.What transpires from this is effectively a weak rendition of 1992's Unforgiven, only minus Eastwood's character and Freeman's character; a tale about strong natured prostitutes maltreated but then themselves consequently being the ones whom go on the run as it's they whom are additionally stalked by a pair seeking their own brand of justice. Those men are two Pinkerton Marshals named O'Brady (Chinlund) and Graves (Beaver), men hired to track them down in this sprawling road movie of sorts and bring them to justice as the girls themselves attempt to get on with a more honourable way of living: the allure of opening a saw mill in far off anywhere appearing particularly appealing. The film has fun with placing women at the forefront of its plot, allowing its lead characters to charm; trick and seduce their way out of tight spots and usually into tighter ones when they require some money rather than to throw around weight they do not have as might have been the case had male characters driven the film.The film isn't without flaw; its goofiness encapsulated by the fact each of these girls maintains a relatively photogenic look throughout, not once the years of abuse nor the results of their previous line of work really worming its way into either of their expressions nor overall demeanour and thus holding the film back from being the grittier tale it might have been. As time had passed and the four of them worked at that seedy tavern, each of them appeared to master the fine art of gunslinging and sharpshooting; Zamora managing to make best-friends/worst-enemies with a certain Kid Jarrett (Russo), a bandanna sporting low life thief with a small army of bandits whom waltzes around with a belt of bullets around his ribs, along the way. The chase element is surprisingly effective, a love plot to do with a young man named Josh McCoy (Mulroney) whom becomes mixed up in things, or more specifically Laronette, daft as it is good natured; a later sequence featuring this additionally consistent, in an unrealistic manner, photogenic young cowboy arriving to save his dame on horseback out of a dynamite caused cloud of smoke, suit of armour all that is missing, rather ridiculous but then spun around when it is he whom needs the collective power of the four women to save his own life.There's a glum and rather seedy sub-plot to do with Jarrett and his past-involvement, romantically, with Zamora which doesn't quite sync up with the rest of the film's boisterous tone of romp and circumstance; while Laronette's own swiping from the rest of the crew feels a little preordained, or more obligatory than is desired, since it is she who is the youngest of the four titular bad girls and it is she whom must then where the little dress her captors have lined up for her. You additionally feel their treatment of her might have been a little more sordid than it actually is, but a ruthless sticking to the overall tone of the film demands a watered down version of whatever might have happened in the real wild west; the taking of Laronette the result of Barrymore's sexuality when compared to the other three than that of any realistic plot driven reasons or mechanics. Flaws and frustrations aside, and there are a glowing number, Bad Girls is a daft but enjoyable frolic through hazy female empowerment and both action and western genre demands but done in a relatively fetching manner.

Madeleine Stowe, as Cody Zamora, is a hooker who shoots a man in self defense. Being what she is, that is to say, not being Mother Teresa, she doesn't generate much sympathy in this rough-riding town and the good citizens decide to hang her. "Get on with it," she tells them with Promethean contempt. They're about to do just that when three other young women of dubious repute rescue her at the last minute and ride off. In pursuit are a variety of justice seekers, including Pinkertons and other law types, one or two of them, such as Dermot Mulroney and James LeGros aren't too bad. On the trail they run into the Jarrett Gang. Some of the bad girls, and some of the pursuers as well, carry baggage with them related to the Jarrett Gang. There is a violent shoot out.Now, we must note here that the writers weren't reaching too far for original character names. The leader of the girls is Cody Zamora, whereas the leader of the Gang is Kid Jarrett. I'd be surprised if the writers hadn't seen James Cagney in "White Heat" as a gang leader named Cody Jarrett. At least there were no Wades or Coles or Lukes or Matts, although there was a bad guy named Yuma, which is pretty bad.In fact, though, all four of the bad girls could as easily have been men, or more easily. They WOULD have been men back in the 1950s or 1960s. But then I suppose the Jarrett Gang wouldn't have had an opportunity to treat Drew Barrymore to a lesson in Tough Love. At that, though, this is a BIG improvement over "Westward the Women," with Robert Taylor as a sadistic wagonmaster hired to cart a caravan of would-be wives out to a female-starved Western outpost. Taylor consistently treats his wards like dirt and actually whips some of them when they don't work hard enough. There's nothing original here except the gender of the four leads. There is some suggested nudity but no simulated sex or anything else to pique one's interest. They just seem to have rounded up four popular actresses and thrown them into a well-worn dusty rut. The climactic gunplay is lifted straight out of "The Wild Bunch", as are a couple of slow-motion gunshots. No reason for it, except that it had been done before.I thank the whole tenor of the pitcher is captured when there is a scene of them four hoorah gals a-settin' around the camp fire and a-havin' a peaceful chat. All four of them is exquisitely dressed and unimpeachably groomed with modern hair styles and make up in full panoply. Not a hair out of place, y'know? But the make up department has very carefully brushed a comely taupe area on one cheek or a smear of raw sienna across some otherwise impeccable forehead. That's dust and dirt from the road. They been on the trail fer quite a spell. And they talk like they just graduated from Wellesley. (That's this here classy college back East, kids.) Not a single "g" is dropped at the end of a word like "nothing," or -- as we rawboned cowboys like to call it -- "NUTHIN." How can writers and directors be so careless, so contemptuous of viewers? Or maybe I'm mistaken. Maybe they have a different audience in mind. But if so, what is it?

I think I could have enjoyed Bad Girls a little better if I felt that ladies, particularly in the west were pathetic, helpless victims of the boorish, stupid, chauvinistic men.Oh well, I really enjoyed the fairly realistic town scenes and particularly the talent of the ladies....Drew Barrymore was quite fetching if not (like the rest of the movie).. even remotely....believable.I'd watch these ladies do just about anything....but riding horses, shooting guns, in bawdy western wear, corsets.... was pure entertainment "on the hoof".The gritty lines were as good as I've ever heard...even the old widow of the dead officer whore monger...."bag of manure"...good stuff.Beautiful scenery....human AND location.

Enabled by the magic of Encore on cable television, I was able to attempt to enjoy two viewings of "Bad Girls" from 1994. I do say attempt to enjoy ....What a rancid excuse for a western.Seldom in the tumultuous history of Hollywood has more talent and more authentic costuming gone to waste, than it does in this crippled dog of a movie. Before ranting any more, however, I will say certain things in defense of these four starring actresses: Andie MacDowell is a scintillating screen beauty, and a talented woman with dramatic flair: she absolutely made "Groundhog Day" a delight to watch and enjoy, and she was so very believable as the starry-eyed television producer stuck with Mr. Obnoxious Weatherguy, Bill Murray.Drew Barrymore, then nineteen years of age, is not among my favorites in the new generation of Girl Toys On Film but she was so easy to look at, that it was easy to forget how wooden her characterization was.Mary Stuart Masterson is a class act. Wasted in this dog of western.Madeleine Stowe has also proved herself as a contemporary screen actress of the first order. She gave an extraordinary performance as "Cora Munro" in "The Last Of The Mohicans" from 1992. Holding her own against a dynamic presence like Daniel Day-Lewis was no small accomplishment. She had several scenes with Jodhi May, as her younger sister Alice, that completely captured the tension and the panic of the moments in that revered classic by James Fenimore Cooper.Furthermore, 1994 was a good year for Madeleine Stowe Mora, as she starred in "Blink," which was very good, and "China Moon," which was really good. The premise of "Bad Girls" should have been a slam-dunk for the talent she was exhibiting at that time, but instead -- and here the Director, Jonathan Kaplan, has to take the flogging -- her character of Cody Zamora is neither lovable nor believable. Maybe the script was faulty, but a good Director has to find a way to nag the producers and the screenwriters to get what he wants for the shooting schedule. Afterall, most screenwriters want to get a good movie on film and the rules stipulate that they can get paid extra for doing rewrites while principal shooting is on-going. This could have been a classic modern western, in the mold of "Chuka" with Victoria Vetri and Rod Taylor or "Silverado." It could have explored the cultural clash going on in the latter part of the 1800s between the rough-hewn and easy-going pioneers and the next generation of western settlers, who brought Temperance and religious fundamentalism into the little towns of the prairie and of the arid southwest. Claire Bloom took the same material -- the character of a beautiful prostitute with a soft heart -- and shaped the character to be a successful compliment to John Wayne's tough, earnest, Ringo Kid.So in Stagecoach from 1939, the entire plot moves around the fulcrum of this tension between the woman of easy virtue and the stiff-necked Puritanism of the new settlers, and brings the viewer into the emotional conflicts of the nine passengers on that stagecoach to Lordsburg. The Ringo Kid, seeking the less-than-noble object of revenge for the death of his brother, is redeemed by the love of Dallas the 'no-good saloon trollop.' Would that John Ford could have had command of the lens which captured Drew Barrymore, Mary Stuart Masterson, Madeleine Stowe and Andie MacDowell around a campfire, eating rattlesnake. Now, THAT would have been a movie worth viewing twice. "Bad Girls" gets a 2 vote instead of a 1 vote because the costumes were extremely well done.