All Categories
Includes Four Rare Trailers
Product Description Russ Meyer\x27s cult favorite follows sadistic go\-go dancers Varla (Tura Satana), Rosie (Haji) and Billie (Lori Williams) as they break free from the nightclub where they perform and race out to the desert to stir up a little mayhem. After karate expert Varla kills an innocent man, the voluptuous trio takes his girlfriend (Susan Bernard) hostage as they attempt to wheedle a hidden fortune from a misogynistic old man (Paul Trinka) and his muscle\-bound, brain\-damaged son (Dennis Busch). Review Karate! Bodacious racks! Badass babes! Faster, Pussycat, Kill! Kill! has everything you could ever want from a B-movie, right down to the frantic jazz soundtrack. Its legacy endures today, but the film was not well received on its release in 1966. Back then, sexual attitudes were becoming more liberal, but many second wave feminists protested against pornography and free love. Any film by self-confessed ‘breast man’ and skin flick auteur Russ Meyer was never going to find many fans among this audience. But 50 years later, attitudes have changed and his films are enjoying something of a reappraisal among feminists. In an article for Village Voice, queer-feminist film critic B Ruby Rich spoke about her initial hated the film, dismissing it as exploitative, trashy, objectifying soft-core porn, a piece of work steeped in misogyny. Thirty years later, she famously revisited it, re-evaluated it and changed her opinion. Her polarizing experience is symptomatic of the shift in attitudes towards sexuality – a lot happened between 1966 and 1991, including the feminist sex wars of 1970s, and the resulting sexually progressive views of third-wave feminists. Faster, Pussycat! is now considered a seminal feminist work, partly due to its smouldering star, the iconic Varla (Tura Satana). She cuts an imposing figure both in terms of her looks and attitude, with her towering stature and slick kabuki eyebrows, all-black cat suit, leather gloves and boots. She can drive better than any man, she can fight, and she looks like she could take you down. The fury of her performance, Satana has said, was drawn from the real-life abuse she experienced – her past is as colorful as any movie character’s, and her rage throughout Faster, Pussycat! feels powerful, honest and cathartic. --Georgina Guthrie