The Wicked Wicked West

Rating:
Summary: To Watch this Movie is Inhumane
Review: I just watched this film. It was unrelenting, a story of the rough circumstances prostitutes endured in the West a little more than a century ago. Its a woman's story, almost totally without a male point of view. The men are represented as beings who mostly just mumble and play cards. Their voices are heard often muttering on the soundtrack. We can't make out what they're actually saying. Representing the guys as stick figures helps emphasize in what reduced and lonely circumstances the prostitutes inhabit their dance hall and saloon world. There are no women who are not prostitutes in this early western town. Just as the men have little regard for the women, the women think little of the men. I think this may be a fairly truthful accounting of the West before it was civilized. The film has got me thinking about how desperate male-female relationships may have been in America not all that long ago.

Rating:
Summary: Its a slow but devastating story about the early west
Review: I just watched this film. It was unrelenting, a story of the rough circumstances prostitutes endured in the West a little more than a century ago. Its a woman's story, almost totally without a male point of view. The men are represented as beings who mostly just mumble and play cards. Their voices are heard often muttering on the soundtrack. We can't make out what they're actually saying. Representing the guys as stick figures helps emphasize in what reduced and lonely circumstances the prostitutes inhabit their dance hall and saloon world. There are no women who are not prostitutes in this early western town. Just as the men have little regard for the women, the women think little of the men. I think this may be a fairly truthful accounting of the West before it was civilized. The film has got me thinking about how desperate male-female relationships may have been in America not all that long ago.

Rating:
Summary: To Watch this Movie is Inhumane
Review: I only saw the first ten minutes of the movie but that was enough to turn it off, not bother rewinding it, and rush back to the video store to get my money back. Afterwords I read the reviews on imdb.com and thanked the lord I turned off the movie when I did. Avoid this at all costs unless you need to do a thesis on BAD moviemaking. There is no "zero" star rating so it gets a 1.

Rating:
Summary: surprisingly subtle
Review: I wanted to add to the positive reviews listed above. Perhaps the misleading cover image on the box is not only intended to increase sales, albeit to those with prurient interests, but also to reach those with the prurient interests. Do not judge this film by its box. As a woman, subjectively, I recommend this film for its sensitive and uncritical portrayal of past and present "sisters" selling their bodies to survive. The sex scenes reveal the tedium and human nature of the occupation and are neither gratuitous nor distasteful. But, perhaps it takes a mature and experienced mind to appreciate the brutal honesty of this film. Other films with a similar empathic vein I recommend are Whore with Theresa Russell and the Italian classic Mamma Roma with Anna Magnani. While Whore's style is a complex blend of comic book comedy and tragedy, Mamma Roma's style is a bit pathetic, though in the textbook sense. If any of these three films stimulate an interest in the human side of prostitution, perhaps the book Brothel: Mustang Ranch and Its Women by Alexa Albert will enlighten. A landmark text for a sociological perspective is Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by Andrea Dworkin. In summary, if you are interested in art that portrays prostitutes as human beings, you will be glad to see the cast's rendering of characters in Wicked Wicked West. Regardless of overall quality, any film I judge good enough for me to purchase I rate with five stars. I hope you see what I mean.

Rating:
Summary: Jon Sanders' The Wicked Wicked West
Review: This film is hard to sum up because there is really not a plot, per se. The film follows the lives of prostitutes living in a brothel owned by Brenda Fricker. This is not the brothel of TV westerns, this is a dark, dank place barely lit by candle light in a dingy little ten building frontier town. McGillis plays Nettie, who helps the other prostitutes through their time at Fricker's establishment, as well as the competition down the street. It is implied she performs abortions for unexpected pregnancies. She tries to raise her five year old son in the house, with less than successful results. Eileen is Irish, and befriends German dancer Katya, who replaces Eileen's best friend, who we see murdered in the opening scene. Georgie is the new young prostitute who knows she can do better that this one horse town, and sets out to prove it. Ada is the prostitute with children who is getting older and less desirable to the men.

The entire cast does a fantastic job. Sanders' direction (he also cowrote this) is very intimate wihout being exploitative, except for McGillis' topless scene. The film is sad, without being a complete downer, but you get the idea that this is what the prostitutes went through. The pace seems deliberately slow so we get to know the characters. The pace is a little too slow at times, and a few supporting actors blur in confusion here and there, but Sanders keeps things going.

Despite the stupid title, and cleavage baring video box, this is not something along the lines of "Bad Girls" or "Hard Bounty." This tells a very realistic story of tough lives gone wrong. If anything, it is hard to forget.

This is rated (R) for some physical violence, gun violence, some gore, female nudity, strong sexual content, and strong sexual references.