(1975)
2.5
Fred Beldin
Set again in the vast Californian deserts and small towns that he loves, Russ Meyer's Supervixens represents a strong return to a confident, independent style after a few side tracks (two major studio releases and the disappointing Blacksnake). Blazing with color and audacious action, this film best presents the Meyer universe, a world where women are all-powerful beings in control of sex and society, and men merely bath toys being tossed in their wake. Every female character's name sports a sassy "Super" as a prefix (Supereula, Superlorna, Supercherry), and their impressive proportions are emphasized through costume, camera angles, and the bold, aggressive nature of their actions. The male leads either run from these aggressive women or attempt to destroy them, choosing acceptance or defiance of what Meyer sees as a natural order. Supervixens is also the most graphic film that Meyer had made at that point.
There's less left to the imagination in terms of sex, nudity, and violence, Meyer obviously feeling the need to keep up commercially with an exploitation audience that he himself had helped stoke toward stronger stuff. It's easily his most violent work; the scene where sadistic cop Harry Sledge (Charles Napier) murders Superangel (Shari Eubank) is, for better or for worse, one of the most viciously rendered by any director, the impotent rage that Sledge unleashes terrifyingly real. Meyer wouldn't create anything this intense again, though the two films that followed are definitely along the same outrageously cartoonish lines. This is the finest, most consistently entertaining of the director's 1970s work (though many swear by the hippie-damaged Beyond the Valley of the Dolls), standing alongside the excellent 1966 film Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! as the two pinnacles of his unique career.
releases for Supervixens on AllMovie
Supervixens (1975)
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Title/Studio |
Release Date |
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Supervixens
Fremantle
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March 28, 2005 |
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Bosomania: Russ Meyer's Super Vixens
Russ Meyer
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January 6, 2004 |
