Bullet Points: Savage Streets
If revenge movies have taught me anything over the years it is that anyone in the world can potentially become a vigilante if pushed too far. Young or old. Rich or poor. Man or woman. Black or white or brown or yellow. The thirst for vengeance does not discriminate.
In 1984, Linda Blair had the opportunity to join the ranks of movie vigilantes and portray a high school student turned vigilante in Savage Streets…
- Squad Goals: As the movie begins we see Brenda (Linda Blair), her deaf sister Heather and some of Brenda’s closest friends from high school taking a walk down Hollywood Boulevard. This girls night out almost turns disastrous when Heather has a near miss with a convertible. The occupants of the convertible in question are a group of thugs known as the Scars. Riding shotgun is Jake (Robert Dryer), the ring leader of the Scars. Fargo is the wheel man. And in the back seat, the third member of the crew Red and the junior member of the gang, Vincent. Brenda is less than satisfied with Fargo’s disingenuous apology or the fact that Jake tried to pick her up, but she is not going to let any of it ruing this night out with her sister and her friends… but later in the evening when Brenda sees an opportunity to get back at the Scars, she takes full advantage of it. While Jake and the Scars are slinging dope in an alley, Brenda and the girls hop in the convertible take the car on a little joyride… the Scars try to catch up with them on foot but to no avail. When the Scars finally find their car parked in an alley, they discover the girls have dumped trash inside the car… Jake is furious!
- Overreacting Part 1: The next day, Jake and the Scars go to the high school that Brenda and her squad attend and Jake is looking to escalate things to an extreme level when they spot Heather heading into the gymnasium. Once Heather gets into the gym, she waits for her sister to get showered and dressed after gym class and Heather finds herself all alone in the gym for an extended period of time… this is thanks in part to Brenda gets into a locker room confrontation with Cindy, a fellow student that believes that Brenda is after her boyfriend Wes. The confrontation erupts into a full scale brawl in the showers! While all of that is going on, Red is making the move on Heather on the bleachers… when things start heading out of Heather’s comfort zone, she takes off but is cut off by the other members of the Scars who rough her up and drag her into the men’s locker room where they proceed to rape her… Heather barely survives the ordeal.
- Overreacting Part 2: With her sister in the hospital, Brenda copes with the tragedy by surrounding herself with her friends at one of their favorite hangouts, the MX Club. But things turn sour when the Scars show up at the MX and after they aggressively hit on Brenda’s best friend Francine, the MX Club turns into a riot scene. During the skirmish Francine gets her hands on a switchblade and ends up slicing Jake a few times… Jake is once again furious. The next day Jake and the Scars chase after Francine and the chase ends with Francine surrounded by the Scars with nowhere to run. Jake presses Francine over his head and throws her off the bridge and to her death. Vincent freaks out and takes off running. He ends up at the hospital and Heather’s room… Brenda shows up for visiting hours and overhears Vincent apologizing to Heather for his part in what happened to her… now Brenda knows who is responsible for what happened to Heather and she is boiling mad… wait until she finds out Jake killed her best friend too!
- Bath Tub Thoughts: Brenda goes home and takes a bath and smokes a cigarette to unwind. As Brenda is soaking in the tub, thoughts of vengeance begin to swirl in her mind and she begins to plot her revenge against Jake and his crew. (A portion of the audience may have much different thoughts during this scene as Linda Blair’s rack is on full display). Following her bath, Brenda gets suited up all in vigilante black, sneaks out her bedroom window and goes Scars hunting with a switchblade and a crossbow. Brenda dispatches with Fargo and Red with relative ease, even having time to quip to Fargo that it was unfortunate that he was not double jointed. When he asks why, she tells him because he would be able to kiss his own ass goodbye, just before she shoots an arrow through his throat. But when she tries to get cutesy like that with Jake, she finds out that shit does not work and Brenda and Jake are embroiled in a real life or death struggle to close out the film.
Savage Streets was pure exploitation and like all exploitation movies it relied heavily on the sizzle. And it is the copious amounts of sizzle and a leading lady with a loyal following that has earned Savage Streets its cult status. Linda Blair’s Brenda is a character with no fear and proves to be a real bad ass throughout the movie. So with the kind of motivation the story provides her, it isn’t a stretch that Brenda goes full vigilante by the end of the film, although I do have to question how she became so proficient at shooting a crossbow.
One thing you do not have to question is whether or not this review will contain some Bonus Bullet Points…
- Confusing Quote: “I’ve gotta go to the bathroom so bad I’m gonna have to wring out my socks!”
- Familiar Face: John Vernon (Acapulco H.E.A.T.) plays Brenda’s high school principal, Principal Underwood. Underwood is a bit of a hard ass and he has a creepy infatuation with Brenda. He was also responsible for my…
- Favorite Quote: “Go fuck an iceberg!”
- The Rematch: Brenda and Cindy end up in another cat fight since nothing was really solved in their shower showdown. The rematch takes place in biology class and Brenda is declared the winner after she rips Cindy’s top off!
- Insulting Quote: “I wouldn’t fuck him if he had the last dick on earth!”
