Good start, but then it gets ruined

Excellent but underrated film

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

I am a 40+ year fan & connoisseur of exploitation movies. Call them whatever you like...schlock, trash-cinema, psychotronic films...it doesn't matter. I've literally watched thousands of these type movies, including nearly every notorious Italian cannibal film as well as plenty of rape-revenge flicks. Savage Streets is the rare exception in that I found it so genuinely distasteful that I regret watching it.In many superficial ways, Savage Streets is a typical 80s violent gang-action film. It's got some decent talent in front of the camera and a lead (Linda Blair) with a recognizable name. It's shot well enough for the B-movie that it is. But behind all the artifice of a generic violent movie, the screenwriter/director went out of his way to absolutely revel in sexual assault.Sexual assault was, unfortunately, a major trope in countless 70s & 80s exploitation films. It was not uncommon in major studio productions either. I've seen it plenty of times, and I admit, I don't like it. Generally speaking, most of these genre films use rape to amp up the sleaze and provide the protagonist some motivation. Personally, I think this was both distasteful and lazy...but hey, that's just me.Savage Streets, takes things to a different level. The rape scene is extremely drawn out, very cruel, and perpetrated against a character that is portrayed as very sheltered, vulnerable, and disabled (mute). And it's not even just a rape scene--it's a gang rape...and it goes on forever.Besides the rape, the film is replete with other instances of violence specifically targeted towards women including sexual assault and murder (of a pregnant woman). This is all done in service of setting up the "revenge" element of the movie.When I say that the "revenge" element is weak, I'm not lying. Whereas the rape scene was played out graphically, the ONE SCENE with Linda Blair getting "revenge" is shockingly tame (given that this is an exploitation film) and also brief. The film is very unbalanced in that the "revenge" seems a half-hearted afterthought that is only included in order to justify the gratuitous graphic depiction of violence towards women.I'm not Puritan by any stretch. I've watched plenty of sick stuff. But Savage Streets seems to really revel in glorifying violence towards women in a way that crosses a big boundary (for me). It doesn't do it because it's taboo, it really comes across as the writer/director really being a twisted person.

Slightly more than a decade after she depicted the legendary possessed teenager Regan, who spun her head 360 degrees and vomited green pea soup in one of the horror genre's greatest historical classics, Linda Blair didn't star in elite and sophisticated movies like "The Exorcist" at all anymore! But that isn't necessarily bad news for the avid cult/exploitation fanatics, because lovely Linda grew out to become one most popular and desirable cult wenches on earth! The unwritten rule states: if you like horror, you love Linda Blair. Nah, just kidding, personally I love Linda because she's an unpretentious and not-at-all-prudish natural babe who stars in some of the silliest and trashiest, but simultaneously most entertaining B-movies of the eighties! After the unsurpassable "Chained Heat" – as far as I'm concerned still the Holy Grail of exploitation cinema – this "Savage Streets" is definitely her finest show piece. This vile and nasty hybrid between vigilante thriller and high-school punk gang literally oozes with unmistakable early 80s trademarks, like raw atmosphere, awful music and even worse clothing styles, misogynic violence, gratuitous nudity and loads of uncompromising violence! Set in less glamorous streets of Hollywood, Blair portrays Brenda, the leader of an all-girl high school gang. Brenda is tough and relentless about pretty much everything except for her vulnerable deaf-mute younger sister Heather, whom she protects and defends with her life. Her gang runs into conflict with The Scars, a violent male gang led by the dangerously disturbed Jake. While Brenda is cat-fighting in the shower and receiving morality speeches in the principal's office, the Scars rape her little sister Heather and kill her pregnant friend Francine. So what's a girl to do? She takes a long bath, dresses up in a tight leather outfit and goes out to extract her vengeance! I could probably write two entire pages filled with the flaws and illogicalities that feature in "Savage Streets", but where's the fun in that? Instead, I'll just shamelessly admit that the film provides non-stop trashy entertainment (well, except maybe during the long & unpleasant gang- rape) and glorious sleaze. The overload of nudity mostly comes from nameless extras; you know the type of girls that are extendedly filmed in the shower before the camera pans to the actual dressing room where the main actresses are having a conversation. But don't worry, as Linda goes topless as well, and so does the beautiful Rebecca Perle whose top is ripped off during a wrestling game in class! Blair and Perle have perhaps the nicest pairs of boobs of the entire decade. But in all honesty, "Savage Streets" also contains a handful of notably tense sequences and truly scary and badass male villains. Particularly Robert Dryer (as Jake) and Sal Landi (as Fargo) are terrifically menacing thugs. The climax is a fantastic – but sadly too short – piece of vigilante action that would even make Charles Bronson proud! The forever underrated John Vernon appears as school principal, but his role is fairly insignificant this time.

This is a rather late vengeance exploitation-flick, that is almost a good movie.This is really a movie in the vain of violence filled '70's flicks, in which the main character goes on a killing spree, once a loved one gets hurt, raped, or murdered. Charles Bronson his Death Wish movies are of course the best and also best known example of these type of movies. "Savage Streets" is a movie that features such a main premise in it but I can't really say that it handled it very well.First of all, it takes far too long for the 'action' to finally kick in. the movie feels stretched out and could had gotten to its point way earlier on. And when the Linda Blair suddenly goes on her revenge tour, it sort of comes out of the blue. She wasn't the tough, cold and well calculated young woman before that point, who would have no difficulties with taking somebody else his life. And where on Earth did she get that crossbow from so suddenly? Was it lying under her bed for protection all that time? No, it really isn't the most convincing or solidly written movie within its genre but it at least has plenty of redeeming qualities in it still.One is that no matter how stretched out the movie feels at times, it never becomes a boring one to watch. Pointless yes but boring no. Lots of stuff and characters really weren't needed in this movie but they at least keep things going at all time.I really don't think that the lovers of trashy and simplistic cinema would mind watching this movie. The movie is simple, mostly straightforward (good is really good and evil is really evil) and features plenty of nudity and violence, though that last is nothing too impressive or gory to see (and yes, I watched the uncut version). They will take this movie for what it is and also enjoy it for that, though even they will see that that this is not a great movie in any way.Also can't really say that Linda Blair impressed me. She wasn't always very convincing in her role but what was worse; her acting really wasn't that good! Especially when she had to play the tough girl her acting fell through.Not an horrible movie, as far as the genre goes but also not exactly a very impressive one.5/10 http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

OK, so this is not award material - well, except for a Razzie for star Linda Blair - but, it was an entertaining flick for the times.Blair did a credible job as the local tough at school, but she had this protective side when it came to her deaf-mute sister, played in what has to be Linnea Quigley's sweetest role ever. I mean she was cherub sweet, and not just because of her disabilities, but she radiated an angelic aura. That made her violation at the hands of the local toughs just that much more devastating.In a Charles Bronson reprise, Blair goes after the scum who did her sister, and gets her revenge. How she managed to evade arrest when the police finally make an appearance in this movie is a real mystery.