Noel: ‘Violence devours all it touches, its voracious appetite rarely fulfilled, yet violence doesn’t only destroy. It creates and molds as well,’ I mean this is the foundations of everything Quentin Tarantino did.

That’s Noel Hanson, our in-house movie expert. You may remember him when we talked about Tommy Wiseau’s The Room. At the end of that conversation, he mentioned Russ Meyer’s Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!, a 1965 exploitation flick. Like Wiseau’s work, Meyer’s films are different. They fly under the radar of popular cinema. But, for movie buffs, there’s something about Faster, Pussycat! that just works.

Noel: When I first saw it, to me, it was so punk rock. It looks likes Mudhoney sounds. You know, just frickin raw and a blast. I watched it earlier today. And immediately from the first five minutes, I was excited. It was fun. It gets me going. And a lot of movies, especially a b-movie, you want it to bring you somewhere. Any of those Dario Argentos, they’ re not about the story; it’s about the ride. Russ Meyer understands a lot of that and he knows what people like. And the way it’s cut, especially the first part of the movie with the monologue going. And you see the go-go dancer. Then the guy [saying] ‘Faster!’ Then the go-go dancer. It’s all action, action, action!

But, looking past the action, there’s a lot subtle subtext in the movie. In part, it’s why the movie lives on: It lets people enjoy the things they can’t have. In 1965 or 2018, Faster, Pussycat! is vehicle into not only why we enjoy movies, but also how society operates at large. It goes to show you, even b-movies can teach you something about the outside world.

Faster, Pussycat! isn’t complicated by design. It follows the journey of three, ‘60s go-go dancers—Billie, Rosie, and Varla—as they race their cars through the California desert. What makes the movie complicated is how it goes from fist fights, to murder, to kidnapping, to robbery all within the first twenty minutes. For the most part, that’s the point of exploitation films: to exploit social taboos. Movies like Faster, Pussycat! align themselves with others like Foxy Brown and The Big Dollhouse as a way to experience everything society represses: sex, violence, drugs, nudity. You name it, it touches on all of those. Even to this day, some people haven’t forgot about Meyer.

Noel: Before I was here, I was at my parents’ house and we were grilling out burgers. And they asked me what I was going to do. I’m not ashamed and I said ‘I’m going to do a podcast on Russ Meyer.’  And my 81-year-old stepfather said, ‘The nudie movie guy.”  [And I said] ‘Yeah, I don’t think there’s really a lot of nudity. There’s a lot of cleavage.’ He’s like, ‘That counts.’

With nine movies under his belt by 1965, Meyer wasn’t a novice director. The technical prowess of Faster, Pussycat! rose the bar for b-movies. He even got some unlikely allies, including Roger Ebert who later collaborated with him. Ebert summarizes Meyer’s success with Faster, Pussycat!: “He does so within a frenetic style of quick-cutting, exuberant action, pop and comic-book imagery, and dialogue that seems phoned in from another universe.” These qualities haven’t gone noticed. Again Noel.

Noel: He went to WWII to get all the experience he could. And it shows in his movies. You could put his movies, especially Faster, Pussycat!, against a lot of action movies from that time period. And with no money, he made very exciting movies—by catching the line, catching the look, and then moving to something else. Keeping it moving. Keeping the action flowing. Where he doesn’t have in budget, he needs to [compensate] in camera angle and cut. And the exciting music behind it, it’s very driven. Like I said with the way he does his dialogue—short and right on them—it’s like they’re speaking to you. I always felt like that I was being taught a lesson. But, you don’t know what the lesson is after half of his movies. But, it felt like he intended that there’s a lesson [by the way] he drew you in.

It’s just shot so well and a lot of those movies aren’t. The high energy. The music that he has in the background, the very go-go dancer, cocktail, hi-hat or ride [with] up-up beat horn music is just pushing the boundary at an angle the whole time.

For Noel and others, movies like these encompass what makes films great.  In fact, Meyer’s work has woven itself into popular culture. The Simpsons, Pee-Wee Herman, and Buffy The Vampire Slayer have all dropped subtle nods to the film. Meyer’s influence is most visible in music—with his three films—Mudhoney, Motorpsycho, and Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!—all becoming names for bands.

It’s not a big deal if you haven’t heard of Meyer’s work. We’re talking references that are so subtle that they have to pointed out. Even then, some of them are debatable. Take me for example, I didn’t realize that a childhood favorite, White Zombie’s “Thunder Kiss ’65” samples Faster, Pussycat!  This phenomenon even involves my colleague Matt Gundrum and his standby Quasimoto’s The Unseen.

Matt: Watching like the first minute and a half, I was immediately spellbound because, in one of my favorite hip-hop albums of all time, The Unseen by Quasimoto, they reference that monologue in the beginning in the first song on that record: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to violence!’ And when I heard that, my brain thought I was listening to The Unseen by Quasimoto. So, that got me really interested in it.

And then, here I am getting super engaged in the movie through the monologue I heard a million times through the Quasimoto record. And it immediately cuts to these gyrating go-go dancers and I am just thrown into this world of total confusion and hysteria. And then I turned it off because I need to set-up my mindset for this a little more.

Matt isn’t alone at being new to the movie. Tina Hanly, who managed a record and movie store for a decade, had only heard about the film in passing.  And once she watched entire movie, her reaction both criticizes and applauds Meyer’s work as a whole.

Tina: But, I had honestly never seen the entire movie until you had talked to me about it. Initially, it was a little jarring. Not in a shocking sort of way. But, in sort of a comical sort of way. It’s a little bit ridiculous now. I could see at the time how it could have been all sorts of things—including shocking.

The film doesn’t push social and cultural values in 2018 as it could have in 1965.  Looking at the movie as whole, film’s main characters aren’t the standard representation of women in the ‘60s.  These are tough and powerful women, who take what they want, when they want, no matter who has it.

Some can argued that Meyer’s representation of women is the most complicated aspect of the film—especially if you consider Meyer, who is recognized as the Godfather of soft-core pornography. Noted feminist and New Queer Cinema scholar B. Ruby Rich has switched sides on the topic. After her first viewing of Faster, Pussycat! in the early ‘70s, she was absolutely outraged by the movie’s objectification of women. Even explaining how the film was just “short of soft-core porn”.

But, when revisiting the film in the ‘90s, she grew to love the movie. Even featuring it in a festival called “Scary Women” where it was paired with Basic Instinct.

As Tina points out, the basic things the main characters do are what some people take for granted today.

Tina: You really get a feel for their escape. I mean these women are driving their own cars, not their boyfriends’ cars. These were their cars that they drove, and they liked driving, and they liked driving fast. Things that a lot women in the ‘60s—fresh out of the ‘50s—would not have enjoyed doing, on their own or even with their boyfriends sometimes (laughing).

I could see how there were parts of it, if you put yourself in the context of the times that it was made in, it probably made some people very angry and upset. And others very inspired and impressed.

To a point, there isn’t a situation where Billie, Rosie, and Varla aren’t in complete control. Protagonist or antagonist, these women are unstoppable forces in a world of immovable expectations. They’re essentially Schwarzenegger or Stallone, except they beat their opponents without steroids. Matt points out how this is a highlight of the film.

Matt: In just about every scene, they are conquering. Any male character in this is getting his ass kicked by these women. In 2018, I’m sure people would find that pretty cool. Just the fact that women are just beating up dudes and dudes aren’t able [to do anything about it]. And one of the buffest guys in the movie who is military pressing in this scene as [Billie] is trying to seduce him and doesn’t give a fuck, he’s overtaken by these women too. Like no one can stand a chance.

At its core, Faster, Pussycat! is an exploitation film that examines the extremes of social values. In 1965, movie couples slept in different beds. So, having three single, women being not only sexual, but also openly independent could have attracted criticism. As Matt and Tina suggest, it makes the movie solvent.

Matt: One part of this movie that I would think would fair well is the way women are portrayed. They’re taking control in every situation that they’re in and they’re conquering every situation that they are in.

And with what Russ Meyer does with this movie, he just launches you right into it. You see the strippers and hear the ‘go baby go’ and it’s just so ridiculous (laughing). Then you are thrown into this next scene. And they’re racing and they’re fighting. You have no idea what their relationship is. You have so many questions and some of them go unanswered for the whole movie [while] some are answered in a few minutes. That first ten minutes, when they are dancing and then they are racing and then they are fighting, I was so confused. But [Meyer] really does kind of establish who they are as characters in those first few scenes. Because, in that first scene, they are obviously carefree, probably a little promiscuous. Probably a little dirty. A little naughty. And then you see them racing and then fighting, and punching each other faces in the sand. You say ‘These girls are badass.’

Tina: Anytime you do that, you’re looking at the extremes of things. So, I don’t think that they could have done this movie at that time without the extremity of it. If it would have been played down, it wouldn’t of had the same effect for one—as far as the impact on society at all. Also, I don’t think it would have played as well on screen [as well]. You would have had a bunch of mediocre women half apologizing for what they are doing, but doing it anyway. It wouldn’t of played out as well I don’t think. I think that they had to stretch that out to an extreme.

If Faster, Pussycat! pushed things to the extreme in 1965, how would it fair in 2018? It’s not an easy question to answer. With sexuality and violence common place now, Tina suggests that there’s not much room for pushing boundaries.

Tina: Like everything is already at that point. With our lives being shared, we’re constantly exploiting ourselves on a daily basis through social media. To go to an extreme now, you’d almost have to revert to…I guess it would have to be pretty extreme. Like straight up just wrong.

[The treatment of women] looks bad. It doesn’t look good now. You can tell that these women were treated poorly at their jobs. And they had to work these jobs in order to afford any sort of life for themselves. You could [make extreme movies] but it would have to be pretty extreme because I feel that we are all a little more desensitized to stuff like that. Boobs, that kind of cleavage is everywhere [laughing]. It’s on basic television now. I mean Modern Family: She’s basically Varla’s boobs on NBC or whatever channel that’s aired on.

Of all Meyer’s work, Faster, Pussycat! may have the widest audience. Encouraging film makers to do their own thing, the movie became a blueprint for a generation that followed. As Noel suggests, not bad for a movie that was never expected to make it past the double-feature circuit.

Noel: It’s probably PG-13 by ratings as of today. The wonderful thing about that is…[it’s] a James Dean movie for women in the ‘60s with ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do and I’m not going to take any shit’ [message]. It’s a very early blueprint for what Quentin Tarantino went on to masterpiece: Turning a b-movie idea into a presentation. Except, this is b-movie all the way through.

There’s a unintended tragedy about Faster, Pussycat!: It’s difficult to surprise people in 2018. With large breasts and in-your-face violence commonplace now, the shock-value of 1965 may fall flat today. But, even after 50 years, the movie isn’t afraid to ask questions. And, it offers new viewers like Matt an opportunity that few movies ever get the chance to. Maybe in another 50 years, it will be a tragedy worth celebrating.

Matt: The movie kind of tests you, you know. It’s absurdism: It shows you something incredibly absurd and kind of dares you to believe it.