The Switchblade Sisters

R

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1h 31m

Comedy

Drama

LGBTQ+

List

54%

26 Reviews

Tomatometer

70%

2,500+ Ratings

Audience Score

The leader (Robbie Lee) of an all-girl gang feels threatened by a tough new member (Joanne Nail).

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Steve D

Some good ideas but it never comes together.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/17/23

Full Review

brad p

Switchblade Sisters is exploitation sleaze with likable characters and a strong message of female empowerment.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

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Audience Member

Maggie (Joanne Nail) transfers from across town to a new high school that is essentially run by the Silver Daggers, a rough, hierarchical male gang, and their female counterparts, the Dagger Debs. A confrontation between the Dagger Debs and a repo man gets all the female members — and Maggie — arrested. Because Maggie is new, a lecherous lesbian warden at the juvenile detention center (Kate Murtagh) threatens to physically abuse her. Maggie fights back and eventually the Dagger Debs join her. Subsequently, Dagger Deb leader Lace (Robbie Lee) decides she likes Maggie and entrusts her with running errands while she serves a brief sentence in juvenile hall. One such errand – delivering a love note to Lace's boyfriend, Dominic (Asher Brauner) – ends in Dominic following Maggie home and raping her. Maggie's close friendship with Lace upsets Lace's closest friend, Patch, who lost one of her eyes in service to the gang and now sees herself as second-in-command. Lace is released from juvenile hall and reunites with Dominic, telling him that she discovered she was pregnant during her incarceration. Dominic disavows fatherhood and refuses to help Lace care for the child, encouraging her to undergo an abortion. Meanwhile, the Silver Daggers have to contend with the arrival of a new gang, led by the villainous Crabs (Chase Newhart), at the high school... Jack Hill´s exploitation action film from 1975 is a gem I must say with a strong female empowering storyline, despite them doing all sorts of criminal gang activities and also how the female characters are treated by men and also amongst themselves. The movie was not a success at the box office, but garnered a cult following later on. Most of its current popularity can be attributed to film director Quentin Tarantino, who named the picture a personal favorite and re-released it in 1996 under his Rolling Thunder Pictures label. The film's tagline is "So Easy to Kill, So Hard to Love." It´s a true B-movie with wobbly acting, wobbly dialogue, wobbly scenes and action sequences with clearly stuntmen in wigs :). But, that´s ok. It doesn´t take away the entertainment from the film. I love Joanne Nail as Maggie. She rocks. Trivia: While filming, the titles Playgirl Gang and The Jezebels were considered. Hill states in the DVD commentary that he figures not enough people would know what a Jezebel was, however. Thus, Switchblade Sisters was chosen, even though the phrase is not spoken in the movie.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

02/21/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Loads of fun in this camp classic. It may just be Jack Hill's best. It's sleazy exploitation that actually goes for female empowerment over the typical cheap thrills of this genre.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

10/03/21

Full Review

Audience Member

Switchblade Sisters is an excellent example of '70s exploitation cinema. Jack Hill delivers a gut-busting assortment of outrageous action, questionable acting, and unreal dialogue. While many may be discouraged by these qualities, they are charms rather than obstacles. Switchblade Sisters still feels like an important stepping stone in cinema history. Arguably, without Hill's political and feminist undertones there may not have been Charlie's Angels (2000) or Kill Bill (2003).

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/17/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Switchblade Sisters is a conglomeration of every B movie trope from the 70s. The cops and authority figures are all corrupt. The actresses all talk with the same cadence trying to sound tough. There are 3 gun battles that would make national news if they went on. There are even the Black female revolutionaries with their red books and guns. It was fun, stupid, and over the top. Keep special attention to the wardrobe. The story takes place over 3 weeks and they all wear the same outfits all the time.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

01/21/23

Full Review

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Jack Hill

Director

Robbie Lee

Lace

Joanne Nail

Maggie

Monica Gayle

Patch

Asher Brauner

Dominic

Chase Newhart

Crabs

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Richard Harrington

Washington Post

The acting is so bad that apparently none of the performers ever got another job in the movies, and the costumes in Ben Hur seem less dated that those on display here.

Sep 25, 2002

Full Review

Charlotte O'Sullivan

Sight & Sound

This is a film with all the itchily sweet passion of a Shangri-Las anthem, cranked up to full volume.

Mar 5, 2002

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

A terrific example of efficient, resourceful filmmaking, and its depiction of urban ills is, if anything, all too prophetic.

Rated: 3.5/5

Feb 14, 2001

Full Review

Jessica Scott

Neon Splatter

Between tough-talking, switchblade-toting girls and a team-up to take down the men making their lives hell, female empowerment has rarely looked so cool or felt so attainable.

Feb 21, 2023

Full Review

Kathy Fennessy

Video Librarian Magazine

To call Switchblade Sisters feminist would be a stretch, but for exploitation fare, it extends more sympathy to the downtrodden women than to the boorish men.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 5, 2021

Full Review

Michelle Kisner

The Movie Sleuth

An exploitation classic that explores jealousy and betrayal without skimping on the sleaze and violence.

May 5, 2021

Full Review

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Synopsis

The leader (Robbie Lee) of an all-girl gang feels threatened by a tough new member (Joanne Nail).

Director: Jack Hill
Producer: Jeff Begun, Frank Moreno
Screenwriter: Jack Hill, F.X. Maier, John Prizer
Distributor: Miramax Films, Miramax Home Entertainment [us]
Production Co: Miramax
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy, Drama, LGBTQ+
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 15, 1996, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): May 23, 2016
Box Office (Gross USA): $41.1K
Runtime: 1h 31m
Sound Mix: Stereo

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