JUDY BROWN "The New World Company built their success on the exploitation of women."
 
ANDREA CAGAN "Women in cages, and in boxes, and confined . . ."

JOE HILL  "You're gonna have T & A and then a little torture."
[Because that is what turns MEN on?! (the Torture of Women)] 

DANNY PERRY then says "I just imagine the screenwriters saying Okay I've gone three pages and nobody's [he means no WOMEN] been tortured, let me just write that in: 'Strip. Torture.'" and he chuckles. What if we were talking bout men being treated this way? Would it be so funny?

JANE SCHAFER "All these girls were ready to take on new experiences, they wanted to get their careers going, and they wanted to be up on the screen, and if it involved cobras, okay."  [Thank you Ms. No Standards.]

JOE DANTE "There were no big stars who came out of those pictures and went on to huge movies, that wasn't the case." [They insert PAM GRIER saying "No shit!"  WELL I WONDER WHY!?! I know why:  Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free?]
 

Spilt Milk
The affection and humor this documentary treats these films with is as MALE-centric as the movies themselves were. I am not buying that these "new experiences" would get the actresses' careers going. (Of course they didn't, and these men didn't buy it either, even if they were trying to sell it.) Actresses today could help their careers by realizing that once you show your tits, men are onto the next pair. 

ALAN ARKUSH "Who you could talk into going . . .
JOE DANTE . . . that was the trick."
 

ROGER CORMAN [on The Big Doll House:] "I didn't like the film. [ ! ] I thought it had gone a little bit too far with the sex and the violence [Roger Corman thinks it's gone too far?! ¡Imaginate!]. The film cost about $100,000, and grossed something like $4,000,000. When I saw the grosses I have to admit, my scruples faded away. I said, let's make another one!"
[The fact that he had scruples says a lot about him not liking the movie.]

MOVIE PROMO "Women in Cages: The sensational new motion picture that rips the veil off the dirtiest racquet ever conceived by the minds of vicious men." 

I wonder if Roger Corman has ever considered that the proliferation of these pictures may be a huge contributing factor in the ensuing epidemic of violence against women. 

Ted Bundy seemed to think so, and spoke out against  pornography (and these kinds of movies) the day before he died as a warning (while has gone largely igorned).

STEVE CARVER "A lot of the pictures had no, really, redeeming factors as far as the stories was concerned. They were very bizarre to say the least."

Men getting off on violence against naked women is not a good thing just because men enjoy seeing it.  Would they enjoy it if the tables were turned? Probably. Stupid question. Wish I could laugh.
 

Women Leads . . . again, at what price?
ROGER CORMAN  "One of the things that made these films noteworthy was the fact that very few people were making films with women leads."

BARBARA POKRAS  "Roger treated women in film, really, as heroes, and that was a departure."

DANNY PERRY  "Moviegoers were not used to seeing women doing Action, at all. "

JOE DANTE  "And even if they're little mousy girls at the beginning, by the end they're toting two machine guns and shooting down scads of guys." . . . "You not only had a female heroine, but you also had a female being abused." [He laughs]. Interjection:  UNBELIEVABLE HOW OBLIVIOUS HE IS TO THE FACT THAT THE FEMALE HEROINES ARE NAKED OR NEARLY NAKED. "So you got both sides of the coin and you appealed to the male audience, and you appealed to [he makes a skeptical smirk/chuckle] and any dates they may have had to bring, which I suspect were not many."  [Ya think?]

JOHN LANDIS "There are a lot of filmmakers who are responsible filmmakers, but sometimes what's fun are the   irresponsible filmmakers, who later, say, 'Well, of course, I was doing this . . . '" So he admits he knows that's it's irresponsible to do this. I wonder what he thinks the real-life consequences are?

ROGER CORMAN  "They were about women who were abused at the beginning, but then, taking over and having revenge." [AGAIN, UNBELIVEABLE HOW A MAN DOESN'T SEE THAT THE FACT WE HAVE TO BE ABUSED IN ORDER TO BE HEROES IS APPEALING ONLY TO MALE AUDIENCES.]

BARBARA POKRAS  "I think that was very helpful, overall, in terms of women establishing themselves on the screen as powerful figures, [in bikinis with guns] and being empowered as women." 

THIS IS THE IMAGE THEY SHOW . . . This is NOT empowerment for WOMEN, this is empowerment for OBJECTS. There IS a difference.

'Feminism' [Hah!]
ANDREA CAGAN  "Women really related to that, and began to love us as heroes."
I saw them in context at that time, and I don't know any women who loved them.  At best, we tolerated watching them to be with the dumb jerk who degraded us by taking us to see them. Women did NOT relate to them as heroes, they related to them as victims.  I had no interest in these movies. When I watch, them my repeated thought is "this stuff is just for men". 

I think it says it all that women have not embraced these films with any affection today.  They're, thankfully, a thing of the past.  I believe strongly that these movies contributed to violence against women in every form from domestic violence to serial killers. It totally depicted them as things.

And let John Landis interject REALITY with the male point of view.
JOHN LANDIS You hear people talking about the crassest, most exploitive, sexist, racist films, as liberating, and intelligent, and I'm thinking 'What are they smok-, I mean, you know, what?!"

[And then this clip, which could be the most damaging line ever, suggesting women like sex no matter what. It also suggests that women who like sex can't be raped as if there is nobody they would object to having sex with. It's just ridiculous.  What it is, is an excuse for men to rape, giving stupid men watching the idea that there are women you can't be raped.] "You can't rape me. I like sex." 

ANDREA CAGAN  "Feminism and women taking their power was worldwide at that time, so taking off our tops was kind of a powerful thing to do."  ["Kind of" She's still not sure because IT'S NOT!!!!]  

And now these ringing endorsements (<- sarcasm, in case you missed that):

MARGARET MARKOV  "It was, to a certain extent, liberating.

LENORE KASDORF  "Look, I can do this, and I can still be an actress, and I can still be [quote marks and rolls her eyes] respectable." [See, she doesn't even believe it as she's saying it.]

ANDREA CAGAN  "It's an interesting mixture of feminism, because there we were being exploited in a certain way [in EVERY way], and at the same time we were showing that we were powerful women."
Now I'm rolling my eyes, thankfully, they inject reality with the male point of view again:

JOHN LANDIS  "They took control, but they'll show you their tits."  

LADIES, Let's be clear here. This is MALE garbage! Don't promote nudity as liberating. Until we live in a world where women are safe, it's completely WRONG and irresponsible.
 

Back to Reality
Thank you John Landis.  Intelligent women know there is no power with nudity.  Men just dismiss you as stupid.  Doesn't matter if you're toting a gun if your tits are jiggling while you do it.  It's plain and simple: one cancels the other out.
If you portray yourself in a sexual way, you lose ALL RESPECT!

And what do they follow this "Feminism" segment up with?  Naked women segment!
JOHN LANDIS [again, telling you what men really think] "I don't buy that Feminist stuff."

And they interject a clip of a topless women covering her breasts saying "What are you talking about? It's a tit shot pure and simple." THE FILM ITSELF IS SAYING THAT THE FEMINIST ANGLE IS CRAP.

ITS ALL BULLSHIT:  GIVE WOMEN 'POWER' but then take it away by objectifying them.

JANE SCHAFER   "Feminism with aggressive women was not going to be palatable in the mass [MALE] market without tits and ass."  It's really sad that she still sees the world as male, sadder still that it's true. BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE. We can make our own market!

If that doesn't say they're stupid, well, just let them say it themselves.

ANDREA CAGAN  "Somehow we had to do that in order to get to the next step.  [Except they already said that none of them did. It didn't work to advance any of their careers.]  I didn't feel bad about it."  [methinks she doth protest too much] "I saw it as a path." To what? Have you ever heard of Andrea Cagan?

JUDY BROWN "Are we not taking this a little too seriously, intellectualizing this?"

And then the film itself once again negates the feminist spin the women are trying to put on it with this clip quote:
"This is not a film about the human condition, this is a film about tits and ass."

Censorship . . . Hardly
The film then goes into the Political theme of some of the movies, but then, no surprise, they totally negate all that as an excuse for more exploitation.

They discuss that filmmakers could get away with more stuff "because nobody's looking". And yet, they don't realize that in commenting on what you could and could not get away with in the Philippines, they ignore that the world was watching this crap.

"Women in Jeopardy" Theme . . . A metaphor for modern life
A man spits at a women who is on the floor, topless. He spits as her and says "Pig! Ready for the butcher."  and a voiceover with men shooting at fleeing women and a woman (assumingly wounded) with cleavage showing, writhing on the jungle floor: "Come, join the woman hunt, set your sites on the tastiest game."

As I watched I could NOT believe I heard this:
EDDIE ROMERO "Pretty basic formulas:  Women being kidnapped, and sold into slavery."
Basic! WAKE UP WORLD!  There are more female sex slaves today than in past eras combined.

And these movies are no small part of the war against women.

EDDIE ROMERO "These are not really the kind of films that I'd been longing to make. They were the films that I had to make considering what the market had to offer; what the market wanted."  [THEY CREATED THAT MARKET!]

Then, someone says he wasn't proud of the films, and pretty much disavowed them later in his career.

"They Don't Need Clothes To Strike A Pose"
JOE DANTE  "As the pictures went on, they became a little more threadbare [pun unintended], and when "Cover Girl Models" rolled around, it was pretty much the mideer? (end) of the period." But what it did have, was it did have was a lot of dresses because they were supposed to be fashion models, and we said, 'They're always over exposed, (and in unison with ALAN ARKUSH) but they're never underdeveloped. Very important."

AND THEN . . . there is a clip from the movie inserted with the voicover:
" . . . If his camera could talk, he's be in jail for statutory rape."

OH. MY. GOD.

Speaking of statutory rape: This is one of the MANY things that is wrong with the world. Images that come to mind are Ultra music festival with young girls in underwear as clothing or body paint. But then look at Victoria's Secret. Young girls are supposed to aspire to that, but it's no longer something you wear in private. It's okay to wear whatever you want, and it's not an excuse for why you were raped? Really. Keep telling yourself that you are not sending a "fuck me" message when you're half naked. It may take getting raped to make you see the light, but it's wrong.  And it's very dangerous for all women.

"They wanted love, he gave them terror and death."
Just like real life.

Imitation is the Sincerest Form of Flattery
They go on to speak about Dir. CIRIO H. SANTIAGO'S movies (he made more than 100), "Firecracker" (1981)"The screen's first erotic kung fu classic" (she's topless) and "Vampire Hookers" (1978), and Producer/Director BOBBY SUAREZ'S "Cleopatra Wong" (1978), "Bionic Boy" (1977), "Dynamite Johnson: The Return of The Bionic Boy" (1979), and "The One-Armed Executioner" (1981).

It hit me that, in as short as the clips were they were showing of these movies, that they reminded me of scenes in other, later, Action Movies, like "Commando" (1985) (garden shootout), "XXX" (2002) (motorcycle on the barn), and "The Condemned' (2007) (helicopter scene).
 

Winding Down
In the overall 'big picture' about making movies in the Philippines, they cover FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA'S "Apocalypse Now", a circus, and the "Weng Weng" movies, a freak show (a 2' 9" actor Ernesto de la Cruz), and the effect of market saturation, distribution, critical,  and the demise of drive-ins/grindhouses. The unstable political situation in the Philippines ultimately killed filmmaking there.

Looking back, I credit New York Mayor ED KOCH (served 1978-89) with helping put an end to these movies. He sounded off about the growing crime in New York City and did something about it, including cleaning up Times Square where there were many porno  houses. To me, it was a dose of sanity to stop making objectionable movies. Like we came to our senses.

Likening "Jaws" (1975) to a ROGER CORMAN film, they mention "Pirhana" (1978), "Up From The Depths" (1979), and "Humanoids of the Deep" (1980), they make the point that when these movies imitated big hits, they flopped, and says the critics
helped kill them as well.
 

Female Action Leads
At the end when the credits roll, actress GLORIA HENDRY says "We did have an audience for these movies, which helped the studios go 'Ha-huh, I think I'll have another female Action lead, which is good, very good."  Riiiiggghttt. Like that happened.

Not until now has this even begun to happen with Gina Carano, and with Scarlett Johansson being given her own Black Widow movie. Cynthia Rothrock toiled practically in anonymity!  Of all the summer Action Movies for 2014, women are still relegated to being victims and girlfriends, or worst of all, nude and body painted (Mystique) when her character in the comic has a costume. All we have to look forward to is what Sylvester Stallone allows Ronda Rousey to do in the ultimate boys club The Expendables 3 (thankfully he has 3 daughters), and what power Tom Cruise gives Emily Blunt's character in Edge of Tomorrow.

ACTRESS NAME "I think salaciousness of them and the sexiness is so trivial by today's standards that you can really look at these films and you can say 'Gee these are really fun.'"

Is she crazy?

Fight for the Future
At the end of it all I am fine with the freedom to make a movie about whatever you want to make it about, however . . . I do not have to see it, and, I am free to say that I believe there is a cause and effect between the depiction of sexualized violence against women and real-life violence against women committed by men.  Ted Bundy said it all for me as well (transcript of the video at the bottom). 

When the world is safe for women, or when men are equally objectified and equally victimized, then we'll talk. Until then, I speak for all women when I say I don't want to promote this kind of film.  There are too many better movies than those with scenes where a naked girl takes a cell phone out of her vagina just before she is killed with a machete ("Machete").

I truly loved ActionFest (which, sadly, has not been held the last two years) and wanted it to continue to grow and succeed.  I was thrilled when they added the "Chick Norris" Award for 2012 and gave it to Gina Carano.  Women are more than 50% of the population and with the popularity of gaming, the market for strong women in Action Movies is growing. (As reflected in gaming.) We teach our sons to fight and protect themselves, but not our daughters, and our daughters need it more. Maybe a trend in teaching girls to fight will help them fight back and end domestic violence. Bullies understand only one thing, violence, so kick their ass. I believe there is a huge market for physically strong women in Action Movies, not the waif types like Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman. WTF?! That's male casting. Can't believe it wasn't Gina Carano.  Our time will come.

"It is the first detailed examination and celebration of Filipino genre films"

 

       "Machete Maidens Unleashed: American genre movies in the Philippine jungle"

"Machete Maidens Unleashed, which had its world premier in late July at the Melbourne International Film Festival."

I found the Comments Interesting.

Craig | August 17, 2010 at 11:12 pm | Reply

Perhaps what I think is missing from your review, having seen it with you, is acknowledgement of the corrupt beauty that a lust for distribution and money drives in the cinematic arts. It is not Visconti or Bertolucci, but it is film, it had an audience.
The porn aesthetic, "B" grade production values, low resolution, coarse lighting and framing underlies a primaeval desire to create visual images that is both disturbing and insidously seductive.
Why do I look at moving images, irrespective of their credibility. What draws my eyes to images that are fantastically awful.
Machete Maidens Unleashed, if nothing else poses the question of understanding the willingness of a western liberal  [MALE] capitalist audience to consume images in the same way that it consumes fast food.

andrewnette | August 19, 2010 at 9:03 pm | Reply

Good points, Craig, especially the seductive nature of the porn aesthetic, b grade production values and visual feel of the movies in Machete Maidens. Not only does the film raise questions about the way Western audiences consume images, it highlights the way that much of the Western film industry approaches film making in much the same way that a car maker scours the world for the cheapest labour.  . . .

3. August 4, 2010 | Ron Nachmann • Dangerous Minds

"Check the trailer—it's quite wild"

SO I'M NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO THOUGHT SO!

 

4. ?August 16, 2010 | ? • Trailer Addict
      "Machete Maidens Unleashed!"

"detailed examination and celebration of Filipino genre filmmaking"

"drive-in filler from Manilla"
 

"the ultimate Filipino femme-fest!"

 

"here's something about the film from it's official site:  'At last, the all-too-often overlooked world of drive-in filler from Manila gets the Mark Hartley treatment' . . . 'a jaw-dropping story to tell about filmmaking with no budget, no scruples, no boundaries and – more often than not – no clothes.' "

"And on to the red band-worthy trailer, to be watched at your own discretion:"

From Wikipedia:  A green band is an all-green graphic at the beginning of the trailer. Until April 2009, these cards indicated that they had been approved for "all audiences" and often included the movie's MPAA rating. This signified that the trailer adheres to the standards for motion picture advertising outlined by the MPAA, which include limitations on foul language and violent, sexual, or otherwise objectionable imagery.  . . .

Trailers that do not adhere to these guidelines may be issued a red band, which indicates approval for only "restricted" or "mature" audiences. These trailers may only be shown before R-rated, NC-17-rated, or unrated movies. These trailers may include nudity, profanity or other material deemed inappropriate for children.^[10]

"Here's the full list of interviewees, in one big fat brick of excitement:
Carmen Argenziano, Allan Arkush, Alan Birkinshaw, Judy Brown, Andrea Cagan, Colleen Camp, Steve Carver, Roger Corman, Leigh Christian, Marlene Clark, Joe Dante, Jon Davison, Marissa Delgado, Nick Deocampo, R Lee Ermey, Leo Fong, Eddie Garcia, Franco Guerrero, Sid Haig, Gloria Hendry, Jack Hill, Darby Hinton, Mark Holcomb, Lenore Kasdorf, Rosanne Katon, Jayne Kennedy, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Paul Koslo, John Landis, Marrie Lee, Margaret Markov, Jan Merlin, Dick Miller, Christopher Mitchum, Eddie Nicart, Trina Parks, Danny Peary, Efren C. Pinon, Barbara Pokras, Corliss Randall, Susanne Reed, Ricardo Remias, Eddie Romero, Fred Roos, Laurie Rose, Digna Santiago, Jane Schaffer, Sam Sherman, Brian Trenchard-Smith, Dean Tavoularis, Pete Tombs, Joe Viola, Patrick Wayne, Celeste Yarnall, Joe Zucchero"

6. August 21, 2010 | Christopher Campbell • Cinematical
      "Trailer Park: Another Year, Machete Maidens Unleashed, Case 39"

"The above trailer is definitely NSFW, and not only does it sell me on the doc but also on all the B-movies shown and discussed."
 

 

   same article September 12, 2010 | Jay C. • FILM JUNK
     "TIFF 2010: Machete Maidens Unleashed! Review" 

   same article April 11, 2011 | Kurt Halfyard • TIFF 

YEAH, a fun for a crowd OF MEN.

". . . John Landis - whose head would likely explode if he smiled any more, the man was clearly having the time of his life . . . Hartley dives headlong into how this explosion of the perverse and bizarre came to be in the first place setting it all into context while also reveling in the sheer lunacy of the films he's putting on screen."

"You like breasts? There are lots of them here, the large majority of them naked. Explosions? Lots of those, too, some also involving nudity."

"These were ridiculous films made under ridiculous circumstances and all involved seem just plain surprised that they managed to get away with doing it for as long as they did."

"Hartley dips into the serious side of things, too, don't get me wrong, but the director of this film seems abundantly aware that he needs to match the energy of those films if he is to have any chance of success and he does exactly that. This is one wild, wild ride."  [emphasis here is as it was in the original article]
 

 

8. September 12, 2010  | Todd Brown • tiff. Midnight Madness and Twitch
      TIFF 2010: "5 Questions with MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED director Mark Hartley "
      The Official Blog of Midnight Madness "5 Questions with MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASED director Mark Hartley"

BOOBS COUNT =  NOT ME

"No, but I'll give a packet of Tim Tams to anyone up for the challenge! And please note, breasts are only one-third of the film's content – don't forget the blood and beasts!"

BLOOD COUNT =
BEASTS COUNT =

9. September 23, 2010 | Chris Bumbray • JoBlo
       "Review: Machete Maidens Unleashed (TIFF)"
       and this site comes with a charming pop-up 

"for me-this thing was catnip.";

"a fun filled romp"

10. ?prior to September 24, 2010 | ? • festival genius
       "Machete Maidens Unleashed""

"As shocking and lurid as many of the women-in-prison, jungle action, mad scientist and martial arts movies made in the Philippines were, the back stories may actually surpass the films in their shocking details. But when the films being discussed and shown in Hartley's trademark montage style are as wildly entertaining as FOR YOUR HEIGHT ONLY, MAD DOCTOR OF BLOOD ISLAND, THE TWILIGHT PEOPLE, THE BIG DOLL HOUSE and TNT JACKSON, it may be a tie."

"MACHETE MAIDENS UNLEASHED might just be the funniest, fastest, most shocking film you'll see all year. Featuring hilarious and informative interviews with Roger Corman, Pam Grier, Sid Haig, John Landis, Joe Dante, Eddie Romero, Cirio Santiago and many more of the people who made the golden age of Filipino exploitation what it was."

11. October 4, 2010 | Scott Weinberg • FEARNET

"Enjoyably colorful and palpably passionate about its subject matter"

"offers eclectic (and adults only) film clips galore" [well, thank you for that (emphasis added)]
 

  says these films aren't "quite as lovable" as the Australian films in NQH
 

  MH is "quite the excellent curator of globally tacky cinema"

 

12. March 3, 2011 | Chris Knight • National Post
       "Machete Maidens Unleashed: Queen of the B-movies"
      link to full article at Canada.com says "Sorry this article is no longer available"
     March 3, 2011 | Chris Knight • National Post 
       "Machete Maidens Unleashed: Queen of the B-movies"

"It's a fun look back at a simpler time in moviemaking, though it also serves to remind us that the likes of The Women Hunters and Vampires Hookers are still being made. The recent Nicolas Cage movie Drive Angry wouldn't look out of place in this documentary, and the upcoming Sucker Punch seems a direct descendent as well. The only difference, aside from bigger budgets, is computer-generated effects. Seems cyberspace is the new Philippines."

 

"an exciting expose";

"**** out of 5 stars"

 

"Since Hollywood is embracing the genre once again, it is only fitting to see the hidden gems of the 2010 TIFF finally hit theatres this past weekend."
 

"Since the censors rarely watched the types of films that many of the directors, including Roger Corman and Eddie Romero, were producing, they were able to get away with content that would be considered unheard of today. "

 

"The interesting thing about some of the responses is how many of the actresses viewed many of the B-movies as feminist films."

"Although many of the films featured a lot of female nudity and, in some cases, violence against women, the B-movie genre was the only genre to feature female leads in action roles. In many ways they were the first female action heroes. Despite some of the atrocities the characters may have endured, by the end of the film, they always rose up against their oppressors and saved the day. If you really think about it, there are very few action films nowadays that feature a female lead. Studios just do not see them as bankable action stars."

"Hartley himself does not offer any judgment in regards to the genre. "

15. March 25, 2011 | Sleazee Vulture • The Whore Church: Merchants of Awful 
       "ITS FRIDAY, FRIDAY, KICKIN' IT ON FRIDAY"

"a bunch of the juiciest 70′s Filipino sleaze"

 

"salaciously titled"
 

"what can only be described as one of the genre's most shameless periods."
 

"One need not spend countless hours wallowing through the mire that's showcased here (although why wouldn't you want to?) to gleam an appreciation for the subject. "

18. April 8, 2011 | Fred Topel • Screen Junkies

*TURN SIGNAL with Kim Troby interview with TED BUNDY