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Savage Streets - Special Edition by Danny Steinmann
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DVD detailsActor: Linda Blair, Linnea Quigley & John Vernon Director: Danny Steinmann DVD: Region Code 1 Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language) Format: Anamorphic, Color, DVD, NTSC, Special Edition, Widescreen Picture Format: 1.85:1 Running Time: 93 minutes DVD Release Date: 2008-09-23 Audience Rating: R (Restricted) Studio: Navarre Corporation
DVD Reviews of Savage Streets - Special EditionDVD Review: Linda Blair channels her inner Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson Summary: 4 Stars
Released in 1984 and starring Linda Blair and John Vernon as Principal Underwood, Savage Streets has everything you can ask for in a cult movie; we got nudity, violence, girls fighting in the shower room, sleaze, bad 80s hairdos and a bad 80s soundtrack. By this time in Linda Blair's career it was a far cry from The Exorcist, which upon its release was hailed as a horror masterpiece. Though on the 2-disc SE DVD Linda Blair looks back fondly on Savage Streets, which is great to know.
Linda Blair plays Brenda and channels her inner Clint Eastwood and Charles Bronson as a vigilante out for revenge after the brutal gang rape of her sister Heather played by Linnea Quigley; Savage Streets is one of my favorite 80s exploitation flicks and like I said before this has everything one can ask for in a cult flick. While Savage Streets is violent it's actually kinda tame compared to other movies released about the same time. But fear not there is a good amount of violence, but it is light on gore, which I suppose is fine since we make up for that in full frontal nudity.
The screenplay written by Norman Yonemoto & Danny Steinmann and an un credited John Strong who also produced is exactly what you would expect from a movie of this kind. Obviously you should know this isn't gonna be an Oscar worthy script and I don't think we fans would have it any other way. The screenplay is filled with some truly memorable lines that the viewer will be quoting for years to come.
So how about we go over some of the truly brilliant lines from Savage Streets? Now there are many great lines in this movie, but these are probably my favorites.
First we have the classic line from Principal Underwood, You're a tough little B***h, aren't you? I like that. And who can forget the brilliant, Go F**k an Iceberg also provided by Underwood, you gotta love the great John Vernon.
Now as great as those lines were I think my favorite is from Linda Blair when she says to one of the bad guys; Too bad you're not double-jointed. Because if you were you'd able to bend over and kiss your own A** goodbye!
Now with dialogue like this how can one not just love Savage Streets? For better or worse Norman Yonemoto & Danny Steinmann and John Strong really created one of the ultimate cult classics to ever come out of the 80s. Savage Streets actually reminds me of another cult classic of the 80s Class of 1984, while a good movie I think Savage Streets was the better of the two.
Savage Streets was directed by Danny Steinmann who's probably best known to horror fans from directing the underrated Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. Steinmann is by no means a good director, but he is a director who knows how to deliver what the audience for these kinds of movies wants. He got his start with the porn flick High Rise, before moving to feature films and he only made 3 movies, but Savage Streets is his legacy.
This isn't the masterful directed epic vigilante movie, but Steinmann delivers with a good amount of nudity and violence and while the pacing can slightly lag in some areas, Steinmann fills the scenes with enough sleaze that any pacing problems are quite easy to overlook. The revenge scenes don't come into play until the final act and they are handled well and play out strong with some amazing lines provided by Linda Blair.
The villains wouldn't able to scare a toddler, but all of them are quite entertaining and of course we have the one who feels bad for the evil deeds done by the gang named the Scars. Though Robert Dryer as the leader Jake does have the tough guy look, but he's given so many silly lines he never really comes across as intimidating, but he does have the look. This movie is all about Linda Blair though who gives a really fun performance. Besides The Exorcist, Savage Streets is by far my favorite Linda Blair movie and besides Regan I think this was the best character she ever played.
Though the stand-out star of the movie is no doubt Linnea Quigley who really delivers an excellent performance; Linnea is best known for her work as a B-movie actress, but in Savage Streets she truly shows her talents as an actress. While I do like many of her movies and she is a fine actress she never really got to showcase her skills, but she does in Savage Streets. In the movie she plays a deaf mute and I know you're probably thinking how hard of a role was it since she had no lines. But that's actually quite tough. She has to express herself only through facial expressions and body movements. Linnea Quigley comes across as very likeable and very sympathetic and to me was clearly the stand-out star despite having no lines and a limited amount of screen time.
Fans of Cult cinema rejoice as we finally got this movie on an SE DVD. BCI Eclipse did an amazing job at putting this DVD together. Savage Streets has a brand new Widescreen Transfer that looks amazing and has three audio commentary tracks one being with Danny Steinmann who constantly talks about certain actresses having nice breasts and how during filming he tried to get some of the actress to go topless. The commentary track was highly entertaining. The 2nd disc has several interviews, which includes Linda Blair and Linnea Quigley and the interviews are great. With sales for a lot of these companies down and some going under and others like Anchor Bay now focusing on other stuff it seemed we would never get a quality release again, but BCS Eclipse just might be the saviors of Cult Cinema.
Overall Savage Streets is a nice piece of 80s exploitation filled with nudity, classic dialogue, violence and a sexy Linda Blair out for revenge. Savage Streets comes highly recommended. Look for former Lightweight Champion Sean O'Grady is a small role as Fadden.
More Savage Streets - Special Edition reviews: 1 2 3
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