The Big Country (1958) and a chainsaw massacre, v1.10

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2012)

Spoilers as this gives my interpretation of some aspects of the story. Can spoil things, maybe, maybe not.
Getting to know this disk better allows me to notice the music more and more so I am rather glad that I purchased the Blu-ray, even though the price had not dropped to My Price at that time.
The story starts a few years before the story of Detroit Rock City (1999), which includes a memorable Runaways song in the scene where three guys go a.w.o.l. from their school. School Days, written by Kim Fowley and Joan Jett. A blatant aspect of Detroit Rock City is the violence and this does include interesting hidden comments on that. Kim as the manager of both The Runaways and KISS.
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The band was a bunch of new musicians and the story shows something positive here, but sick too. A well worn phrase that rock musicians grow up fast on the road takes on a bitter edge.
Their main on-stage front guy as Cherie and the story shows her to have some fairly commonplace teen problems and weaknesses that really need effective help if the individual is to be able to stand on their own feet in an okay way. Myself, I was a non-starter in that. Cherie faced a lot more years of trouble than one would really hope would be needed. Indicators are that things have not improved since then. Compare the book and film versions of Girl, Interrupted or Harry Potter. Cherie got what Rowling's works got.
Meantime, manager Kim having grown up versions, teen stuff escalated, of a male thing that Detroit Rock City suggests might have been commonplace in the USA of that time. Indicators are that things have not improved since then.
This screen story is scripted in a way that highlights and underlines how Kim affected Cherie. Those who have followed these people for a long time will know a lot of additional detail, but background notes on the disk show that real historic situations were rewritten and sharpened in order to show more clearly how Cherie was damaged by this.
Kim as the power hungry bad guy who was so obviously bad, in some ways. Me, I need to add a mental footnote that he was a victim too. This story is a neat illustration of how those perceived to be flawed can get crucified. Cherie, but also Kim. And the modern world moves on. Scary, scary night?
Dakota – Cherie sometimes shows real beauty, but typically this beauty is only at the groin, another toy of Dr Frankenstein. It is less obvious that Kim is also a doll. I first noticed this feature via a magasine photo of Dakota and Kristen, Dakota in an amazingly attractive frock and I knew that I needed to see this feature just because of that frock. That frock is not in this feature, just a beautiful groin tacked onto a wreck.
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Drafting this I re-watched The Big Country (1958) and it feels to have a relevance, even though any parallels are lop-sided.
I am also reminded of High Noon (1952), but that is the chainsaw side rather than how I understand the wider picture. The chainsaw is quality.
I am also reminded of Skins season 5 episode 5, Nick. Cherie had some massively damaging experiences and the feature shows her trying to face them honestly. She is not running away from key issues.
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As this feature really did allow me to like their music I followed through by purchasing two dvds and two music compilation sets.
My big mistake was purchasing Edgeplay, a documentary made by their last ever bass guitar player. Joan chose to not be involved with this and she blocked access to Runaways music that she had written. I found that Edgeplay did include a lot of additional historic detail, a mix of real and maybe real anecdotes, but that it worked to stop me liking their music. The Runaways feature showed a mess but allowed me to really like the music side, this worked to knock that out, what it does show is a much greater mess. Television clips from Japan are included, but these do not compare well with the scripted on stage parts in the feature. Some people like Edgeplay, me no.
The second DVD was Joan Jett Live, from the same period as Edgeplay. Watch that alone I would have loved the music and considered Joan to have grown through a lot of different visual styles.
The CD compilations were Joan Jett And The Blackhearts Greatest Hits and The Runaways Mercury Albums Anthology. Before I saw Edgeplay I found these to be just what I hoped from the feature. Anthology includes several pics, mostly of messed up female musicians but including the cover pics of the albums, too. Anthology also has all of the tracks except for some of the Live In Japan tracks. Many are written by Jett and Fowley.