Bad Girls (1994) Movie Review

The film boasts a stellar cast—Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, and Drew Barrymore. Even the male actors seem a bit bewildered, as if they're about to step into uncharted territory. And can you blame them? These four ladies are styled and made up like they just stepped out of a Calvin Klein ad. Even when the script calls for them to get dusty, it's more like a fashionable smudge in the right places than any real grit.

At the start, our four heroines predictably find themselves in the role of prostitutes (because apparently, in the old West, women's career options were limited to Marriage, School-Marming, Prostitution, or Old Biddyhood). When Stowe's character defends Masterson from an abusive colonel, a lynch mob forms. But fear not, the trio of friends helps Stowe escape, and they hit the road with a couple of Pinkerton detectives hot on their trail.

While the plot doesn't exactly get thicker, it does take shape. There's the obligatory scene by the swimming hole, where all four women conveniently find themselves submerged just enough to show off some cleavage. Enter the handsome young cowboy, played by Dermot Mulroney, who falls head over heels for Stowe. Things take a turn when Stowe, attempting a routine bank transaction, unwittingly gets caught up in a bank robbery led by the scruffy Kid Jarrett (Kid Russo), who also happens to grab her savings.

In essence, "Bad Girls" ends up being a run-of-the-mill Western with a gender twist, leaning heavily on tired tropes rather than breaking new ground.

The rest of the story revolves around the women trying to reclaim their money, making hostage trades, and rescuing the young cowboy. It feels like the screenplay could have been conjured up by the ghost of Hopalong Cassidy at a seance.

Sure, there were women in the Wild West, and some good movies have explored their stories. Three notable ones are "Cattle Annie And Little Britches," "The Ballad Of Little Jo," and "A Thousand Pieces Of Gold." These films try to imagine the challenges faced by women who didn't conform to the limited roles society offered on the harsh frontier. For example, "Little Jo" delves into the idea that a woman couldn't be accepted as an independent rancher, leading its heroine to disguise herself as a man.

However, the four bad girls in "Bad Girls" – Cody, Anita, Eileen, and Lilly – seem unfazed by such complexities. Despite their backgrounds in the entertainment industry, they magically possess skills like riding, shooting, handling explosives, and throwing a punch. The harsh reality of frontier prostitution, depicted vividly in the opening scenes of "Unforgiven," doesn't seem to bother them much.

Even after a clichéd moment involving a rattlesnake startling horses, the film has Drew Barrymore expertly galloping on horseback, jumping onto a runaway wagon, and skillfully reining in the team. It's quite a feat!

Surprisingly, the movie doesn't dwell on the potential degradation of these women from their lives as prostitutes for drunken, hairy, smelly, and illiterate clients. The dialogue briefly acknowledges their relief at being free from such duties but swiftly moves on. Oddly enough, none of the male characters recognize that, with their supermodel looks, these women could likely earn more in Chicago or Kansas City than in the Echo City brothels.

The disappointment with "Bad Girls" is heightened because the actresses are currently at their peak, delivering standout performances in recent films like "Blink," "Four Weddings And A Funeral," "Fried Green Tomatoes," and "Gun Crazy." Watching them in those movies makes you realize how lackluster they appear in this particular concoction.