It also stresses the sexist 70's when Joan Jett (Played by Kristen Stewart) is told the ladies department of a store is on the other side and she was in the wrong place.
It doesn't stop her actually getting the full black leather outfit she desired though!
The runaways journey started when Joan saw Kim Fowley out side of a club she was at. She tells him how she wants to make an all girl rock band and he replies with 'Maybe i am the luckiest dog fucker after all' He gave her his number and introduced her to the runaways drummer, Sandy.
The movie is about the bands fast beginning, running through the casting of the band to the first ever song written by Joan Jett and Kim Fowley. (Cherry Bomb). Written because Cherie practiced an inappropriate song for the bands abilities, Fever by Peggy Sue, which i must stress was covered by Suzie Quatro!
The song 'Cherry Bomb' that they wrote for Cherie consisted of a line which she didn't want to sing. 'I'll give you something to live for, have ya grab ya til you're sore!' which at first she refused to sing, but Joan Jett talks her in to it.
The film paints Lita Ford as a jealous bully who hates things not to be her way. Right from the beginning she seems to dislike Cherie Currie and later on in the movie it comes to a head, but more of that when i get to it!.
The film shows how Cherie came from a family of a selfish mother and a alcoholic father, but she said her dad said he just liked his booze, he wasn't an alcoholic. (which he was!). They find him falling out of a care passed out with a bottle of booze as they are about to go on tour, but Marie tells her to go still she would be fine. Joan took the half drank bottle of booze with them.
The headlines once The Runaways got famous were very patronizing especially one in particular... 'These chicks can actually play!'
It also stresses the fact that Cherie had an ongoing heavy drug addiction that just got worse over time, so bad she ends up hospitalized, and steals her fathers medicine.
Kim Fowley spoke bad about Cherie to a journalist and during cutting
a record Cherie finds out 'Fowley says 'handling Cherie's ego is like
having a dog urinate in your face the best thing that could happen to
this band is if Cherie hung herself from a shower rod and put herself
in the tradition of Marilyn Monroe'.
Even i found that harsh... how he could say it was controversy i do not know!
To top the harshness off Lita Ford agrees with his words... See what i meant about the Lita Ford jealous bully theme?
Any way this becomes to much for Cherie whom, surprise surprise, leaves the band.
Joan Jett's friend makes a cool remark 'You should go solo like Bowie, Bowie's just Bowie.'
During all of that Cherie has a breakdown and ends up in rehab, where she temporarily fixes herself, she ends up working in a cake shop and while listening to the radio she hears 'I love rock and roll' on the radio followed by a mini interview where callers could talk to her if they wanted, Cherie is one of them.
Not all could be said on air so they ended the call and the radio then played 'Crimson and Clover' which i suspect the song is about Cherie and Joan.
The end titles are interesting they have a few snippets of information on what Cherie, Joan and Kim are doing now, bizarrely Cherie is a chainsaw artist, and Kim Fowley has green hair!
I give this movie a 9.5/10 and strongly recommend it to all rock lovers!
I love this movie too! Perhaps the start of Cherie's period at the beginning of the film was just to remind us that she and the others are women, as the world of rock n'n roll was completely male-dominated back then? (Still is, really...)
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