Bad Girls (1994)

After a saloon prostitute (Madeleine Stowe) kills a man for beating up a fellow whore (Mary Stuart Masterson), the outraged and hypocritical townspeople plan to lynch her but she's saved at the last moment when her prostitute pals (Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore) help her escape and the four of them go on the run. Directed by Jonathan Kaplan (THE ACCUSED), I found this feminist western grandly entertaining. Female driven westerns are rare but not without precedent, JOHNNY GUITAR (1954) and THE WOMAN THEY ALMOST LYNCHED (1953) come to mind. The film's original director Tamra Davis (GUNCRAZY) was fired and the script rewritten to beef up the action. Stowe hated the finished movie (it wasn't what she signed up for) and the reviews were negative but hey, I liked it. It is what it is and it has the feel of a spaghetti western but I think it could have used a tougher director and a less schizophrenic script (the sentimentality and the toughness work against each other). There's a nice score by Jerry Goldsmith. With Robert Loggia, Dermot Mulroney, James Russo and James LeGros.