Though it is still an expoitation movie at its core, The Naked Cage offers up some refreshing ideas for an eighties movie.
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The eighties were a wild time for movies, not just because VHS made movies more accessible to the average person than ever, but also because there were production houses like Canon Films involved. For those who don't know Canon Films were a scrappy and often scammy film production group that specialized in B-movies. In particular action flicks starring the likes of Chuck Norris and Charles Bronson. And like most B-movies, almost all of them have since faded into obscurity. But a few broke through, including a number of Oscar hits and like today's movie, The Naked Cage, a cult favorite that touches on themes few movies of the era did.
The Setup
The movie centers around Michelle, an average young woman who gets caught up in a crime when her boyfriend robs a bank she works at. Now imprisoned and out of her depth, Michelle will have to contend with violent inmates, abusive guards, and a massively corrupt warden to survive and maybe, clear her name.
90 percent of the time, there's not much to talk about with a Canon Film movie. They're big silly affairs, that at best could be viewed as schlocky fun and at worst tasteless misfires. But every now and then you get a movie like this that addresses issues most movies wouldn't touch...while also being tasteless as hell about it.
Let me explain.
The Novel
The hook of the movie is an innocent young woman thrown in a violent world, that's just as corrupt, if not more so, that put her behind bars. As soon as she enters the prison Michelle is beset upon with violent fellow inmates who want protection money, harassed by a guard, and approached by the corrupt warden to be her spy. There's no justice or reform to be had here.
So about 30 years before Orange is the New Black would highlight all of the potential for abuse and the rampant criminal activity within places meant to reform criminals, here's this cheese-fest tackling similar issues. We've even got a cop whom Michelle ends up befriending who wants to truly help the inmates and has to play both sides throughout the film.
This movie also addresses things like the racial divide within prisons and how easy it is for guards and warden to abuse their powers.
So much so that when there is an inmate revolt, the inmates are portrayed as entirely in the right.
But because this is a Canon Film we're also adding in the titilating aspects with little to no tact.
The Cheese
The bumper description of this movie is an accurate depiction of events portrayed on screen. Violent fights between inmates, sexual assault and drug running and abuse are all prevalent here and it is generally portrayed as awful.
But we're also going to ensure that we're leanng into two things. Gratuitous nudity and aggressive lesbian stereotypes.
A selling point for most Canon Films is that they feature the things eighties teenage boys come to see, boobs and violence. Often blended together in very uncomfortable ways. So while there are innocous bits of nudity like our villain going topless after a night with Michelle's boyfriend, there's also plenty of nudity that occurs in an around violence against women and that's pretty gross.
The movie also leans really hard into the stereotype of "masc women being dangerous." The best example is Christina Walker's villain Rita who is not only sporting a mohawk half the time, she's also aggressive and violent towards everyone including Michelle, who is a nice looking blond woman with blowout hair. The primary enforcer who comes after Michelle when she first gets there? Masc. The drug addict who tries to help Michlle? Basically looks like Michelle. How about the warden? She kinda looks like Michelle. Well she's more or less portrayed as a lesbain S&M enthusiast.
It's the standard mess of representation in eighties schlock. Because characters like Rita or Return of the Living Dead's Trash (the red-headed punk who becomes a zombie) are both more masc versions of women put on screen in an era when that wasn't the norm, but also portrayed as villains for the audience to oggle at and despise for those qualities.
It's no progressive per say, but all of these ideas and themes, especially taking place within a women's prison, definitely stand out in this era.
The Verdict: Great in Spots
Though it is still an expoitation movie at its core, The Naked Cage offers up some refreshing ideas for an eighties movie.
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