swinging cheerleaders

If you're looking for one unintended positive side-effect of the proliferation of internet porn, at least we can hang our collective hats on this: all those drive-in T&A double-features of the '70s look almost puritanical by comparison. Roger Corman's Student Nurses launched a whole wave of now-innocuous skin flicks, most of them becoming progressively more single-mindedly titillating, drifting further and further afield from the original's overly earnest soap-opera antics. But leave it to director Jack Hill, whose career is hopelessly intertwined with Corman's, to follow in his mentor's footsteps, turning his own Nurses knock-off into a stealthy critique on female empowerment.

That's certainly not what you'd expect with a title like The Swinging Cheerleaders. Rest assured, most of the female cast goes topless at one point or another. But it's rarely staged in a callous or exploitative fashion, hewing much closer to the format Fast Times at Ridgemont High used to mix nudity and naughty behavior with real life lessons. In fact, Kate (Jo Johnston), our plucky lead character, joins the squad as an undercover journalist writing an expose on how the sport demeans women, in much the same way Cameron Crowe's uncover high school gig got the dirt on classmates in the Rolling Stone article Ridgemont was based upon.

It's fiction influencing real life influencing fiction. (Cue Sean Penn hitting himself on the skull with a shoe.)

But The Swinging Cheerleaders actually takes things a step further, toying with the pre-conceived notions of jocks as brainless bullies and campus revolutionaries as peace-loving nerds. The screenplay (written by Hill but disguised under a pair of female pseudonyms to capitalize once again on Roger Corman's habit of hiring women writers and directors preemptively deflect criticism) turns the tables, revealing the "big men on campus" to be honorable gentle giants while the Dylan-esque radical winds up a loathsome rapist.

The girls on the squad (including Rainbeaux Smith who carried on the torch in Revenge of the Cheerleaders and The Pom Pom Girls) juggle their fair share of melodramatic problems interrupted by a few romantic encounters...which themselves are usually interrupted by a chaste fade to black. If it all sounds like some sort of intellectual experiment, just wait until the tacked on slapstick finale. Hill knows he still has an audience to entertain and makes sure he doesn't bore them. But for a quickie 12-day production that has rarely screened since its release (Hill rescued the only surviving print just days before it was to be destroyed), The Swinging Cheerleaders could school a whole lot of filmmakers in how to have your cake and eat it too.

The brand-new 2K transfer from Arrow Video (a blu-ray and standard DVD is included) looks very nice once you get past the optical and stock footage heavy opening credits. Extras include a new interview and archival interviews with Hill (who also contributes an audio commentary) along with a sit-down with cinematographer Alfred Taylor, TV spots and a 2012 Q & A at the New Beverly.