The Runaways (2010)

“…Hello daddy, hello mom, I’m your ch-ch-ch-ch CHERRY BOMB! Hello world I’m your wild girl, ch-ch-ch-ch CHERRY BOMB!”

Theatrical Movie Posters for 'The Runaways'

The Runaways Movie Trailer:

A photo of The Runaways during their
live performance in Japan.

After watching the film, well I had that L-S-S thing for the song Cherry Bomb by the all-girl rock band called “The Runaways.” The film, “The Runaways”, is a 2010 American biopic-drama film about the 1970's all girl rock band of the same name. It was written and directed by Floria Sigismondi,  who is an Italian music video director. It is based on the book Neon Angel: A Memoir of a Runaway by the band's original lead vocalist, Cherie Currie. The Runaways depicts the formation of the band in 1975 and focuses on the relationship between Currie and Jett until Currie's departure from the band.

Joan Jett(Kristen Stewart) and
Cherrie Currie (Dakota Fanning).

The film opens with a drop of blood, indicating that Cherie Currie is now on the verge of womanhood. Cherie appears to be a teenager who wants to become a rock star. It’s the same with Joan Jett, who also dreams of rock stardom. Both girls’ appearance is modeled from their idols: Cherie had cut her hair the same as David Bowie while Jett adopted the style of Suzi Quatro. Well Jett gets to meet Kim Fowley who’s a music producer in a club and gets him interested with her idea of an “all-girl rock band”. After a bit of searching, the band’s almost done with only one thing left: A hot-blond who becomes the front man of the band. They found Cherie Currie, and had her audition to an on-the-spot song written down by Fowley and Jett.

Cherie (left), being taught by Fowley (right)
during her auditon.

I liked the film; a factor would be that I did like the idea of girls rockin’ electric guitars and bangin’ their heads on loudspeakers. Cherie’s story is special: seeing how she and her twin sister was a part of a broken family, though her sister isn’t a disturbed one like her; how she treats her dad someone important (the scene where she gets a phone call on her birthday and she said that she saved a slice of cake for her dad) and how her relationship with her bandmates, her family and herself, specifically on how she gets to straighten up after getting addicted to booze and drugs. Another important thing was how the band was trained by Fowley, explaining to them how different girls are treated in the music scene and what should they do to get by, since rock is the domain of guys. From this point, I realized that they were a model for everyone to see that girls can play rock music too, and how they’ve become a ‘fetish’ symbol or let’s just say, a ‘seduction-fetish’ symbol. Well, as I watch the movie, I just kept thinking, “Yeah, don’t look down on girls. We can do that punk-metal-rock stuff too!”

Here's the Cherry Bomb Song:

I grew up listening to acoustic and electric guitars and got myself to learn how to play the guitar too, so I kind of related myself to Jett and Cherie wanting to become rock stars. Maybe, just maybe, I can write down my own songs and sing. Maybe all right. :)