A look back at the teenage diaries of the Runaways

The Runaways were both an actual all-girl rock ‘n’ roll band and a realization of their impresario’s promotional imagination. Their run of four studio albums in the 1970s (The Runaways, Queens of Noise, Waitin’ for the Night, And Now… The Runaways), a live LP (Live in Japan), and a few odds ‘n’ sods collection (Flaming Schoolgirls) yielded some terrific glitter-flavored rock, a great deal of publicity, but only a modicum of commercial success. Though they provided inspiration for bands like the Go-Go’s, Pandoras, and Donnas, and two of the original members (Lita Ford and Joan Jett) went on to international acclaim, the group’s original publicity still casts a shadow over the Runaways’ musical accomplishment. They remain more infamous than famous.

The band’s second bassist, Vicki Blue, developed a post-Runaways career as a producer/director (under the name Victory Tischler Blue), and is the visionary behind this documentary. Blue’s inside connections with the band is both a blessing and a curse, as the group members are candid with her on some subjects but appear to close down on others. She tells the interior story of the band’s interpersonal dynamics, focusing on the shifting friendships and tensions between band members, and the abuse heaped upon the then-teenage girls by management and assorted hired hands. This is more a diary than a history.

Even those familiar with the Runaways public career would have greatly benefited from an explanation of where these girls came from, a brief discourse on the culture of the Sunset Strip and San Fernando Valley, the musical times, and the family lives that allowed teenage girls to tour under the reportedly abusive and non-watchful eyes of Kim Fowley and manager Scott Anderson. Signature events, signings, and concerts are alluded to but never fully highlighted, and the band’s peers and fans are omitted from the picture. The lack of context or third-party perspectives saps some of the power from the first-person interviews. The largest blow of all, however, is the lack of participation by Joan Jett, the band’s heart and soul, and the inability of the filmmaker to license any of the Runaways studio recordings. Live performances of Lou Reed’s “Rock ‘n’ Roll” and the Troggs’ “Wild Thing” give you a taste of their power as a band, but little sense of their original music.

Blue’s interviews with four of the original band members, Cherie Currie, Lita Ford, Jackie Fox and Sandy West, are supplemented by interviews with songwriter Kari Krome, impresario Kim Fowley, latter-day manager Toby Mamis, and inspiration Suzy Quatro. Blue is able to get some startling admissions from her former bandmates, particularly Cherie Currie, and their on-going damage is revealed in the bitterness they harbor and the anger that remains towards one another (they’re each interviewed separately) and for the adults who abused them. Blue doesn’t successfully confront Fowley on the group’s allegations, but interviews with Currie and West’s mothers go a long way to solidifying his dark reputation.

Kim Fowley saw the band’s demise as a product of the members’ lack of friendship, but what’s clear from the interviews is that neither Fowley nor Scott Anderson had an interest in the group’s long term well-being, and used the teenage girls’ immaturity as weapons against them. The band’s demise, after a disastrous album with British producer John Alcock, produced a short-lived solo recording and film career for Cherie Currie, chart success as a pop-metal star for Lita Ford, and a major international music career for Joan Jett. Drummer Sandy West fell into a series of jobs outside the music industry (construction, bartending, veterinary assistance) and rackets (protection for drug dealers) before succumbing to cancer and a brain tumor in 2006. West remained haunted to the end by the Runaways’ breakup, angry at those who manipulated the band and unable to understand why a reunion couldn’t be pulled together.

Blue’s film editing is very busy. The dizzy, hand-held interview footage quickly turns from vérité to distraction, as does the constant presence of music beds, and the jump cuts and video effects. Her choice of sunny outdoor locations for many of the interviews prompts her subjects to wear sunglasses, hiding the expressiveness of their eyes. Blue is to be lauded for getting this film off the ground, dealing with numerous limitations, and sticking with it to completion. Her insider’s perch informs but also colors the story she tells, and without the broader context of the band’s life and times there remains a definitive biography to be made. [©2009 hyperbolium dot com]

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