Film

Bad Girls

Name: Bad Girls
Genre: Romance, Western
Released: 1994
Cast: Madeleine Stowe, Mary Stuart Masterson, Andie MacDowell, Drew Barrymore, James Russo

Other titles called Bad Girls: the 1999 series (ITV1).

Western

A 1994 Western following four women escaping their pasts in Colorado, trying to build legitimate lives together against the frontier's resistance. It's sincere about female friendship and reinvention, shot with warmth, anchored by appealing performances. A movie that wants you to root for its characters' second chances more than it cares about plot mechanics.

TMDb rating

2.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like frontier stories where the outlaw ride matters as much as the romance, and you enjoy a scrappy friendship between women who have nothing left to lose but each other.

Skip it if you want a tidy, sun-warmed western; this one is grubby, a bit lurid in places, and it leans on its shootouts and chases more than on character quiet.

What it asks of you: Roughly ninety-nine minutes of brisk movement with plenty of sharp turns, so keep your attention on the road and the faces rather than drifting off.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Johnny Guitar1954

The original Western that put women at the center—a saloon owner stands against a lynch mob with her own moral code. Raw, weird, completely uninterested in male approval.

But The pacing is glacial by modern standards, and the dialogue can feel stilted. Some find the gender inversion more interesting in theory than in execution.

The Quick and the Dead1995

Sharon Stone in a revenge Western where she's faster, smarter, and meaner than the men around her. Raimi's kinetic direction makes every standoff feel like a duel for the soul of the genre.

But It's stylized to the point of camp—all quick cuts and theatrical violence. If you want grit over spectacle, this leans the wrong way.

Gunpowder2017

A miniseries about a group of women—Catholic recusants—plotting to survive and resist in Elizabethan England. Female solidarity under genuine threat, with real historical stakes and no sentimentality.

But The period detail can be dense, and it's far darker in tone than *Bad Girls*. Also British television pacing, which means slower than you might expect.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Bad Girls

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Respectful Prostitute1952

Both feature women who have been labeled and discarded by society, trying to claim moral ground in a system built to deny it to them. *Bad Girls* is optimistic about sisterhood and escape; this explores how escape itself can be a fiction when power imbalances are absolute.

An adaptation of Sartre's play about an American woman in the Jim Crow South, falsely accused of an assault by a white man. It's a tense, philosophical examination of power, complicity, and the fiction of justice.

But It's a Sartre adaptation—the dialogue is often more important than action. The film is slow, talky, and very much a filmed play. Also, it's French cinema, which means different rhythms entirely.

Thelma & Louise1991

Two women running from the law, choosing freedom and friendship over the life society assigned them. It's about solidarity, anger, and what happens when you stop asking permission.

But It ends where it ends. If you need catharsis of a different kind, this will frustrate you. Also, it's been referenced to death—hard to see it fresh.

The Ballad of Little Jo1993

A true story: a woman dresses as a man to survive as a homesteader in the Wyoming wilderness. Quietly radical, beautifully shot, about the masks we wear and the freedom they can buy.

But It's contemplative rather than dramatic. The pacing is deliberate, and if you want plot momentum, you'll find it slow.

Calamity Jane1953

A musical Western where Jane is tough, irreverent, and allowed to be messy. Doris Day gets to do physical comedy and genuinely earned vulnerability in a genre that rarely gave women either.

But It's Technicolor fluff by design. If you're allergic to musical numbers or need darker material, it'll feel lightweight.

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez1983

A Western built on actual history and Mexican-American experience, told with dignity and moral complexity. Edward James Olmos is magnificent, and it asks real questions about justice and borders.

But It's understated to the point where some find it slow. The film trusts you to care about the stakes without underlining them constantly.

Westworld2016

A park where robot women are trapped in a Western fantasy, programmed to serve. Evan Rachel Wood and the ensemble build to a genuine uprising. Smart, gorgeous, and absolutely focused on agency.

But It gets very dark very quickly—the treatment of its female characters in the first episodes is intentionally ugly. Also, season two disappoints many fans, so know when to stop.

The Homesman2014

Meryl Streep guides four women driven mad by frontier life back east, across country, through winter and violence. A genuine examination of what the West cost women, unsparing and powerful.

But It's bleak—almost aggressively so. The ending upends what you thought the story was about. If you need hope, look elsewhere.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller1971

Both center women working within the sex trade trying to build something real, but *McCabe* is deeply cynical about whether that's actually possible. Where *Bad Girls* believes in transformation and escape, *McCabe* suggests the system is designed to prevent it. It's the darker answer to the same question.

Warren Beatty and Julie Christie build a brothel into a town, then watch as capital and corporate greed swallow it. It's a Western that's genuinely interested in economics, gender, and how communities fall apart. Altman's direction is loose, intimate, and utterly unlike anything else in the genre.

But It's revisionist to the point of being deliberately unsexy—even the romance is transactional. The ending refuses to give you what Westerns usually promise. Also shot in soft focus that some find muddy rather than romantic.