Product Description

Studio: Image Entertainment Release Date: 10/11/2005

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #25867 in DVD
• Brand: Image Entertainment
• Released on: 2005-10-11
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 110 minutes

Amazon.com
"Why do you have to be unconscious?" asks Holly (played by Holly Woodlawn) while fingering the unresponsive crotch of her passed-out junkie boyfriend, Joe (Joe Dallesandro). Joe passes through a series of flaccid sexual encounters until, on account of his drug habit, he hits rock bottom as Holly is forced out of frustration to consummate with one of his discarded beer bottles. A radical and infinitely more compassionate departure from producer Andy Warhol's art-as-commodity (or commodification) discourse, director Paul Morrissey set out to make a reactionary antidrug film (originally titled Drug Trash), but the film instead turned into a sweaty, cinema-verité black comedy about the pitfalls of, to use a popular catch phrase of the time, "dropping out" of society and, inevitably, losing all hope of human intimacy. In this case, dropping out is not so much an escape as it is a further complicity: rather than an exercise in free will, one form of mindless consumer addiction has simply exchanged with another. As a time capsule, societal criticism, and cult oddity all in one, grab this from the trash heap of film history on your way out of a burning building. --Christopher Chase

Customer Reviews

a little gem which is well worth seeing
ANDY WARHOL'S TRASH By C.C.Berg

I first saw this tragic comedy when it was released in Stockholm in 1970, and it is against the background of this period that it should be considered: free love and the birth pill; the hippie flower-power philosophy; the Vietnam war; the drug culture. Twenty-nine years ago this movie had a strange effect on me, I left the cinema with a profound feeling of joy

According to what I have read, the movie is unscripted and the acting improvised, this comes across very clearly. The sound quality is sometimes poor. We are shown a series of 'tableaux', in which some very perturbed, gruesome characters play out their daily life centred on drugs, sex and misery.

Joe, an impotent heroine addict, is constantly looking for his next hit and constantly coming across women who want to make love with him. Joe and his 'wife', sweet Holly Woodlawn, a frightful transvestite (and powerful actress), live in a run-down apartment furnished with what Holly finds in the garbage.

These two characters and the fauna who surround them get into the most absurd and unlikely situations. The movie is sprinkled throughout with humour and grim reality, a dichotomy which works disturbs and delights. One finds oneself passing from disgust to a belly laugh in a matter of seconds and this is where the strength of the movie lies.

To be brief, here is a little gem which is well worth seeing, an absurd drug-sex comedy with much artistic talent. For adults only.

Joe the Wonderful, Joe my Love!
When I saw this movie back in the l970s, I was knocked out of my BVD's with Joe the Magnificent. I had never seen a creature like him before: gorgeous, tough, sweet, funny and sex personified. I've read where this movie was NOT improvised, that Paul Morrisey adhered to a professional script and was a strict, but creative director. Then, I've heard it was just the opposite. I really don't think Joe was faking his drug induced stupor, expressions, mumblings. I loved Holly Woodlawn but nearly upchucked when her hideous, pregnant sister entered the picture. Gross is too mild a word. That drooling wet mouth and buck teeth, her bloated figure, yuck! I wish that sad little lost child, Andrea Feldman, had a bigger part. Thankfully, she was showcased in Andy Warhol's HEAT, another favorite. Once I was in the Village during that time and my boyfriend told me Joe Dellasandro was walking just ahead. I fled--not wanting to see a real embodiment of a movie icon. The same thing happened when Liz Taylor left the theater each night during her starring role in "The Little Foxes" during the 80s. Each night I would study the gigantic crowds, waiting to glimpse her. But when I'd see the stage door open and she began to make her exit, I fled. Reality's a nice place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there. Gotta run and watch Joe, my Joe, my wonderful Joe in "Trash." A real underground classic.

2 historical notes and a question
Bruce Pecheur, the actor playing the husband of Jane Forth, was murdered in his Greenwich Village apartment by an intruder while the movie was still playing in New York. Jane Forth (Who for my money had the best lines in the film- "Now get in here and rape me!") was a highly paid fashion model who was to become a Warhol regular but reportedly dropped out to go back to the runway. Does anybody know what ever happened to Holly Woodlawn?