Roger Corman's Exploitation Film 'Caged Heat'

In 1974, Roger Corman released his new exploitation film Caged Heat, with the promotional posters reading, “White Hot Desires melting cold prison steel!” The film was directed by Jonathan Demme where he shows, how women are controlled with prolonged rules and unjust treatment, and how women have very limited choices in the male dominant society because of continuous surveillance and oppressive authority. The representation of theses ideas in Caged Heat can be related as being more superior to the traditional exploitation films because the movie represents women solidarity, and it also depicts a successful escape from a male dominance society, without the need of primary male character. The movie also dealt with the social issues of that time regarding the women’s right, women victimization, …show more content…
This is the depiction of a male dominant society in which the women were living in, where they were constantly policed by the males. Caged Heat give this depiction from the beginning of the movie, when Wilson gets captured by the undercover male cops and is sentenced to prison by the male judge. The male guards are present throughout the movie, guarding and watching the prison from outside and also guarding the prisoners when they go out to work at the agricultural training grounds. Also at the end and during the first escape, when the girls rebelled against the prison system, it was the male guards outside the prison system trying to stop them from escaping. The presence of male characters only acts to govern and run the prison from outside, making them an oppressing force against women in the film. In the film, we can also clearly see the difference in the dress code between the female guards and the prisoners. Basically the prisoners look way sexier than the guards and the movie shows how differently they are associated from one another