My review was written in 1983 after a Greenwich Village screening.
Filmed last year at a Nevada brothel, "Chicken Ranch" is a tedious, ill-conceived cinema verite exercise made to fill time on British tv, and, as is increasingly the case with UK tube product of late, acquired for theatrical distribution in the U. S. This schlock-doc consists mainly of talking-heads footage of inarticulate prostitutes and is aimed at curiosity seekers interested in taking a peek inside a legalized whorehouse and snickering at the lowlife people on display.
Novelty value of directors Nick Broomfield (who did a nice job last time out with Joan Churchill on doc "Soldier Girls") and Sandi Sissel's project is nil, since the exact same territory was assayed in the mid-1970s in Robert Guralnick's "Mustang: The House that Jack Built", filmed at a more famous Nevada brothel which is briefly alluded to by one of the prosties here. Major difference between the two docs is that Guralnick included nudity, while Broomfield and Sissel's chaste approach makes the goings-on behind closed doors as cryptic as can be.
Slackly edited, "Ranch" makes the pretense of an "invisible camera", observing the prostitutes coming out for the repetitive ritual of selection by geek-esque customers, their chatty personal anecdotes, views of a tough-as-nails manageress barking orders, and comical footage of the pompous owner, whose sentimental Thanksgiving Dinner speech sounds as if it were written by Prof. Irwin Corey.
Since the directors make the basic mistake of assuming the camera's presence will not affect the subject being observed, it is not surprising that much of the doc seems like an inept home movie, with the women engaging in childish horseplay on their off-hours, and pouring out bitter, man-hating banalities during group discussion sessions. Even the "johns" (customers) come off as false, obviously aware they are being photographed except for a group of Japanese tourists who are here callously treated as figures of fun.
Self-congratulatory finale to this ephemeral opus has the owner ordering the filmmakers to surrender their film and stop shooting when he catches them lensing footage of one of the prostitutes angrily packing to leave after she has quit/been fired due to a disagreement with the boss ove payment for services. He threatens to sue, the film ends, but Broomfield and Sissel have their film for exhibition including the disputed sequence. Big deal.
Filmed last year at a Nevada brothel, "Chicken Ranch" is a tedious, ill-conceived cinema verite exercise made to fill time on British tv, and, as is increasingly the case with UK tube product of late, acquired for theatrical distribution in the U. S. This schlock-doc consists mainly of talking-heads footage of inarticulate prostitutes and is aimed at curiosity seekers interested in taking a peek inside a legalized whorehouse and snickering at the lowlife people on display.
Novelty value of directors Nick Broomfield (who did a nice job last time out with Joan Churchill on doc "Soldier Girls") and Sandi Sissel's project is nil, since the exact same territory was assayed in the mid-1970s in Robert Guralnick's "Mustang: The House that Jack Built", filmed at a more famous Nevada brothel which is briefly alluded to by one of the prosties here. Major difference between the two docs is that Guralnick included nudity, while Broomfield and Sissel's chaste approach makes the goings-on behind closed doors as cryptic as can be.
Slackly edited, "Ranch" makes the pretense of an "invisible camera", observing the prostitutes coming out for the repetitive ritual of selection by geek-esque customers, their chatty personal anecdotes, views of a tough-as-nails manageress barking orders, and comical footage of the pompous owner, whose sentimental Thanksgiving Dinner speech sounds as if it were written by Prof. Irwin Corey.
Since the directors make the basic mistake of assuming the camera's presence will not affect the subject being observed, it is not surprising that much of the doc seems like an inept home movie, with the women engaging in childish horseplay on their off-hours, and pouring out bitter, man-hating banalities during group discussion sessions. Even the "johns" (customers) come off as false, obviously aware they are being photographed except for a group of Japanese tourists who are here callously treated as figures of fun.
Self-congratulatory finale to this ephemeral opus has the owner ordering the filmmakers to surrender their film and stop shooting when he catches them lensing footage of one of the prostitutes angrily packing to leave after she has quit/been fired due to a disagreement with the boss ove payment for services. He threatens to sue, the film ends, but Broomfield and Sissel have their film for exhibition including the disputed sequence. Big deal.