MovieChat Forums > The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982) Discussion > I felt most sorry for the prostitutes

I felt most sorry for the prostitutes

posted 17 years ago by texan_176
14 replies | jump to latest

The focus of the story is mostly around the sheriff and Ms. Mona as pertaining to how they have known e/o for over 12 years but he can't come to say "I love you" and she thinks it will never work because of who they both are in society.

Dolly and Burt are what sold movie tickets and this is understandable but the women who worked in the home had some of the best music and dance sequences. Although not a single one of them has much of a role in the film with character development I thought they were the ones most deserving of the viewer getting a lump in the throat when they sing "Hard Candy Christmas".

Anyone else feel bad for the women?

Technically the movie has a happy ending but like the deputy turned sheriff says "It was the end of an era".

On a side note:
This movie captures what people really looked like in the 80s in TX. I visited the capitol building as a kid in the mid 80s and having seen this movie some 20-25 years later it just hit me like a ton of bricks "Wow...I was there around the time this was made and it looked like that".

[–] Carrigon 17 years ago

I thought the ending was awful for the women. Where were these girls supposed to go? Most of them probably had no training or skills to get real jobs anywhere. And that place was probably the only home and family they had ever known. I can't even imagine where they would all have ended up. And it probably wouldn't have been very good ends for them. If you have no skills, no place to go, probably not alot of money since it all went to Miss Mona and the house. Alot of these girls would have ended up walking the streets somewhere and seriously having terrible ends. In that way, I hated the ending.

[–] skydvr38 17 years ago

You should see the Broadway show...the story focuses on women and NOT the lovestory between Mona and the sheriff, a big mistake to go that direction if you ask me, but I suppose they needed to pump up Burt's role

[–] moviegeek71 16 years ago

I thought the ending was awful for the women. Where were these girls supposed to go?

Those women were liberated.

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"If I've never seen it before, it's a new release to me."

[–] przgzr 16 years ago

Wow, this is what our third-world politicians should tell people who lose their jobs by thousands each day... Hey, be happy, you are liberated! You can thank us for being unable to keep the economy working, unable to protect you from employers (who fired - sorry, liberated you - because of the laws that either stimulated hiring new workers (after firing old ones) or simply made the whole firm impossible to keep on market, unable to do anything to diminish the effect of crisis... but vote for us on next elections, we have liberated you from your job, your incomes, your life prospects.

When communists took power after WWII in Eastern Europe, each of those people have been told that they are liberated. And then nationalization, expropriation, taking land for collectivization (kolkhoz system), banning of religion etc started... so when the "liberation anniversaries" used to be celebrated, many people would say "yes, they have liberated us from everything good".

But it seems that this liberation system wasn't limited to communists.

[–] taylorje 16 years ago

Where did they go? Why, they ran for public office and ended up as governors!

[–] lvanett2 15 years ago

Did the real girls (not the movie ones) finish college or feel sad to go? The girls didn't look college age to me, some looked like they were older than that.

[–] edgein15 15 years ago

The women ended up here:

http://www.stpaul.gov/index.aspx?nid=2351

Pretty glamorous life, if you ask me.

[–] jefgg 12 years ago

The movie still managed to glamorize the institution of prostitution. Working for Miss Mona at the Chicken Ranch was better than walking the streets, but it was still having sex for money. I don't condone prostitution but think it should be legal. If a woman wants to sell her body that is her business.

[–] timlin-4 12 years ago

More glamorous than playing football and retiring with a skull full of mush.

[–] jefgg 12 years ago

American society holds football players in high regard. That can not be said for prostitutes. The football players in "Best Little Whorehouse" were in college. Most college football players don't make it to the pros. But there is still some risk of serious head injury. I think players who compete in the pros for many years are at a much greater risk of serious brain injury.

What about AIDS? I think STDs were only mentioned once briefly in the beginning of the movie. Soap and water don't do much to prevent STDs.

[–] timlin-4 12 years ago

AIDs didn't exist in the 70s. I don't know how bad STDs were back then, but having to drive to work is probably a bigger health risk.

[–] jefgg 12 years ago

AIDS was first recognized by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 1981. "The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas" was written in 1978. Syphilis and Gonorrhea were common in the '70s. Back then they were called VD, not STDs. In the '80s first genital herpes and then AIDS emerged into the public consciousness as STDs that could not be cured by modern medicine.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] jefgg 11 years ago

I thought it stunk for the employees that the Chicken Ranch was open on Thanksgiving. Note to self, don't become a hooker. But the gals appeared to relaxing watching the Texas-Texas A&M football game and not working. Maybe they did not have anywhere to go for the holidays. That is a little sad. There is always a place at my Thanksgiving table for a lonely hooker. They probably have some great stories to share, but a lot of them might not be appropriate for the whole family.