Tura!

Super fans of the film, like John Waters, speak in the doc about how hard Satana’s performance swirled their twirl. Other guests like Dita Von Teese speak about the burlesque scene that Satana existed in. Jarrett did an amazing job wrangling all the history together and sets the pace on drag race speed. There is also a lot of focus on how she changed the perception of Asian-American females, giving them an early power figure from unexpected places in film.

“…sets the pace on drag race speed.”

I thought I knew a lot about Satana, but Tura! revealed to me that I barely knew the tiniest tip of her little finger. Most of what I know was her influence on female punk music, like The Cramps, a band that was also super fans of Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! I had no idea about her almost being raped to death as a child. By opening with this heinous act, Jarrett sets the context for the entire documentary. He also engages the audience in rooting for Satana to triumph against the rawest deal of all time. That emotional investment is richly rewarded by the director with one major revelation after another.

I had no idea about the whole Elvis thing. Or the Tony Bennett business. The biggest pay-off, finding out that she hunted down and broke each of her child rapists, is the most satisfying in a purely exploitative film reaction to well-done vigilantism. The specifics are not gone into, most likely because it all was way f*****g illegal, and the less said the better. The exact details of this revenge hunt would make a great documentary or feature film on its own, as the records of the lifelong injuries sustained wouldn’t be that hard to hunt down. Tura! is the exact kind of immortalization Satana deserves, a shrine to sexy power that will break you in half.