Gang of Roses is a 2003 Western action drama film written and directed by Jean-Claude La Marre. The movie took just 18 days to film.
The film starts off with Left Eye Watkins and his gang attempting to bully Sheriff Shoeshine Michel into giving them gold and women. A female member of the gang is extremely enthusiastic about the women and sets out to rape a can-can girl in the middle of town. While resisting, the can-can girl cuts the female gang member who in turns shoots her in the middle of the road.
The can-can girl happens to be the sister of Rachel, the protagonist. Rachel, a religious, reformed bad girl, rounds up her former gang members to seek revenge. They are followed by a blacked haired lady who is also seeking revenge upon them.
Tropes used in Gang of Roses include:
- Amazon Brigade: Rachel used to lead an all-female gang of bank robbers. She reassembles the gang to aid her in her Roaring Rampage of Revenge.
- As the Good Book Says...: Rachel has found religion and takes her Bible with her on her Roaring Rampage of Revenge. At multiple times during the movie, she trots out an appropriate Bible verse.
- Attempted Rape: Little Suzie attempts to rape Rachel's sister. When the sister fights back, Suzie kills her instead.
- Bounty Hunter: Zhang Li became a bounty hunter after the gang split up. She agrees to join with Rachel to collect the bounties on Left Eye and his gang.
- The Cameo: Mario Van Peebles makes a cameo as his character Jesse Lee from Posse.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Chas is shot in the back by one of the bandits and falls to the street. Babyface rushes to her side and gathers her in his arms as she dies.
- Embarrassing Nickname: When one of the gang members calls Malone 'Babyface', Chas giggles. Malone heads off muttering something about it being a name from childhood that stuck.
- Eyepatch of Power: Left Eye Watkins, the leader of the gang that takes over Flat Ridge sports one. So do several members of the gang, and a few random townsfolk. When the girls arrive in town looking for a man in a eyepatch, they remark on the strange number of one-eyed men in town.
- Fingore: Getting tired of the sheriff's equivocation, Left Eye shoots one of his fingers off.
- Grave Robbing: Left Eye's gang spends a large amount of time digging up graves in the town's cemetery; looking for either the treasure or the map detailing its location.
- Guns Akimbo: Chas prefers to fight with a massive Hand Cannon in each hand. Zhang Li also does it, but only in the final fight where she is massively outnumbered.
- Gun Twirling: On occasion, both Rachel and Zhang Li twirl their pistols as they are returning them to their holsters. They never do it when drawing, however.
- Hanging Around: While Putting the Band Back Together, Rachel and the gang rescue Kim from a public hanging. The trapdoor has already been sprung and Kim is slowly strangling when Jesse Lee fires the bullet that severs the rope.
- Hat Damage: When Rachel's gang crashes Kim's Public Execution, the judge gets the hat shot off his head.
- Heel–Faith Turn: Rachel found God after a bank robbery went horribly wrong. She renounced crime and violence, laid aside her guns, and attempted to live a peaceful life.
- Human Notepad: It is eventually revealed that the sheriff has the second half of the treasure map tattooed on his chest.
- Improbable Aiming Skills: On display at multiple points. One particular example is during the rescue of Kim, where a gun belt gets shot off one of the deputies without harming him in any way.
- Lock-and-Load Montage: Rachel undergoes one as she takes her old outlaw gear out of storage and straps her guns back on in the first time in years.
- Minor Injury Overreaction: When Little Suzie attempts to rape Rachel's sister, the sister draws a knife and fights back. She nicks Suzie's face, leaving a small cut (and subsequent scar) under her eye. Suzie completely blows her cool and blows the girl's brains out
- My Greatest Failure: Rachel cannot forgive herself for the last bank robbery her gang pulled, which resulted in an innocent bystander being killed and her having (literal) blood on her hands.
- Not Staying for Breakfast: Johnny attempts to pull this on Chas. He also attempts to rob her in the process. Both decisions prove very unwise on his part.
- Pillow Pistol: When Johnny and Lou attempt to rob Chastity while she is sleeping, she suddenly sits up and produces two Hand Cannons from under the sheet, which she uses to shoot the two men dead.
- Psycho Lesbian: Little Suzie. When Left Eye mentions that Flat Ridge has two commodities in short supply in the west—gold and women—she is far more excited by the prospect of women than gold. Her first act after the gang take over the town is to drag a dancer out of the saloon and attempt to rape in the middle of the street.
- Public Execution: Rachel and the gang rescue Kim from a public hanging.
- Putting the Band Back Together: Rachel gathers together the old members of her outlaw gang to aid in her in her Roaring Rampage of Revenge after her sister is murdered.
- Quick Draw: Zhang Li is the quickest draw of any of Rachel's gang. In her establishing character scene, she outdraws three men and guns them down without batting an eyelash.
- Railing Kill: During the final shootout, Zhang Li shoots a man on a roof who topples over the railing and falls to the street.
- Really Gets Around: Chas. When Maria calls her on her boy crazy ways, Chas responds:"I feel about men like you feel about money. So many, so little time."
- Retired Gunslinger: Rachel hung up her guns when she found religion. She straps then back on when her sister is murdered.
- Retired Outlaw: Rachel is one at the start of the movie. She straps her guns back on when her sister is murdered.
- Revealing Injury: When Little Suzie attempts to rape Rachel's sister, she fights back and cuts Suzie under the eye. Suzie responds by shooting her. Rachel is later told she will recognize her sister's murderer by the scar under her eye.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: After her sister is killed by Little Suzie, Rachel renounces her pacifist ways and straps on her guns again to seek revenge.
- Roll in the Hay: Chas and Babyface have an assignation in the hayloft above the stable.
- Shoot the Rope: Rachel and her gang recruit Kim by riding into the town where she is scheduled to be publicly hanged. The trapdoor has already been sprung and Kim is slowly strangling when Jesse Lee fires the bullet that severs the rope.
- *Twang* Hello: When the sheriff is in the stable readying his horse in the stable, Maria throws a knife into the post beside his head. She then tells him that she missed on purpose.
