Model Chris McCormack (Margaux Hemingway) is brutally raped by a teacher (Chris Sarandon) of her sister Kathy (Mariel Hemingway). He is brought to trial but goes totally free. He then rapes Kathy!Objectionable and sick rape film. This movie was advertised as an important drama dealing with rape. What it is is a badly written and (for the most part) badly acted drama. It purports to be sympathetic to the victim of the rape but shoves the scene in our face. To be totally honest however, Hemingway's acting is so bad in that sequence that it loses any real impact it might have had. The trial scenes were boring and predictable. And the movie just went too far when 15 year old Mariel is raped (thankfully that wasn't shown). I do admit though that it did lead to a great ending when Margaux grabs a gun and shoots Sarandon dead. But seriously--having a young girl raped is just revolting.Acting doesn't help. For instance, Margaux was no actress. She was certainly a beautiful woman (and an actual model I believe) but her acting left a lot to be desired. It lessens the film. Mariel was just OK but this was one of her first films. Sarandon does what he can as the rapist. He wasn't bad but the terrible script worked against him.I do remember hearing that at a screening of this back in 1976 some women stood up and cheered when Sarandon was killed so maybe this works for some people. I found this boring, simplistic and REALLY sick. A 1 all the way.

First, I *have* seen this movie. It's not a great movie (most movies aren't), but it seems to me that those making negative comments "protest too much". They were clever enough to avoid openly making a charge of "Political Correctness", but I strongly suspect that the real reason for the most negative comments is that those making them are livid that that *nasty* girl (an early "feminazi, no doubt) *dared* to take it upon herself to exact retribution, a retribution that was illegal, to be sure, but which was quite just as far as I'm concerned. No doubt there are plenty of people who are quite unpleased with the idea that a mere woman might hold a male (and a white male at that) accountable for his actions in such a drastic way.

was the music.The same music which stands for the 9 out of 10.The composer - Michel Polnareff - was new in the US at that time but enormously appreciated in homeland France and most of Europe. He was a very successful singer/songwriter and had written music for numerous movies, many of these were hits.The music he specifically composed for "Lipstick" was a statement and I regret that it was not recognized as such.He still lives in the US and occasionally "comes back" to his fans who always were there waiting and until now were never disappointed.They are still hoping for a real true come back in good old France though.LOEMOEMBA

******SPOILERS****** Even though the movie "Lipstick" was laughed and snickered at back in 1976 as a cheap exploitation flick about a serious subject by the critics back then. The movie holds up surprisingly well after some 30 years since it's release. Looking back we see that the film was far ahead of it's time from the way it told it's story without trying to sugar coat it. Even the ending was very, if not that realistic, uplifting for everyone in the movie and the audience with the exception of the unfortunate rapist. The movie makers of "Lipstick" chose to make the rape victim not that much of a sympathetic person as you normally would expect a movie about a rape victim. That was to show the audience that even a top fashion model who's used to exposing her body to the public and is anything but a Mother Teresa in her social life has as much right as a Cloister Nun to say no when she's put upon by someone and should have the same protection from the law and court system as well.Margaux Hemingway, Chris McCormick, is a top world fashion model who's little sister Kathy, Mariel Hemingway, is infatuated with her music teacher Gordon Stuart, Chris Sarandon. Kathy wants her big sister to hear a sample of Gordon's music and see what she thinks of it. Gordon meets Chris at a photo-shoot on the beach and she tells him to come to her apartment the next afternoon to hear a sample of his music. The next day when Gordon arrives he finds Chris scantily clothed, she just came out of the shower, and anything but shy about her appearance. Gordon thinking that Chris is easy and loose and from the photos in her apartment of her with a number of movie stars and other well known personalities feels that she made out with all of them so why not with him. Before you know it Gordon with very little urging on his part brutally attacks and rapes her.As Gordon has Chris tied down on her bed her sister Kathy enters the apartment and sees what's happening and gets sicken by it. Even though at the time it looked like Chris was not fighting Gordon off, she was too exhausted by then, Kathy believed her sister when she told her that he raped her. There's also the question about Gordon's music which Chris was anything but found off. I think that his music was as brutal to Chris' ears as his raping her was brutal to her body. That negative opinion of his musical talent on Chris' part somehow made Gordon feel insulted and set him off.Chris hurt and humiliated as well as having to have her little sister Kathy see what happened to her goes to woman advocate lawyer Caria Bondi, Anne Bancroft, to help in the state's case against the man who raped her Gordon Stuart. Caria is more then honest with Chris by telling her that if the case against Gordon is prosecuted by the state that Chris can expect to be raped all over again by Gordon's lawyer but this time in public not in private like she was raped by Gordon; and even after all that the odds of getting Gordon convicted is 98% against her. Chris took the case to court and Caria's prediction turns out to be sadly true. Gordon is found innocent of raping Chris. Honestly brutal movie not only about rape but what the stigma of what rape does to it's victims and just how hard it is to prosecute and convict an accused rapist in a court of law. Even though the movie has a very contrived ending when the rapist who got away with raping Chris and later also rapes her sister Kathy getting just whats coming to him. This happens when an enraged Chris blasts him to kingdom come with her trusty shotgun. Later in the movie her lawyer Claria Bondi evens thing out in court by getting Chris off for shooting him on a temporary insanity plea. The Movie "Lipstick" made it's point far better then most movies before or since about the same subject without being any more downbeat and pessimistic then it had to be.