THE VIOLENT YEARS

Paula Parkins, the spoiled daughter of well-to-do newspaper-editor Carl and socialite Jane, gets her kicks by organizing and directing a gang of bored young women like herself. The gang's core members -- besides Paula -- are Georgia, Phyllis, and Geraldine ("George", "Phil", and "Gerry" for short). The gang dresses in men's attire, robs gas stations, and terrorizes habitués of a local lovers' lane...even raping a young gentleman (off-camera) after tying up his girlfriend.

Paula obtains inside information, from her father, regarding police plans to capture her gang; thus, ironically, the girls avoid capture with Carl's unwitting complicity. After a make-out party with local gangsters, Paula and Company agree to wreck classrooms — and destroy the American flag — at a local public high school, at the behest of crime boss Sheila. (The film implies that Sheila is in league with the Communist Party and their anti-American movement.) The girls perform said job with gleeful competence until the police arrive and a deadly shootout takes place. Gerry and Phil are fatally shot while fleeing the wrecked school; Paula herself guns down one of the cops. Seeking refuge from the police, George and Paula return to Sheila's, where they report their wrecking of the school. But Sheila, who never had any intention of paying the girls, attempts to have them arrested as "loose ends"; as she reaches for the phone, Paula shoots and kills her. A highway patrolman notices the girls driving Sheila's car and wearing clothes from her wardrobe. In the heat of the ensuing car chase, the girls crash their car through a store's plate-glass window; George is killed and Paula is hospitalized. Because Paula is a minor and therefore ineligible for the death penalty, the judge sentences her to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. However, Paula gets a reprieve of sorts...dying from the complications of giving birth to a child she accidentally conceived during her make-out party with Sheila's fellow mobsters. The judge who delivered Paula's conviction also denies Jane and Carl custody of their granddaughter, based on the neglectful way they raised Paula.

The cynical tag line "So what?" is used repeatedly by the girls to underscore their uncaring, nihilistic attitude.