Rating:
***/*****, or 7/10
Starring:
Sylvester Stallone, David Carradine, Simone Griffeth
Directed
by Paul Bartel
USA: New
World Pictures, 1975
Ah,
dystopian societies... If they're not engaged in brutalizing their own
population, they're exploring new avenues of keeping the crowd in
line by trite but true methods of 'panem et circenses', also guaranteeing
their own existence is kept in check by ruling through that most potent
combination of fear and wonder. Some form of gladiatorial event is
ever a popular choice, appealing to the
inhabitants of the totalitarian regime (or simply intimidating them) as well as to cinemagoers
around the globe who cannot help but be mesmerized by the ruthless
spectacle that ever delivers a paradoxical sense of blatant abjection and
undeniable attraction. While these days the rage consists of teenagers battling
each other to the death in fancy arenas, far more colourful and bizarre
forms of contest have been portrayed at the movies in earlier
decades. In 1975 Rollerball introduced spectators to the sport
of the same name, an odd combination between hockey and boxing, that
helped set new standards of onscreen violence. Capitalizing on the
advance press publicity for this film, producer Roger Corman wasn't
afraid to cannibalize the notion of 'blood sports' in order to
produce an exploitation film making use of similar themes, thereby taking advantage of the media interest
in the topic and subsequently beating Rollerball's theatrical release by a
mere two months. And so a cult hit was born with Death Race 2000.
As the
title successfully indicates, the premise of the movie revolves
around a lethal race set in the then futuristic sounding year 2000. After the merger of the
two major American political parties when the economy collapsed, a dictatorship runs the country
and the titular contest is used to keep the populace satiated, bound
to their television screens instead of giving them the opportunity to
go out and start plotting the government's downfall. Contestants
drive across the continent and win the race not only by driving
faster than their opponents but also by the number of accidental
bystanders they purposefully run down. Throwing out all morality,
killing kids and old folk scores you more points than hitting people
in their prime, as it's the utter depravity of the kill that
determines the number of points awarded. To make matters even more
interesting (and weird), each driver has a theme applied to their
car, so we witness zany cars in Roman, Western and gangster style
designs. Commentary on the race is given by the most obnoxious
sportscasters imaginable to enhance the viewer's general sense of
'what-the'f**k'. The most popular participants of the 2000 race are
Frankenstein (David Carradine, the world's most (in)famous autoerotic
asphyxiation victim) and Machine Gun Joe Viterbo (a pre-Rocky
Sylvester Stallone), both very able killer car drivers with little to
no compunctions about hitting pedestrians hard. Frankenstein however
finds himself caught in a ploy from a resistance movement to sabotage
the race and assassinate the president, but he holds his private
motives and political convictions (if any) as well. As the deplorable race progresses,
Frankenstein must both survive his race rivals and outwit political
insurgents who would abuse him as a puppet for their own shady
agenda.
As you
may have gathered, unlike Rollerball, Death Race 2000
has no pretensions of being a serious film, as it's more occupied
with satirizing the social mores and the role of the media than with
exploring the changing nature of violence in present day society; a major theme in the Seventies, as movies got increasingly
more bloody and gory and actual violent incidents were allegedly
inspired by such audiovisual fare, making society fear civilization
was rapidly spiralling out of control. Though a fair amount of blood and gore
(and nudity to top it off) is present in Death Race 2000, the
movie mostly feels like a comedy and wants to do just that, making
ample fun of people's projections of the future debasement of
political standards and the mental deterioration caused by the media
dumbing people down by pushing mindless drivel down their throats.
It's easy to read social commentary in this film, even though Corman
and the film's director Paul Bartel have no desire to come off as
overly political, instead opting only to make a simple fun and
ridiculous movie appealing to bored teenagers, appropriating themes and trends of the day just to
ensure the movie makes more money than it cost (always a specialty of
Corman's). Their intentions are adequately underscored by cheap
production design, cheesy oneliners and completely over-the-top
performances throughout the picture. With such ingredients and lack
of willful message, it's no surprise Death Race 2000 became a
smash cult hit, generating quite a profit from its obvious low budget
(only around 300,000 bucks). A remake (and two sequels to that) starring
Jason Statham would eventually follow, which traded in the good
humour for a much grittier and convincing look and cars and stuntsto match that actually delivered the spectacle dystopian society already
promised its audience three decades earlier.
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