Death Race 2000

1975's DEATH RACE 2000 is a prototype of sorts for 1970s drive-in movies.  It is one of producer Roger Corman's best known features, and reminded me how savvy B-movies were back in the day.  You may have heard about Corman's formula - it didn't matter what the film was about, or what the director wanted to do, as long as the requisite elements of nudity and violence were packaged within.  The violence tended to make sense in the storylines of films like BIG BAD MAMA and THE LADY IN RED while the nude scenes felt random and gratuitous.  But of course.  

So goes DEATH RACE 2000, a sci-fi actioner that takes places in the titular year, long after the United States fell victim to a "world crash", leaving it in social and economic dire straits and ruled by martial law.  The annual Transcontinental Road Race is embraced by citizens as perhaps a vicarious outlet for their pent up barbarism, fueled by a totalitarian government.  The racers sport colorful personas and have long knives and teeth replicas mounted on their vehicle's grills.  They score points by running down pedestrians.  Infants and the elderly yield the highest. 

Sounds sick, but director Paul Bartel and screenwriters Robert Thom and Charlkes B. Griffith are more interested in satire than cheap, sadistic grindhouse.   The knowing, prescient script imagines a future in which the population is brain dead and obsessed with violence.  Rebels who cite eighteenth century war hero Thomas Paine as they seek to sabotage the race.  To wit, the resistance is led by his descendent, Thomasina Paine.  To call the writing "clever" is fair.  "Brilliant" would be wildly overstating it. 

But exploitation films from this era were much smarter than the later schlock.  Many also had a refreshing sense of humor.  Some of the comedy in DEATH RACE 2000 is fairly dark - my favorite was the nursing home scene, which takes a welcome left, er right, turn.  But there's also plenty of broad yuks, mainly from none other than a pre-ROCKY Sylvester Stallone as Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, an obnoxious, sexist boar who is the second best racer.  Right behind Frankenstein (David Carradine), whose entire body has been wrecked and rebuilt in his racing career.

Much of the cast will be familiar to Corman fans, and all the women lose their tops at least once.  This includes the ubiquitous Mary Woronov, for whom I've always had this odd fascination.  A young John Landis appears as an unfortunate pit crew mechanic and Fred Grandy, later "Gopher" on The Love Boat plays Nazi navigator Herman the German alongside his boss, Matilda "The Hun" (Roberta Collins).  Famous Los Angeles disc jockey "The Real Don Steele" plays Junior Bruce, the too enthusiastic race announcer. 

No one would ever mistake Bartel for a skilled director but he frames this all fairly well.  He gets the tone just right.  The stunt work is acceptable and those cars are amusing.  The moments of gore are very brief and sufficiently fake looking.   Too bad he couldn't stage a fistfight to save his life.  Maybe he should've asked his DP, the great Tak Fujimoto for some assistance.