Give us your anime, your horror films, and your B-films, and without a doubt, we will watch them. These are the cornerstones of DVD reviews for us, and while we all have our film forte, I think all of us here can agree on one thing; we truly do love B-films. It really can’t be helped, there’s just something about a B-film that makes it fun to watch, and now what is arguably one of the greatest B-films has become available on DVD: Death Race 2000.

Almost six years ago . . . . ummmmm . . . . I mean, in the year 2000, driving is still a national pastime, but in quite a different way. It was been some 20 years since a great economic collapse and America has become the equal to a dictatorship under the leadership of a man simply known as Mr. President (Sandy McCallum.) To appease American’s the government has created the Transcontinental Race, a marathon that takes drivers from New York City to New Los Angeles, but crossing the finish line first isn’t the only way to win. Racer score points for slaughtering pedestrians.

The carnage though must end, and a group of rebels is determined to bring America back to its glory days. They have put one of their own members, Annie Smith (Simone Giffeth) into the race as the navigator for the nation’s favorite, Frankenstein (David Carradine.) Little to they know that their target has plans of his own that might change the direction of the nation.

It’s amazing the types of films that could be made in 1975, low budget or otherwise, and although Death Race 2000 is filled with satire and humor, in watching it again (it’s been a number of years since I last watched the film) I got some great laughs but realized that in this day and age, this movie would probably NEVER be made. Although it’s not as violent as some other films from the 70’s, and A Clockwork Orange still tops my list as one of the most graphic and brutal films from the decade that will more than likely never see a remake, DR2K is over-the-top in such a way that most would stay clear of backing in into today’s cinema. Having a movie on the market where you get points for killing pedestrians, including the elderly and young children, isn’t exactly the type of thing you want to submit to the MPAA for ratings approval.

In the 70’s though, there were A LOT of racing or car films made. The Love Bug films, Smokey and the Bandit, Scavenger Hunt, Two-Lane Blacktop and a number of other movies all appeared in the decade, but Death Race 2000 took things in a much different direction. Again, this is satire, and that’s what people didn’t understand at the time, though today it’s much more acknowledged. This would also be the film that would introduce many to Sylvester Stallone, and although he’s been in other movies prior to this, DR2K was one of the first that really put him at the front of the action as the nemesis Machine Gun Joe, a gangster type character who wants to make a big name for himself on the track.

It’s not just satire that’s found here though, but DR2K has a great sense of almost cartoon like violence and presence. All of the characters have some quirky theme about them. Calamity Jane and her navigator go for a Wild West look while Nero has a more Greek approach. You’ll even find the resistance members trying to throw the drivers off course by creating a detour that runs into a mock tunnel that takes them off a cliff. If this wasn’t inspired by the old Roadrunner and Wiley Coyote cartoons, I don’t know what is. The acting might be bad, I’m still trying to figure out just exactly what “To everyone else you might be cute but to me you’re just a big, baked potato” means, but the camera work and filming are surprisingly great for when the movie was made. Oh, and you have Carradine running around as the equivalent of a bondage super-hero to add to the comedy of the film. His performance much of the time is overdramatic, adding another bad quality into the film to make it entertaining. You also have blood that looks more like paint that anything else, so score another point on the “cheese meter.” But, you can’t help but love it.

A bit of trivia: the film actually spawned an arcade game that was soon banned from arcades. Why? It was too violent. If only the public could have foreseen the coming of games like Grand Theft Auto; it would have made running over stick figures seem innocent and harmless.

There really isn’t much for extra material on the disc, but it doesn’t matter, it’s still a great film no matter how bad it is. The original theatrical trailer is included as well as commentary with Roger Corman and Mary Woronov (Calamity Jane.) I guess for some odd reason Stallone and Carradine were far too busy to help out. Yeah, I would assume making yet another Rocky film and a Rambo sequel to appease the masses could tie anyone up. There’s a brief making of featurette, but this is more or less a “look back” sequence.

Death Race 2000 is by no means a great film, but it was never meant to be. This is the type of movie that drinking games are based around and one that is fun to sit back, laugh at, and have a great time with. DR2K has also gone beyond just being a B-movie and really has earned the right to be considered a cult classic. Forget about movies like The Fast and the Furious, THIS is the ultimate in racing action combined with senseless violence and, my dear friends, the points you’ll scoring for adding this gem into your DVD collection are immeasurable.
 

-mike-

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