Death Race 2000 (1975)

No doubt about it, Death Race 2000 is one of the greatest B-movies ever made. A crown jewel in the career of B-movie king Roger Corman, it's a sublime example of exploitative filmmaking from a time when Corman's low-budget quickies were about to be swept aside by the blockbuster success of Jaws and Star Wars, and all of its outrageous ingredients combined to create a schlock-movie masterpiece. Liberally infused with director Paul Bartel's macabre sense of humor, Corman's mandatory formula for success (R-rated violence and nudity, served up at least once every 15 minutes) is zanily applied to a near-future scenario (similar to Rollerball, also released in 1975) in which a fascist empire appeases its oppressed citizens with "Death Race 2000," an automotive spectacle in which five costumed racers drive wacky race cars cross-country from New York to "New Los Angeles," scoring points with hit-and-run killings awarded on a sliding scale, with highest points for hitting children and the elderly! In addition to "Calamity Jane" (played by former Andy Warhol acolyte Mary Woronov), "Matilda the Hun" (Roberta Collins), and "Nero the Hero" (Martin Kove), the hottest contestants are "Machine Gun" Joe Viturbo (Sylvester Stallone, on the verge of Rocky stardom) and the reigning champion "Frankenstein" (David Carradine), whose "Death Race" prowess has reached near-mythic proportions.

Filmed for $300,000 on desert-road and freeway locations throughout California's San Fernando Valley, Death Race 2000 packs more entertainment into 78 minutes than most movies can muster in two hours or more. Although it originated as a serious short story by Ib Melchior (best known as the writer-director of The Angry Red Planet), Corman took a cue from Dr. Strangelove and gave the material a satirical spin, resulting in non-graphic road-kills that are more hilarious than horrific, especially with the play-by-play race commentary by legendary disc jockey "The Real Don Steele," whose priceless performance (along with Carradine's deadpan drollery) turns Death Race 2000 into a low-comedy classic. The deadly car bodies were designed by Dean Jeffries (who also customized the "Monkeemobile") and fitted onto Volkswagen chassis, and Bartel's ingenious use of a meager budget epitomized the Corman aesthetic, reaping impressive box-office profits on its way to becoming one of the most beloved cult classics of all time. --Jeff Shannon Amazon.com

power of positive destruction

Even though this movie is many years old, its popularity still is as strong as ever. Even the youth of today know this movie wit ever point game they play. What this movie shows is that change doesn't have to come from the enemy but it can arrive from the hero who wants it.
Deathrace shows the love affair that we have for the auto and the great lengths we go to show it. If I could I would have every car shown in this movie built and given to the people who drove them just to say "Thank You." July 1, 2008

Cult Classics

The movie was very well done for its time. It seemed it was a very low budget movie but it proved that even with a low budget there can still be good movies. Havinf david carradine be the "hero" of the movie was very strange but also ver facsinating. I am surprised to see a movie that sylvester stallone actually dies. I wasnt going to say much, but this is my last thing. I am glad that they are making not so popular mpvie like Death Race 2000 into a UMD. That part is realy cool. May 21, 2008

A Wicked National Sport: Bodycount-Scores and Passion for Speed and Violence.

This prophetic, humurous, and cynical abstraction of American car racing sports events combined with a taste of strong social critics and media satire, offers a surprisingly effective and well done mix of extreme violence, gore, sex, and dark comedy, all the most impressive given its modest budget. The very formula of a Cult classic film, "Death Race 2000" is the kind of bad B-movie that is so entertaining, we can't help to enjoy its weirdness and bad taste, chewing every delicious piece of this campy Sci-Fi action satire cake.

As the very precursor of the 1987 feature "The Running Man" , this 1975 masterpiece in action and speed was director Paul Bartel's most influential and polemic description and vision of American society back in those days: In a not so distant future, the United States has become a totalitarian regime overseen by the sinister and charismatic Mr. President, who in order to satisfy the masses's hunger for entertainment and thirst for violence, has created a new National Sport: The Death Race: a nationwide road rally in wich the winner is determined by who scores the more points along the way by running over distracted pedestrians.

The contestants for this atrocity made sport, rank among the most hilarious cult characters ever created for such an oddball and peculiar film: Italian thug "Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo (Sylvester Stallone in a perfect role, between porn and Rocky), cowgirl Calamity Jane (played by cult icon Mary Woronov),arrogant muscle-head Nero the Hero (Martin Kove), and Nazi party supporter Matilda the Hun (Roberta Collins), have accepted the challenge to conquer the throne dominated by the most eccentric character, Champion, deadly speed-driver and national hero "Frankenstein" (B-movie veteran David Carradine making a break from the Kung Fu TV series), a half man-half machine built to be the best racer on earth. Adding to this outrageous competition, Revolutionary leader Thomasina Paine looks to sabotage the event in order to restore democracy, trying to destroy the racers and their built-for-kill speeding machines with traps and set-ups.

Satirizing the blood lust of extreme sports and focusing on the TV shows encouraging the audiences for more, this grim and quirky visual work manages to keep the viewer out of these today's realities, because of the whole new light atmosphere created to portray this absurd futuristic dystopia. The stereotyped odd characters from every corner of insanity, the obssesive quest for glory and the lost of the human's life value, are far more shocking situations in this movie than the cultural critic implied. Needles to say, the movie's aesthetics look cheap and not totally credible, adding more fun to the experience and substracting sobriety, gravity and of course, responsability out of the main argument.

This movie easily ranks among the most famous and funny cult films ever made. The obvious flaws became the movie's signature, like the "Frankenstein" disguise (an outfit between El Zorro and Darth Vader) and other production's bloopers and misscalculations, that turned this film in true Cult-Icon in bizarre and demented filmaking.

This DVD edition is the most complete and recommended, Uncut version with decent picture and sound quality, the extra material is the most complete available, and of course, the content is just one of the most entertaining and rare movies ever made. Join the most extravagant ride of your filmic life, a movie that deserves its place in cheap-cinema history, as one of the best acomplished B-productions and the most lavish and intense vision of a speed circuit with no restrains. An apocalyptic race from hell.


May 19, 2008

Just as I remebered It.

Seen this in the drive in when it first came out.
Watched it with my 15yr old son who agreed even though the special effects were lame and the acting wasn't anybodys best,this is still a great movie with some very funny moments in it.
April 13, 2008

Death Race 2000 Movie for the year 2000

At first, I picked up Death Race 2000 because it was crunch time at my corporate job and I wanted to watch a movie that I can relate to, and TNT was not showing it. Amazon came to the rescue and I found an inexpensive copy. I watched Death Race 2000 and was not the least disappointed. Sly Stallone is top notch in this film. David Carradine is solid too and really exemplifies the machine that can be created when man is molded by a corporation. Roger Corman gives me hope with his modest budget and creative storytelling. As an action movie, Death Race 2000 is exciting and as social commentary it is a soild blow to the titans that currently run the world one Starbucks at a time. April 5, 2008

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