Death Race 2000 (1975) New World/Action-Sci-Fi RT: 78 minutes Rated R (graphic violence, language, brief nudity) Director: Paul Bartel Screenplay: Robert Thom and Charles B. Griffith Music: Paul Chihara Cinematography: Tak Fujimoto Release date: April 27, 1975 (US) Cast: David Carradine, Sylvester Stallone, Simone Griffeth, Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins, Martin Kove, Louisa Moritz, The Real Don Steele, Joyce Jameson, Carle Bensen, Sandy McCallum, Paul Laurence, Harriet Medin, Vince Trankina, Bill Morey, Fred Grandy, William Shephard, Leslie McRay, Jack Favorite. Box Office: N/A
Rating: ****
Death Race 2000 is pure junk and knows it. It doesn’t try to be anything more than a silly B-movie with lots of gratuitous violence and cheesy special effects. The action centers on a cross-country road race where drivers earn points for running people over. It sounded great to me the first time I heard of it. I was 12 and didn’t have cable TV. One of my classmates told me about it. I finally got to feast my eyes on the carnage when I rented it about five years later.
In the year 2000, the country has become a fascist police state called the United Provinces. The President always seems to be staying in one of his houses outside the country. Every year, the people look forward to the deadly Transcontinental Road Race. It works like this. Drivers in high-powered cars race across the country, picking up points for hitting and killing innocent pedestrians. Women are worth 10 points more than men in all age brackets. Teens are worth 40 points, children under 12 are 70 points and senior citizens over 75 a big 100 points. Obviously, it’s a means of population control created by the totalitarian government.
The drivers have names like Nero the Hero (Kove, The Karate Kid), Matilda the Hun (Collins, The Big Doll House) and Calamity Jane (Woronov, Get Crazy). The champ is a black-clad chap called Frankenstein (Carradine, Kung Fu), reportedly a deformed mess of transplanted limbs and burnt skin. He’s considered a national hero. His arch-rival is Machine Gun Joe (pre-Rocky Stallone), a Chicago gangster-type determined to beat Frankenstein.
Meanwhile, there’s a resistance group led by Tomasina Paine (Medin, Blood and Black Lace) that wants to put a stop to the barbaric sport. Frankenstein’s navigator Annie (Griffeth, Hot Target), great-granddaughter to Paine, is supposed to lead him into a trap where he will be replaced by a member of the Resistance. They start taking down drivers one at a time; the President blames it on the French (they’re also the ones who destroyed the country’s economy and telephone system).
Death Race 2000 slows down a bit when the drivers make their 12-hour pit stops in St. Louis and Albuquerque, giving hero (Frankenstein) and nemesis (Machine Gun Joe) ample opportunity to sneer at each another. It’s during one these stopovers that Frankenstein reveals his true purpose for winning the race. He has a good reason for wanting to shake the President’s hand.
People will likely watch Death Race 2000 to see people getting run over by savage-looking race cars, some of which have blades affixed to the front. All the better to impale their human targets with. Although the violence can be quite graphic, like the guy that gets his head crushed, the makers aren’t taking any of it seriously. Come on, it’s a low-budget B-movie from schlockmeister Roger Corman. When has he ever been serious? He might hint at serious themes, but he’s more interested in showing audiences a good time in the cheapest possible way.
Some will invariably cite that year’s Rollerball, another movie dealing with a brutal futuristic sport, as the better film. I suppose it’s true if you’re talking about a violent sport as metaphor for futuristic society-type movie. Director Paul Bartel (Eating Raoul) doesn’t have such high aspirations for Death Race 2000. You simply can’t judge it like you would other movies. It’s a total goof from start to finish. Details like script and acting don’t matter. It’s a simplistic dystopian sci-fi flick with cheap sets and special effects. The cast is in on the joke; you can see it in their campy performances. Besides, it’s always fun to see Carradine in action. He’s one of the hammiest actors I’ve ever seen. Sly keeps up with his co-star in this area slice for slice.
Death Race 2000 has intentional humor as well like the smiling reporter (Steele, Rock ‘n’ Roll High School) cheerfully giving a play-by-play account of all the bloody mayhem. I also found it funny that the clothes worn by people in 2000 are straight out of the mid-70s. You gotta love the reporter’s neck scarf.
I’m not going to lie and say Death Race 2000 is quality cinema. It most definitely is NOT! It’s a bargain basement production all the way, a given when Roger Corman is involved. It’s also a lot of good warped fun. Bartel finds the right groove and just runs with it. It’s so dumb, it’s brilliant. It wears its B-movie distinction like a badge of honor. And why shouldn’t it? It accomplishes exactly what it sets out to do. You can’t fault a movie for that, right?
