Death Race 2000 (1975)
Genre: Action | Sci-Fi | Sport | Dystopian
Country: USA | Director: Paul Bartel
Language: English | Subtitles: English (Optional, embedded in mkv file)
Aspect ratio: Widescreen 1.85:1 | Length: 79mn
Bdrip H264 Mkv – 1280×720 – 23.98fps – 1.89gb
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072856/
Audio 2: Commentary with Assistant Director
Lewis Teague and Editor Tina Hirsch
Audio 3: Commentary with with
Roger Corman and Actress Mary Woronov
In the Dystopian future of 2000 various race car drivers participate in a no-holds-barred cross country competition in which points are scored by running over pedestrians. Weary reigning champion Frankenstein (excellently played with perfect stoical cynicism by David Carradine) is bound and determined to win. Vicious 30’s mobster-style rival “Machine Gun” Joe Viterbo (a pre-stardom Slyvestor Stallone gleefully sending up his own macho musclehead persona) gives Frankenstein a major run for his money. Meanwhile, a group of political activists try to stop the race and overthrow the current totalitarian government.
Director Paul Bartel brings his customary wickedly warped and engagingly loopy tongue-in-cheek sensibility to the gloriously crazy premise, maintains a brisk pace throughout, and delivers plenty of over-the-top gory carnage and a pleasing smattering of tasty female nudity.
The fiercely barbed and acidic script by Robert Thom and Charles B. Griffith pokes spot-on subversive fun at fascist politicians, cruelty as entertainment, inept revolutionaries, mindless fan worship, the duplicitous and manipulative media (all the resistance army’s attacks are blamed on the French!), and America’s wholehearted affinity for extreme violence.
The first-rate B-flick cast play the darkly humorous material with tremendous lip-smacking gusto: the delectable Simone Griffeth as Frankenstein’s luscious navigator Annie Smith, Mary Woronov as sassy’n’sexy cowgirl Calamity Jane, the always delightful Roberta Collins as fiery Swastika sweetheart Matilda the Hun (“Blitzkrieg!”), Martin Kove as the vain, preening, and effeminate Nero the Hero, Don “The Real” Steele as obnoxious reporter Junior Bruce, Joyce Jameson as obsequious commentator Grace Pander, Louisa Moritz as the ditsy Myra, Harriet Medin as passionate old lady resistance leader Thomasina Paine, and Sandy McCallum as the smarmy Mr. President. Moreover, this movie offers a wealth of choice sidesplitting campy and occasionally downright bizarre moments: skinny Carradine giving brawny Stallone a severe clobbering, a heated catfight between Matilda the Hun and Calamity Jane, Calamity Jane facing off with a matador, a devout female admirer willingly sacrificing herself for Frankenstein, a bunch of greasers playing a dangerous game of chicken, and Viterbo mowing down his own pit crew.
Tak Fujimoto’s bright cinematography gives the picture an impressive polished look. Paul Chihara’s funky jazzoid score hits the right-on groovy spot. Plus you gotta love a film with the astonishing audacity to kill off both a priest and the President of the United States. Totally worthy of its substantial cult status.
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