Death Race 2000 | |
---|---|
Directed by | Paul Bartel |
Screenplay by | Robert Thom Charles B. Griffith |
Based on | "The Racer" (1956 short story) by Ib Melchior |
Produced by | Roger Corman |
Starring | David Carradine Simone Griffeth Sylvester Stallone Louisa Moritz Don Steele |
Cinematography | Tak Fujimoto |
Edited by | Tina Hirsch |
Music by | Paul Chihara |
Production company | |
Distributed by | New World Pictures |
Release date |
|
Running time | 80 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $300,000–530,000 [1] [2] [3] |
Box office | $5–8 million [1] [3] |
Death Race 2000 is a 1975 American dystopian science-fiction action film directed by Paul Bartel and produced by Roger Corman for New World Pictures. [4] Set in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, the film centers on the murderous Transcontinental Road Race, in which participants score points by striking and killing pedestrians. David Carradine stars as "Frankenstein", the leading champion of the race, who is targeted by an underground rebel movement seeking to abolish the race. The cast also features Simone Griffeth, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov, Martin Kove, and Don Steele.
Noting the publicity surrounding the film Rollerball (1975), Roger Corman sought to develop his own futuristic sports action film, and optioned the rights to Ib Melchior's 1956 short story "The Racer". [5] Paul Bartel was hired to direct. The film was released on April 27, 1975. It initially received mixed critical reviews but was a considerable commercial success, grossing over $5 million from a sub-$1 million budget. [6]
In the years since its release, critics have praised the film's political and social satire, [7] and it has developed a strong cult following. [5] It spawned 2008 remake, entitled Death Race, and a 2017 sequel film, Death Race 2050 .
After the "World Crash of '79", massive civil unrest and economic ruin occurs. The United States government is restructured into a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government has created the Transcontinental Road Race, where a group of drivers race across the country in their high-powered cars and which is infamous for violence, gore, and innocent pedestrians being struck and killed for bonus points. In 2000, the five drivers in the 20th annual race, who all adhere to professional wrestling-style personas and drive appropriately themed cars, include Frankenstein, the mysterious black-garbed champion and national hero; Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, a Chicago gangster; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl; Matilda the Hun, a Neo-Nazi; and Nero the Hero, a Roman gladiator. Joe, the second-place champion, is the most determined of all to defeat Frankenstein and win the race.
A resistance group led by Thomasina Paine, a descendant of the 1770s American Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine, plans to rebel against the regime, currently led by a man known only as Mr. President, by sabotaging the race, killing most of the drivers, and taking Frankenstein hostage as leverage against Mr. President. The group is assisted by Paine's great-granddaughter Annie Smith, Frankenstein's navigator. She plans to lure him into an ambush in order to have him replaced by a double. Despite a pirated national broadcast made by Ms. Paine herself, the Resistance's disruption of the race is covered up by the government and instead blamed on the French, who are also blamed for ruining the country's economy and telephone system.
At first, the Resistance's plan seems to bear fruit: Nero the Hero is killed when a "baby" he runs over for points turns out to be a bomb, Matilda the Hun drives off a cliff while following a fake detour route set up by the Resistance, and Calamity Jane, who witnessed Matilda the Hun's death, inadvertently drives over a land mine. This leaves only Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe in the race. As Frankenstein nonchalantly survives every attempt made on his life during the race, Annie comes to discover that Frankenstein's mask and disfigured face are merely a disguise; he is, in fact, one of a number of random wards of the state who are trained exclusively to race under that identity, and each time they die or are brutally mutilated, they are secretly replaced so that Frankenstein appears to be indestructible.
The current Frankenstein reveals to Annie his own plan to kill Mr. President: when he wins the race and shakes hands with Mr. President, he will detonate a grenade which has been implanted in his prosthetic right hand. However, the plan goes awry when Machine Gun Joe attacks Frankenstein and Annie is forced to kill him using Frankenstein's "hand grenade". Having successfully outmaneuvered both the rival drivers and the Resistance, Frankenstein is declared the winner of the race, although he is wounded and unable to carry out his original "hand grenade" attack plan. Annie instead dons Frankenstein's costume and plans to stab Mr. President while standing in for him on the podium. Before she is able to do so, Thomasina shoots "Frankenstein", convinced that he killed Annie. The real Frankenstein takes advantage of the confusion and rams Mr. President's stage with his car, finally fulfilling his lifelong desire to kill him. Frankenstein becomes the new president, marries Annie and appoints Thomasina as the Minister of Domestic Security to rebuild the state and dissolve the dictatorship. Junior Bruce, the announcer of the Transcontinental Road Race, opposes the race's abolition and impertinently claims that the public needs performances of violence. Annoyed by his complaints, Frankenstein hits Bruce with his car and drives off with Annie to the cheers and applause of the crowd.
Roger Corman wanted to make a futuristic action sports film to take advantage of the advance publicity of Rollerball (1975). He optioned a short story by Ib Melchior, an associate from his American International Pictures days, and hired Robert Thom to adapt it. Director Paul Bartel felt this was unshootable, so Charles B. Griffith rewrote it. Corman referred to the original story treatment as overly-serious and "kind of vile", and reworked it to emphasize satire and camp. [8]
Bartel was hired off the basis of his second unit work on Big Bad Mama (1974), which Corman produced. In a 1982 interview, Bartel said: "Most of my guilty pleasures in this film were ripped out by the roots by Roger Corman before the film ever saw the light of day and substituted with crushed heads and blood squibs. Nevertheless, there is a joke about the French wrecking our economy and telephone system that I still find amusing. And I am pleased by the scene introducing the Girl Fan (played very effectively by my sister Wendy) who is to sacrifice herself beneath the wheels of David Carradine's race car and wants to meet him so that the gesture will have 'meaning'." [9]
Bartel later recalled: "We had terrible script problems; David had to finish his Kung Fu series before starting and we had bad weather. We all worked under terrible pressure. Roger and I had an essential disagreement over comedy. He took out a lot of the comedy scenes. He may have been right and was probably more objective." [1] At one point in production, Bartel and Carradine clashed enough where the director had thought of replacing Carradine with Lee Majors, although they eventually reconciled and had a bond enough to help influence the ending of the film. Corman disagreed with the idea envisioned by Bartel for the ending involving a running over of a reporter character because the producer thought "it would compromise the hero". Instead, Corman thought of an idea where the reporter is instead shot on the spot by FBI agents while Frankenstein makes light of such as "sort of irresponsible question" When it came time to film the ending, Bartel shot the ending seen in the final print without shooting the one envisioned by Corman because Carradine stated he "wasn't interested in fooling with the other one" so the two simply moved on. [10]
Corman wanted Peter Fonda to play the lead, but he read the script and said it was too ridiculous to make, so David Carradine was cast instead; Carradine wanted to take on a role that would make people think of him as more than just Caine on Kung Fu and give him a leg up on a movie career. Carradine was paid 10% of the film's gross. [3]
Sylvester Stallone was cast after Corman saw his performance in The Lords of Flatbush (1974). [8] Up until his star-making role in Rocky the following year, Death Race 2000 was the actor's highest-profile performance. [6] At Bartel's direction, Stallone rewrote much of his character's dialogue.
Shelley Winters turned down the role of Thomasina Paine. Character actress and dialect coach Harriet White Medin won the role after doing a pitch-perfect impression of Eleanor Roosevelt at an audition. [11]
Paul Bartel's sister Wendy appears as Laurie, the Frankenstein superfan who sacrifices herself to him.
Leslie McRay, who played Cleopatra, was originally offered the lead role of Annie, but she turned it down because she didn't want to perform nude.
Death Race 2000 was shot in locations around Southern California. Cinematographer Tak Fujimoto had previously shot Caged Heat for Corman.
Filming locations included the Chet Holifield Federal Building, the Pasadena Convention Center, Indiana Dunes National Park, and Angeles National Forest. The office complex of Los Angeles Center Studios doubled for "Mercy Hospital". The racetrack scenes were shot at the Ontario Motor Speedway in Ontario, California. The production could not afford large numbers of extras to play the bystanders, so the scenes were shot after an actual racing event.
Due to the film's low-budget, many scenes were shot on public roadways. [8] David Carradine and Sylvester Stallone performed most of their own driving stunts. [8] According to Corman, the custom-built cars were not street legal, and the stunt drivers refused to drive them where they could potentially be apprehended by police. [8] Meanwhile, Mary Woronov did not know how to drive a car, so her close-ups were shot with her car towed behind a flatbed truck. [8]
The score was written by composer Paul Chihara, his first time writing music for film. Critic Donald Guarisco described Chihara's score as "eclectic.... [mixing] jazz, symphonic, funk, prog and electronica elements to create a constantly-shifting musical background with a delightful retro-futurist feel". [12]
Shout! Factory released a Deluxe Edition DVD and Blu-ray on June 22, 2010, in Region 1/A. [13]
Previous video editions were released on VHS and DVD by Buena Vista Home Entertainment and New Concorde, among other studios. [14]
According to Variety , the film earned $4.8 million in rentals in the United States. [15] Another account says $5.25 million. [16]
Contemporary reviews were mixed. Lawrence Van Gelder of The New York Times wrote that the film had "nothing to say beyond the superficial about government or rebellion. And in the absence of such a statement, it becomes what it seems to have mocked—a spectacle glorifying the car as an instrument of violence." [17] Variety called the film "cartoonish but effective entertainment, with some good action sequences and plenty of black humor." [18] Richard Combs of The Monthly Film Bulletin wrote that the comic conceits were "too shaky to hold the movie together and tend to self-destruct some distance short of any pop allegory for America". [19] Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune gave the film one star out of four and wrote that it "may be the goofiest and sleaziest film I've seen in the last five years". [20] Tom Shales of The Washington Post praised the film as "one of the zippier little B pictures of the year", adding that "it is designed primarily as a spectacle of kinetic titillation, and on that level, it's a foregone smash hit". [21] Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times was also positive, calling it "a fine little action picture with big ideas" and finding Carradine "terrific" in his role. [22] In a February 2021 retrospective review, James Berardinelli gave the film 1 star out of 4; he said that it was similar to present-day releases by Blumhouse in that Roger Corman also made a lot of those types of low-budget horror/exploitation films and some were/are good but most are not, and simply summed up the 1975 film by calling it "bad". [23]
Roger Ebert gave the film zero stars in his review, deriding its violence and lamenting its appeal to small children. [24] However, during a review of The Fast and the Furious on Ebert & Roeper and the Movies , Ebert named Death Race 2000 as part of a "great tradition of summer drive-in movies" that embrace a "summer exploitation mentality in a clever way". [25] While Ebert hinted that he did not find the film as awful decades later as he did in 1975, he made it plain he would not alter or disavow his original zero-stars rating for it either. [26] [27] He also gave a scathing review of the 2008 reboot Death Race .
The film has garnered critical acclaim over the years, having a score of 82% on Rotten Tomatoes based on 39 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10, deeming it "fresh". The site's critical consensus states, "Death Race 2000 is a fun, campy classic, drawing genuine thrills from its mindless ultra-violence." [7]
The film has long been regarded as a cult hit [5] and was often viewed as superior to Rollerball , a much more expensive major studio drama released later in the same year; another dystopian science-fiction sports film similarly focusing on the use of dangerous sports as an "opiate" for the masses. [5]
The film is recognized by American Film Institute in these lists:
The 1982 video game Maze Death Race for ZX81 computers (and 1983 for ZX Spectrum) resembles the film by its cover artwork, title, and car-driving content. [29]
The Carmageddon video game series borrows heavily from the plot, characters and car designs from the film Death Race 2000. The original game was supposed to be a game based on the comic series in the 1990s, but the plans were later changed.
A comic book sequel series titled Death Race 2020 was published in April–November 1995 by Roger Corman's short-lived Roger Corman's Cosmic Comics imprint. It was written by Pat Mills of 2000 AD fame, with art by Kevin O'Neill (and additional art by Trevor Goring). Mills and O'Neill had already worked together on several comics, including Marshal Law . The comic book series, as the title indicates, takes place 20 years after the film ended and deals with Frankenstein's return to the race. New racers introduced here included Von Dutch, the Alcoholic, Happy the Clown, Steppenwolf, Rick Rhesus, and Harry Carrie.
The comic book series lasted eight issues before being canceled and the story was left unfinished at the end.
Paul W. S. Anderson directed a remake entitled Death Race , which was released August 22, 2008, starring Jason Statham. The remake began production in late August 2007. [30] Besides Statham, this new version also stars Ian McShane, Joan Allen, and Tyrese Gibson. [31] It also includes a cameo (by voice-over) of David Carradine, reprising his role of Frankenstein. Two direct-to-DVD prequels, titled Death Race 2 (2010) and Death Race 3: Inferno (2013), starring Luke Goss, Tanit Phoenix, Danny Trejo and Ving Rhames, and a direct-to-DVD sequel, titled Death Race: Beyond Anarchy (2018), were also produced.
An official sequel film to the original film, Death Race 2050, was produced by Roger Corman [32] and released in early 2017. [33]
Roger William Corman was an American film director, producer, and actor. Known under various monikers such as "The Pope of Pop Cinema", "The Spiritual Godfather of the New Hollywood", and "The King of Cult", he was known as a trailblazer in the world of independent film.
David Carradine was an American actor, director, and producer, whose career included over 200 major and minor roles in film, television and on stage. He was widely known to television audiences as the star of the 1970s television series Kung Fu, playing Kwai Chang Caine, a peace-loving Shaolin monk traveling through the American Old West.
Rollerball is a 2002 science fiction sports film directed by John McTiernan. A remake of the 1975 film of the same name, based on William Harrison's short story Roller Ball Murder, the film stars Chris Klein, Jean Reno, LL Cool J, Rebecca Romijn and Naveen Andrews.
Eating Raoul is a 1982 American black comedy film written, directed by and starring Paul Bartel with Mary Woronov, Robert Beltran, Ed Begley Jr., Buck Henry, and Susan Saiger. It is about a prudish married couple who resort to killing and robbing affluent swingers to earn money for their dream restaurant.
Cannonball is a 1976 American comedy film directed by Paul Bartel and starring David Carradine. The film is one of two released in 1976 that were based on a real illegal cross-continent road race that took place for a number of years in the United States. The same topic later became the basis for the films The Cannonball Run, Cannonball Run II and Speed Zone. The film was written and directed by Paul Bartel, who also directed Death Race 2000.
Paul Bartel was an American actor, writer and director. He was perhaps most known for his 1982 hit black comedy Eating Raoul, which he co-wrote, starred in and directed.
Mary Woronov is an American actress, writer, and figurative painter. She is primarily known as a "cult star" because of her work with Andy Warhol and her roles in Roger Corman's cult films. Woronov has appeared in over 80 movies and on stage at Lincoln Center and off-Broadway productions as well as numerous times in mainstream American TV series, such as Charlie's Angels and Knight Rider. She frequently co-starred with friend Paul Bartel; the pair appeared in 17 films together, often playing a married couple.
Driven is a 2001 American action sports film directed by Renny Harlin and starring Sylvester Stallone, who also wrote and produced. It centers on a young racing driver's effort to win the CART FedEx Championship Series auto racing championship. Prior to production, Stallone was seen at many Formula One races, but he was unable to procure enough information about the category due to the secrecy with which teams protect their cars, so he decided to base the film on CART.
Frankenstein Unbound is a 1990 science fiction horror film based on Brian Aldiss' 1973 novel of the same name, starring John Hurt, Raul Julia, Bridget Fonda, Jason Patric, and Nick Brimble. The film is co-written and directed by Roger Corman, returning to the director's chair after a hiatus of almost fifteen years. This is his final film as a director before his death in 2024. He was paid $1 million to direct.
Chopping Mall is a 1986 American independent techno-horror film co-written and directed by Jim Wynorski, produced by Julie Corman, and starring Kelli Maroney, Tony O'Dell, John Terlesky, Russell Todd, Paul Bartel, Mary Woronov, and Barbara Crampton. It focuses on three high-tech security robots turning maniacal and killing teenage employees inside a shopping mall after dark.
Hollywood Boulevard is a 1976 American satirical exploitation film directed by Allan Arkush and Joe Dante, and starring Candice Rialson, Paul Bartel, and Mary Woronov. It follows an aspiring actress who has just arrived in Los Angeles, only to be hired by a reckless B movie film studio where she bears witness to a series of gruesome and fatal on-set accidents. The film blends elements of the comedy, thriller, and slasher film genres.
Deathsport is a 1978 science fiction action sports B-film produced by Roger Corman and directed by Allan Arkush and Nicholas Niciphor. The film stars David Carradine and Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings. It would be one of Jennings' last films before her death.
Capone is a 1975 American action crime film directed by Steve Carver and produced by Roger Corman, based on the life of notorious 20th-century gangster Al Capone. It stars Ben Gazzara in the title role, along with Harry Guardino, Susan Blakely, John Cassavetes, and Sylvester Stallone in an early film appearance.
Death Race is a 2008 dystopian action thriller film written and directed by Paul W. S. Anderson. It stars Jason Statham, Tyrese Gibson, Ian McShane, and Joan Allen.
Safari 3000 is a 1982 American action-adventure comedy film directed by Harry Hurwitz and starring David Carradine, Stockard Channing, and Christopher Lee. The film was shot on location in Africa.
Jackson County Jail is a 1976 American crime film directed by Michael Miller, and starring Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Carradine.
Frankenstein is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the Death Race franchise. Within the film universe, the character is an alias taken on by other characters who participate in the titular race. The character has been played by David Carradine, Jason Statham, Luke Goss, Dougray Scott, Manu Bennett, and Velislav Pavlov.
Eat My Dust! is a 1976 American action comedy film written and directed by Charles B. Griffith, and starring Ron Howard.
The Death Race series is a car combat franchise encompassing a series of films and other media centered on a reality show set in a prison, where inmates race against each other in order to win their freedom.
Death Race 2050 is a 2017 American satirical science fiction action direct-to-video film directed by G.J. Echternkamp, and starring Manu Bennett, Marci Miller and Malcolm McDowell. It is a sequel to the 1975 film Death Race 2000. Both films were produced by Roger Corman, who described the film as "a car-racing picture with some black humor."