Review: Death Race 2000 (1975)

Death Race 2000

Well, let me start off by explaining how I ended up loving this cheesy movie.

When I was a girl, I enjoyed an evening of watching TV with my younger brother. Those days, we had only one tv and finding something to watch that we both agree on was hard thing to do. Usually ended up with one of us starting a fight with the other. We stumble on “Death Race 2000” – perhaps not the most proper viewing for young kids. We sat through it without fighting and we were entertaining like only cable television could do.

The story continues, half a dozen years later, as a teenager, stumble on it at Future Shop with a guy friend. Buy it, we get to his place, start to watch with his mom. BAM, nudity, sex, threesome. Nope, that was not in the cable aired one. BAM, second round of this debauchery.

I learnt a few valuable lessons from this: Cable TV likes to cut out all the fun parts of a movie, sex isn’t required to make an entertaining movie, and never watch a movie with anyone’s parents without checking the rating.

The movie is full of crazy violence, general vulgarity and insane ideas. Future where running over people for points to win an insane race to entertain the masses… sounds nuts. But years later, behind the wheel of my own machine of death and some stupid person does something equally idiotic in front of me, I whisper “They must be worth at least 20 points.” It makes me smile and I have this wonderful movie to thank for that.

This movie also colour the 70’s for me with its glorifying exploitation style.