Rating: 3.5/5
Cult Movie Challenge 2017 | 52/52 | New World Pictures
The red and yellow flag of the new US flag waves over the stadium—a fist over the stripes. Deacon stands at the podium, dressed in his white priest uniform, with silver fists adorning the drape around his neck. He announces the commencement of the 20th annual Transcontinental Road Race, where five racers will cross the country, creating mayhem and violence as they kill as many people as they can along the way to score points.
We meet the racers, all with their own themes and a co-pilot to assist with navigation. Calamity Jane (Mary Woronov) is a cowgirl. Matilda the Hun is a neo-Nazi. Nero the Hero is a gladiator. Machine Gun Joe (Sylvester Stallone) is a gangster. And Frankenstein is, well, a Frankenstein from various limbs lost and transplanted in previous races. Before the race starts, Mr. President addresses the people from his Summer home.
Once the race starts, everything appears to be going smoothly. But elsewhere, a resistance group makes plans to abduct Frankenstein hostage, planting an insider as Frankenstein’s new navigator—all his previous navigators are dead. The leader of the resistance wants a peaceful approach, but her team has more violent sabotage in mind.
— Is winning all you care about? — Yes. It's the only standard of excellence left.
In classic Roger Corman form, he saw how folks were responding to Rollerball and developed another “dystopian near future sport/opiate for the masses with deadly consequences” movie. I didn’t write a review of Rollerball, so I can’t remember my exact feelings around it, but I recall feeling like it was overwrought and self-serious in a way that I found dull. That said, its politics, while not incisive, were considered. Here, Corman and Co. are satisfied with a “government bad, rebellion good” theme to drive a more entertaining and cartoonish approach.
In other words, it’s exploitation, baby!
I wasn’t a big fan of Paul Bartel’s follow-up, Cannonball, which now seems to be an ouroboros of trying to capitalize on the success of Death Race 2000 with more Wacky Races-adjacent hijinks. That said, Bartel has never been silent about how much Corman removed Bartel’s injected humor from the movie for more ultraviolence.
To get a sense of the movie’s silliness, there’s a moment where Calamity Jane, driving her bull-themed car, tries to hit a bullfighter, and the bullfighter keeps taunting her with a cape as though she were a bull. Also, one of the announcers is named Mrs. Pander. A guy curses by saying, “Jesus Chrystler.” They do actual Looney Tunes jokes, such as Machine Gun Joe making a wrong turn on the way to Albuquerque or setting up a fake tunnel.
It won’t surprise anyone who knows Sylvester Stallone’s approach that he rewrote most of his character’s dialogue. And this performance came before he broke through with Rocky. To be fair, Bartel was cool with it because no one working on this movie was raving about the script.
The score is the first from Paul Chihara. It has kind of a prog-rock vibe in places—it’s pretty fun!