Death Race 2000 | FRAGMENTEN UIT HET SCHEMERLAND

Director: Allan Arkush, Nicholas Niciphor
Written by: Frances Doel, Nicholas Niciphor, Donald Stewart
Cast: David Carradine, Claudia Jennings, Richard Lynch, William Smithers

Year / Country: 1978, USA
Running Time: 83 mins.

A Roger Corman produced B-movie about a post-apocalyptic world in which evil statesmen organize lethal sporting events. David Carradine, who starred three years earlier in the similar Corman B-film Death Race 2000, plays Kaz Oshay, a so called Range Guide. He and his fellow warriors have to survive in the barren wastelands between mutant cannibals and laser equipped Dirt bikes called ‘Death Machines’.

Kaz Oshay and the female Range Guide Deneer get abducted by statesmen, who take them to the city of Helix. This city is ruled by Lord Zirpola, whose brain is decaying from long term exposure to radiation, caused by the Neutron Wars. He and his evil henchman Ankar Moor submit Oshay and Deneer to torture and eventually Death Sport. They manage to escape and set out to rescue Deneer’s daughter who has been kidnapped by mutants. They are pursued by Moor and his legion of Death Machines. Deneer and Oshay, son of the greatest Range Guide, offer them plenty of resistance.

This movie’s low budget is exposed by the low production value and often hilarious sound effects. Still, it is not completely awful. There is plenty of campy, B-movie fun and the presence of former Playboy Playmate Claudia Jennings helps the visual enjoyment. The synthesized musical score and sometimes very bad special effects get annoying occasionally, but the overall reasonable performances and screenplay save this from being a complete stinker.

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Biography: Allan Arkush (1948, New Jersey) started his film career by working in the trailer department of Roger Corman’s New World Pictures. He debuted with Hollywood Boulevard as editor and co-director (with Joe Dante). His first solo effort as director was Rock ‘N’ Roll High School featuring the Ramones. After several other (TV)films he turned more to television series, such as the successful NBC show Heroes.

Biography: Nicholas Niciphor is mostly known as writer of several TV shows and movies. He has worked in both Germany and the USA. Deathsport is his only credit as (co-)director.

Filmography Allan Arkush (a selection): Hollywood Boulevard (1976, co-dir), Deathsport (1978, co-dir), Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979), Heartbeeps (1981), Get Crazy (1983), Fame (1984-86, TV episodes), Caddyshack II (1988), I’ll Fly Away (1992/93, TV episodes), Shake, Rattle and Rock! (1994, TV), Desert Breeze (1996, TV), Elvis Meets Nixon (1997, TV), Ally McBeal (1998/99, TV episodes), Prince Charming (2001, TV), Crossing Jordan (2001-07, TV episodes), Heroes (2006-2010, TV episodes), Minority Report (2015, TV episodes)

Filmography Nicholas Niciphor: Deathsport (1978, co-dir)

Director: Paul Bartel
Written by: Paul Bartel, Don Simpson
Cast: David Carradine, Bill McKinney, Veronica Hamel, Gerrit Graham

Year / Country: 1976, USA
Running Time: 94 mins.

Your liking of Cannonball! aka Carquake will mainly depend on how you generally appreciate B-movies about car-racing. I personally like them a lot. Cool-ass heroes in slick cars; pretty girls; highway chase scenes; crashes; mayhem: the works. This movie is based on real illegal cross-continental road races that took place around the time this movie was made.

The seventies was a fruitful era for this type of film. In 1976, the year this movie came out, The Gumball Rally, was also released about the same topic. A year earlier, its director Paul Bartel had considerable B-movie success with the very similar film Death Race 2000 which also had David Carradine in the lead role and covered a road race through America. This is not exactly a sequel though. It’s no sci-fi for one thing and unlike Death Race 2000, it has not been produced by Roger Corman, but by Run Run Shaw (one of the Shaw Brothers). Corman does have a small cameo. So do Martin Scorsese, Joe Dante and Sylvester Stallone. The movie was written by Bartel and Don Simpson. That’s right, the now deceased Don Simpson who formed a team with Jerry Bruckheimer and made one Hollywood smash hit after another. This is the first film on his resume.

David Carradine plays Coy ‘Cannonball’ Buckman, a former convict who participates in the Trans-America Grand Prix, an illegal annual race from L.A. to New York City. The prize money for winning is 100.000 dollars, so most of the participants play any dirty trick in the book to rid themselves of the competition. The police also finds out about the race and plans to arrest all the participants. Buckman has to overcome many obstacles to reach the finish line, such as car damage, malicious competitors and hand-to-hand combat. The latter of course is no problem for David ‘Kung Fu’ Carradine, but the driving proves to be a bigger challenge. Buckman is no Frankenstein (Carradine’s character in Death Race 2000), who had a mechanical hand to shift his gears faster and who was designed to win. Buckman is not that mythological. At least it looks that way initially…

Director Bartel usually offers more satire in his films, but Cannonball! doesn’t seem to have any pretensions except to offer simple entertainment. The campy fun consists mostly of the drivers competing with each other through racing moves and fist fights. Unfortunately the lack of real excitement makes it look like a cheap cash-in on its predecessors.

Because besides its subversive character, Death Race 2000 had intriguing characters and many outrageous action scenes and dialogues. It appeared to have been made with great enthusiasm and care to provide the audience with as much entertainment as possible. And it worked. Cannonball! doesn’t really try to excel in anything. Not in the acting, the writing or the directing.

Even Carradine, an actor I normally love (to me he is the ultimate B-movie star) seems a bit out of his depth here. Some good stunts and a final scene of appropriate demolition save this from being a complete failure, but there is little to recommend it for. A shame really because all those involved did a lot of good work elsewhere. Oh well, if you’re up for a no-brainer, this flick may suit you well. Otherwise Death Race 2000 is the far better alternative.

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Biography: Paul Bartel (1938, New York – 2000, New York) majored in theater arts at UCLA and studied film directing in Rome. After getting his first work experience with Roger Corman he directed a number of low budget cult films. He also worked as a writer and an actor. He died in 2000 from a heart attack.

Filmography: The Secret Cinema (1968, short), Naughty Nurse (1969, short), Private Parts (1972), Death Race 2000 (1975), Cannonball! (1976), Eating Raoul (1982), Not for Publication (1984), Lust in the Dust (1985), The Longshot (1986), Amazing Stories (1986/87, TV episodes), Shelf Life (1993), The Comic Strip Presents…(1993, TV episode), Clueless (1996, TV episode)