Movies - Death Race 2000

Home > Listing Index > Movies > Death Race 2000

	Movies - Death Race 2000

Death Race 2000 is a cult action film directed by Paul Bartel in 1975. The movie takes place in a dystopian view of American society in 2000. David Carradine, Simone Griffeth and Sylvester Stallone played the star roles; Mary Woronov, Roberta Collins, The Real Don Steele, Joyce Jameson, Carle Bensen, Sandy McCallum and Harriet Medin co-star.

The screenplay was based on a short story by Ib Melchior, and inspired the 1976 video game Death Race.

Plot synopsis

A tremendous global economic crash had occurred in 1979. The current (as of 2000) American President took control to repair America, and since then has ruled the country from abroad with an iron fist. He is simply known as Mr. President, and is rarely seen in American public.

One of Mr. President's most famous decrees has been that of the Transcontinental Road Race, a violent spectacle that takes a small set of racers from New York to New Los Angeles. The event depicted in the film is the 20th annual Road Race; therefore, Mr. President started the event during his second year in office.

Racers are scored in two ways. First, they are scored by time; all racers must stop at two checkpoints on their route to New L.A., and are scored based on their placement. (The 2000 road race has checkpoints in St. Louis and Albuquerque; it is not known whether these checkpoints change annually.) All racers must start simultaneously from the checkpoint after a day of rest.

It is the second scoring system that gives the film its title, however: as in the inspired video game, and further inspired games such as Carmageddon, points are scored for every person killed, with different point values depending on the age, gender and importance of the person killed. According to the movie, the point system appears to be as follows:

Male adult: 30
Male teenager: 40
Male infant/toddler: 70
Female (any age): +10 point bonus
Senior citizen (regardless of gender): 100

The movie begins with a speech by the Deacon of the Bipartisan Party, in order to rouse up the crowd in the New York Memorial Raceway, followed by the entrance of the 5 racers and their navigators:

"Calamity" Jane Kelly (Woronov), w/navigator Pete (William Shephard)
Matilda the Hun (Collins), w/navigator Herman "The German" (Fred Grandy
)
Ray "Nero the Hero" Lottigan(?) (Martin Kove
), w/navigator "Cleopatra" (Leslie McRae)
"Machine Gun" Joe Viterbo (Stallone), w/navigator Myra (Louisa Moritz)
Frankenstein (Carradine), w/navigator Annie Smith (Griffeth)

Each racer has a definite theme; Jane is a cowgirl, Matilda is a Nazi from Milwaukee, Nero emulates his namesake, Viterbo is a Chicago gangster, and Frankenstein is the enigmatic hero of the race. Frankenstein is clearly the most important racer; the movie cuts to shots of him and Annie preparing for the race. We find out that Frankenstein has been rebuilt by government technology, and is the government's continued entry into the race.

It is during the intro and later scenes that we are introduced to the three color commentators, each with their own personality traits. Junior Bruce (Steele) is the man responsible for all the hype and excitement, and easily the most vocal of the three. He is the field reporter for the race, and is on hand at the beginning of every leg of the race. He insists on calling himself "your buddy-buddy and mine" at the beginning of the movie.

Grace Pander (Jameson) is a much softer commentator, and, along with Harold (Bensen), she remains in the studio for most of the movie. Her job is to portray a sort of happy housewife persona; she comforts the first victim's widow and presents her with a consolation prize. Harold is the most deadpan of the three, meant to be reminiscent of a lowbrow Howard Cosell-type commentator. He tends to explain important points regarding the rules of the game.

As the movie plays out, we find out that there is a small faction, headed by matriarch Thomasina Paine (Medin), devoted to ending the "Transcontinental Road Rape," if not Mr. President's rule. We also find out that Annie Smith is in fact Thomasina's granddaughter. Their plan is to kidnap Frankenstein and hold him hostage, in exchange for the abolition of the race.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Death Race 2000 ]

This page is based on the copyrighted Wikipedia article Death Race 2000; it is used under the GNU Free Documentation License. You may redistribute it, verbatim or modified, providing that you comply with the terms of the GFDL.

Searches on eBay