There's some great ideas in this low-budget dystopian car race film, a sort of cross between Rollerball, 1984 and The Gumball Rally. The Totalitarian government of a futuristic, post-Industrial crash USA has instigated a cross-country car chase in which drivers get points for killing pedestrians, and the less able to work the pedestrian is, the more points he/she is worth (geriatrics are worth most). The media is in on the barbarism, but some revolutionaries are trying to sabotage the race.
Paul Bartel's film suffers both from it's minuscule budget (whatever the economic/social disaster that has caused the fall, it's left the whole of America looking like a deserted backwoods, where only cable TV exists), really obvious political satire and lame attempts at wacky humour. On the plus side, there's a real relish in the carnage and a total lack of humanism, which makes the movie particularly galling for liberals. But the cheapness in both budget and shots finally works against what is a marvellous idea - Death Race 2000 is a film better imagined from its plot than experienced by watching what ended up on screen.
Paul Bartel's film suffers both from it's minuscule budget (whatever the economic/social disaster that has caused the fall, it's left the whole of America looking like a deserted backwoods, where only cable TV exists), really obvious political satire and lame attempts at wacky humour. On the plus side, there's a real relish in the carnage and a total lack of humanism, which makes the movie particularly galling for liberals. But the cheapness in both budget and shots finally works against what is a marvellous idea - Death Race 2000 is a film better imagined from its plot than experienced by watching what ended up on screen.