Death Race 2000

So, I mentioned Death Race 2000 in class the other day, and wanted to recap it a little bit - I realize it was near the end of class, and you were all probably wondering what on Earth I was rambling on about.

So basically, this movie was done in 1975 as a satire of American culture at the time. You've got all of America being super-hyped over an exceptionally brutal pastime - people drive cars cross-country, and aim to slaughter as many people with their cars as possible. But a small group of rebels - holders of the "true" American dream, plot to fight back and end the race by blowing up the racers' cars.

Specific things that stood out to me about this movie, and thus make it pertinent to this class, are:

-The stereotyping: While being an entirely Eurocentric movie, several characters seemed to play up to certain stereotypes: Sylvester Stallone's character, for example, is a womanizing mobster.

-The American need to blame someone: At one point, as the resistance starts blowing up cars, the American government orders a coverup. And when they can no longer manage a coverup, they start blaming the "terrorist" attacks on "[their] most hated of enemies, the French, who were responsible for ruining [their] economy and telephone network."

Now, consider this my trigger warning to you if you decide to look this movie up (which I think you should, honestly). As this was meant to satire certain aspects of American culture, such as predominantly the love of excessive violence, there are some particularly troublesome scenes and events, though actual gore is kept to a minimum. Also, at one point, Stallone nearly kills one of the lead female characters quite brutally, so if these kinds of things are things that you cannot deal with, then perhaps you should give the movie a wide berth. Or at least go and look up a plot summary and chuckle to yourself, anyway.