DEATH RACE 2000

   Film (1975). New World. Prod Roger CORMAN. Dir Paul Bartel, starring David Carradine, Simone Griffith, Louisa Moritz, Sylvester Stallone, Mary Woronov. Screenplay Robert Thom, Charles Griffith, based on a story by Ib Melchior. 80 mins. Colour.

   In this low-budget black SATIRE about a car race across the USA in the year 2000, the winner is the driver who kills the most pedestrians. "Frankenstein" (Carradine) - who has supposedly been in so many crashes that most of his body has been replaced with artificial parts - is the nation's favourite driver, and surprises everyone at the end by running over the US President as a political gesture. The film's fast pace and lively ironies led many critics to judge it superior to ROLLERBALL (1975), a much more expensive production about the use of brutal sports as an opiate for the masses. A cult classic, DR2000 has been much imitated.

   JB/PN