Fight for Your Life (1977)
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| Stomp Visual (Australia). All Regions, NTSC. 1.85:1 (16:9 enhanced). English DD 2.0 Mono. 86 minutes |
| The Movie |
| Cover Art |
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| Credits |
Director: Robert.
A. Endelson
Starring: Straw Weisman
Screenplay: William
Sanderson, Robert Judd, Yvonne Ross
Country: USA
AKA: Held Hostage; I
Hate Your Guts; Staying Alive |
Fight For Your Life is a one
of a kind, a seething mass of racial hatred, exploitation
and good old-fashioned violence that caused a furore
when it hit the screens of 42nd Street and went
on to become a video nasty in the UK.
The storyline is nothing new. Anyone familiar
with grindhouse classics like Last House
on the Left, I Spit on Your Grave and House at the Edge of the Park will have seen its criminals on the loose, kidnapping,
rape revenge drama style of storytelling before
but none of those films, with the possible exception
of David Hess as Krug in Wes Craven's Last
House on the left, has produced a character
as hateful as Jessie Lee Kane played by William
Sanderson. Its amazing to see Sanderson playing
such a despicable character after first seeing
the actor play J. F. Sebastien in Blade
Runner, who was one of the most sad and
gentle characters ever committed to celluloid.
Every word he spits at the captive black family,
he is holding hostage, is full of raging venomous
scorn. It's a despicable barrage that doesn't
stop at his foes, he is awful to his fellow Asian
and Hispanic prison escapee's too, and no
one escapes from his racial rhetoric. He abuses,
fights, hangs and rapes his prisoners pushing
them to breaking point before the head of the
family Floyd Turner, a stoic turn by Reginald
Blythewood, fights back.
Fight for Your Life, also known
as I Hate Your Guts, Staying Alive, Getting Even
and Hostage's Bloody Revenge will definitely
offend many, despite the fact that Kane gets his
comeuppance, it's a long and brutal journey
before the family pet pees on his head. The film
was Robert . A. Endelson's second and last
ever film after 1973s The Filthiest Show
in Town. I guess it's not surprising
as Fight For Your Life is not
a film you could follow easily. |
| Video |
| The image is pretty good, the film is simply shot
and doesn't use much in the way of innovative
lighting so it looks a bit flat, much like many
of the blaxploitation films of the era. The disc
reproduces the film well. |
| Audio |
| The soundtrack featuring some nice funky guitar
is ok; the mono reproduction is totally listenable
without being spectacular in any way. |
| Extra Features |
Again Stomp has licensed Blue Undergrounds
excellent US disc; my favourite part of the extras
has to be the trailers. The film was marketed
differently for black and white audiences. In
the Seventies in the height of the blaxploitation
era the black audiences loved seeing old "whitey"
getting his ass kicked by the Blackman whilst
the white audiences were sold the film on its
exploitation credentials.
You also get some TV spots, an extensive poster
and stills gallery covering every aspect of the
films promotion. Finally the films writer Straw
Weisman and the director of photography Lloyd
Freidus provide a running commentary that tries
to explain some of the nastiness going down on
screen. |
| The Verdict |
As unpleasant as Fight For Your Life is you cannot help but be pulled into the film.
Maybe its just waiting to see the racist scumbag
Kane get what he deserves, maybe its to see how
far the poor persecuted family will be persecuted
before they fight back, more than likely it's
the sheer audacity of the filmmakers that they even
contemplated making such a controversial film in
the first place. The packaging calls it an "Incendiary
grindhouse classic" and much has been said
that it may well be the most un PC film every made;
for once I think the publicity may well be true.
Got something else to say? Spill your guts on the
Digital Retribution Message Forum! |
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