Exploitation 2000

Red and white fragments of pre-paid envelopes pile up on the kitchen bar in my studio apartment. A book of Verdi classical operettas and songs props up the laptop to a proper viewing height so I can lay on my couch/bed and watch movie after movie that graces my mailbox. New York is, to quote my sister, "Fucking expensive," and catching a quick beer often means that $5 and $10 bills magically burst into flames as soon as you walk into any service based building. My temporary solution for this forced liquidation of cash flow, is to stay inside and only come out when my salary allows me to buy new clothes, a plane ticket and food from a restaurant, in the same week.

If you or someone else you know is currently is a similar situation, then I recommend taking full advantage of your hermit ways. First things first, get a Netflix account or become a regular at your local indie movie store, they still have the mainstream titles and have the foresight to retain an archive of older and less well known films. Next, pick a genre, director, actor or producer and give the person a thorough study. Today's lesson, exploitation films.

Many of you have seen a recent film, Grindhouse. Its tribute to older exploitation films of the past was an appreciative tongue implanted into cheek. I like the Tarantino and Rodriguez's films respectively, but I was more interested in the genre itself. Fast forward to my renting of exploitation hits like, The Big Doll House (sexploitation), Coffy (blaxpoitation), Sweeet Sweeetback's Baad Assss Song (supposedly first blaxploitation, but really a great art-house film), Mad Max (Apocalyptic Carmeggedon), The Gumball Rally (fastcarploitation). All of these films have similar characteristics, with the exception of Mad Max and Gumball Rally, they're not great movies. In fact, they're terrible. What they offer maybe cliche now, but put yourself in the world of the late 60's and 70's and these films offer inventive story lines and content everyone wants to see: sex, drugs and violence.

Oddly enough while doing a little research on the subject of exploitation, I came upon a Kroger Babb, who in the late 30's and 40's and into the 50's touted a 'personal hygiene' film called Mom and Dad. The film was an early "public health" film that showed the dangers of not informing your children thoroughly on the topic of human sexuality; its climax being the showing of an actual child birth. Great to know we're related, hey this man should be recognized for the invention of legalized porn on the big screen. We must share some genes. I leave you with a clip from a movie that I haven't seen yet, but you can bet it's at the top of the Netflix queue. Death Race 2000 is probably the greatest name for a movie, ever and the fact that Sly Stallone and David Carradine are in it, make it 20 times better. This scene featuring a crazy Stallone is awesome.