It begins in Manhattan and ends in New Los Angeles, as there are I think five racers who compete not just to be first across the finish line, but to earn points by killing pedestrians in their path.
The evil President of the United States, who resides in his summer palace in Peking, endorses the 20th annual Trans-Continental Road Race as one that his fellow Americans cherish as their national sport because of its brutality.
It’s set in the future, in the year 2000, and plays on national TV with a smarmy unreal over enthusiastic Howard Cosell-like announcer (Don Steele) calling the race but it recalls the ancient past, where the Christians were thrown to the lions in the Roman’s Circus Maximus. It was intended as a low-budget B-film challenge to the big-budgeted Hollywood spectacle of Rollerball, but its problem is that it’s never really funny (loaded with juvenile gags), its car wrecks lack imagination and the car rivalry between David Carradine and a pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone never amounts to anything. It’s based on a story by Ib Melchior and written by Robert Thom and Charles Griffith. Paul Bartel (“Eating Raoul”/”Private Parts”/”Scenes From The Class Struggle In Beverly Hills) grossly directs this unwatchable car wreck of an exploitation film. It’s filled with cartoonish violence, campy action scenes, sleazy nudity, explosions galore and dumb sight gags.
(director: Paul Bartel screenwriters: Robert Thorn/Charles Griffith/novel by Ib Melchior cast: David Carradine (Frankenstein), Louisa Moritz (Myra, Mary Woronov (Calamity Jane): Runtime 78 mpaa rating R New World Pictures 1975)Ī vulgar no holds barred Roger Corman fantasy parody film about America’s love affair with violence through its sporting events.