Cheerful Larceny

By J.C.

DEATH RACE 2000

Directed by PAUL BARTEL

Screenplay by ROBERT THOM and CHARLES GRIFFITH

It is the very dawn of the new century. The occasion is a transcontinental road race, "the greatest sporting event," one perfervid announcer claims, "since Spartacus." Indeed, this particular race combines some of the more popular elements of both the Colosseum and the Indianapolis 500. The winner must not only get to the finish line first but rack up the greatest number of points. This is accomplished by the tactic of running over any pedestrians who can be found along the course. Since the race starts in New York and ends in New Los Angeles several days later, a large part of the U.S. population is available for scoring. A driver gets 70 points for running down a toddler, for example, or 100 for flattening a senior citizen. The race has become the new national pastime, having replaced such old-fashioned pursuits as football, baseball, boxing, basketball and war.

Baked Potato. Made on a shoestring budget that does not seem to have caused anyone much difficulty, Death Race 2000 is a jaunty, funny, bemusedly tense little action picture. It was obviously intended to scoop Rollerball, a more costly and similar science-fiction enterprise (TIME, July 7) and it commits its petty larceny briskly and efficiently, with none of Rollerball's thundering pretension. David Carradine, late of TV's Kung Fu, appears as the champion racer Frankenstein. Various parts of his body have been smashed, burned or discarded during his racing career, and he now appears in a black mask and zippered leather suit, looking like a cross between a rock star and a fetishist mannequin. His main competition is a character from Chicago (well played by Sylvester Stallone) who gets himself up like a 1950s hood and keeps his girl friend in her place with lines like "People may think you're cute, but to me you're just one baked potato."

There are revolutionaries--led by an old woman named Thomasina Paine--who want to shut the race down because it represents all that is violent and decadent in America. The politicians, on the other hand, have a vested interest in keeping the competition flourishing because it channels all the aggressions of the population. So there are as many clashes around the race course as on it, enough to keep things moving along at a sprightly pace. Death Race 2000 is, altogether, a cheering sign that the much-lamented B picture is alive and in good health.

. J.C.

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