Fight for Your Life [1977] [US Import]

I watched FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE some years ago on a n-th generation videotape and despite the atrocious picture quality it made an enormous impression on me. Luckily there is now this definite UNCUT edition of this 1977 grindhouse classic available on a great looking DVD from Blue Underground, so I did not hestitate to upgrade.
A word of caution: FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE is not for easily offended viewers.
The plot has three vicious scumbag criminals - a racist hate-filled white sadist, an Asian American and a Latino - escape, when the prison truck transporting them is involved in a traffic accident. They shoot a prison guard, hijack a pimp's car and flee to the countryside. Needless to say that they commit some violent crimes along the way, until finally they take an African American family hostage. A nightmare of sadism, racist degradation, humilation and rape for the black family begins, and two white friends of the family (a young woman and a boy) visiting are brutally murdered by one of the home invaders. Finally police, led by a tough cop nicknamed "Rulebook" REILLY, siege the family's home. I don't want to give the end away, but the promotional tagline "They took it until they couldn't take any more!" already indicates that it's comeuppance time for the baddies...
Wow! What a sick and sleazy grindhouse movie! It is genuinely shocking, in no small part due to the powerhouse performance delivered by William SANDERSON as ultra-violent racist. He is extremely convincing in his role, calling his victims every name in the book and constantly shouting racist insults and comments (which I am not allowed to quote here). If there was an Academy Award for most abundant use of foul language in a movie, FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE would undoubtedly win it.
Needless to say it is very violent, particularly in the scene, where the small boy is beaten to death with a stone.
Watch at your own risk!
Some words on the DVD: print quality is great, and there are some nice extra features. There are three trailers (one aimed at a white audience highlighting the crime aspect, another aimed at black audiences with emphasis on the Afro-American family's revenge and a so-called teaser trailer, which strangely consists of a single still). Forget the teaser trailer. The other two are very good, but both give away too much. The trailers are basically a 3 minute version of the movie, so you better don't watch them before the main feature. There are also TV-spots, an audiocommentary (on which I can not comment, since I did not listen to it) and a very nice still gallery, consisting of poster artwork, a newspaper ad, videotape covers and lobby cards of mostly German origin, where FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE played theatres under the title of AUSBRUCH ZUR HÖLLE (= escape to hell).
A hugely recommended DVD!

Fight For Your Life a.k.a I Hate Your Guts(a much snappier title) is a trip. It's pure 70s exploitation in the vein of the David Hess classics like Wes Craven's Last House On The Left and Ruggero Deodato's House On The Edge Of The Park. But instead of teenage girls or snooty yuppies, we have a black family instead. Basically we have a trio of convicts who take a black preacher and his family hostage. The promise of "cooperate and no one will get hurt" is thrown right out the window as the leader, Cane, proceeds to call them every racial slur you can think of. Then, he subjects them to humiliating acts that fit into racial stereotypes. And it only gets worse after that. Pretty relentless and brutal actually. Not brutal so much in terms of violence, but because of how awful these s.o.b.s treat this family. Needless to say this film is not endorsed by the NAACP. I'm actually surprised black actors agreed to be in this film and hear these lines, take after take. Sure, it's only a movie, but man! Usually when you have a bigotted character in a film, that's a big part of the overall theme, like in a John Singleton film for example. Here, the bigotry is here for no other reason than to show how rotten this man is. William Sanderson, who you might remember from those old A&W commercials, as well as small comedic parts in films, steps into the David Hess-like role of Cane. His buddies are a latino and an asian man, yet he doesn't seem to have much of a problem with them. Why did I give this film 5 stars? After all, some parts are unintentionally funny, kinda cheesy, the acting isn't always up to snuff(mainly the police), and the low budget definitely shows. I rate this highly because it had an effect on me. Exploitation films almost never have an effect on me outside cheap amusement. Maybe it's coz I have a wife and kid, and seeing the situation this family was in, my rage grew with every passing minute of the film. I don't think I've ever wanted to reach through the tv screen and strangle a film character before this. Sanderson must be a fantastic actor if he could make me hate him so much. I think anyone can guess that the tables eventually turn, and boy does it feel great when they finally do! This film may not play out to be as notorious as it's reputation states, but it was made a long time ago, and we've been desensitized to this kind of stuff over the years. At the time it came out, I'm sure it kicked up a real $!@*storm. Violence? Not too much. At least, nothing that an exploitation fan hasn't seen before. Maybe a little much for the average Michael Bay fan. I'd highly recommend this one. Like I said, it's a trip.

Not really sure what all the flap is about over in England, but it could be time for some folks to take the proverbial "chill pill". The dialog was cheesey & wooden in most places, but in a fun way. The movie wasn't so offensive as it was funny, deriving unintentional humor from lines & situations that just didn't ring true A few racial slurs, implied rape & a couple of poorly filmed murder sequences with some frontal nudity just don't add up to a ban on this film, IMHO. Buy it, view it & laugh a little.

If there was ever a movie that could push the audience's buttons, it was Fight for Your Life. During its limited theatrical run, it reportedly caused near riots in theaters wherever it was shown. The movie follows three escaped convicts, led by racist hillbilly psychopath Jesse Cain (William Sanderson), who take an African-American family hostage in their home and torture them. Cain spews vicious racial epithets almost constantly as he and his cohorts (who, ironically enough, are Latino and Asian) subject the family to a host of racial and sexual humiliations. Though it's easy to dismiss as mere exploitation, Fight for Your Life speaks volumes about what America had on its collective mind in the late 1970's, reflecting anxieties about the effects of drugs, violent crime and volatile race relations on the country. Of course, it's also great entertainment. Thanks to a strong script from Straw Weisman and Robert Endelson's smart direction, there's never a dull moment in this film, though it certainly isn't for all viewers.
Four stars out of five.

This movie is not the big racially tensed extremely "politically incorrect" offender it is hyped up to be. The William Sanderson character constantly uses racial slang insults nothing more. Oh, he makes the preacher sing and dance or he'll shoot him. Big deal.

I watched this movie based on its big reviews of being extreme offensize film. It is not. Not even remotely. I am a big fan of Blue Underground but they are clearly guilty of hyping this on false pretenses.

Still while it did not satisfy my extreme film interest, it was surprisingly enjoyable for other reasons.

I particularly enjoyed when the preacher and his family were forced to sing for the William Sanderson character and turned it around on him by enthusiastically singing "Glory Glory Halleuyah" happily.

It is a good film worth seeing but don't expect the shocks it is advertised to deliver. It works on a much more innocent level. It is not something I want to watch over and over but I do have a fondness for the one scene in particular.