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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Fight for Your Life (1977)

Fight for Your Life (1977) (NTSC)

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Released 5-Sep-2005

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Horror Main Menu Introduction
Main Menu Audio
Audio Commentary-Straw Weisman (Writer) And Lloyd Freidus (DoP)
Theatrical Trailer-2
Teaser Trailer
TV Spots-2
Gallery-Poster And Stills
Rating ?
Year Of Production 1977
Running Time 85:39
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 1,2,3,4,5,6 Directed By Robert A. Endelson
Studio
Distributor
William Mishkin
Stomp Visual
Starring William Sanderson
Case ?
RPI $24.95 Music Jeff Slevin


Video (NTSC) Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame None English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio 1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
16x9 Enhanced
Video Format 480i (NTSC)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles None Smoking Yes
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

Considered a "Grindhouse Classic" by filmmaker Quentin Tarantino, the 1977 low-budget film Fight For Your Life is one of the most controversial exploitation films ever made. The story of three escaped convicts led by racist psychopath Kane (William Sanderson) who take a black family hostage and proceed to humiliate, rape and torture them has taken on cult status; banned in Britain as part of the "Video Nasties" list and never widely release before, it's finally found a home on DVD all around the world.

The biggest surprise for me in watching Fight For Your Life isn't that the film is still surprisingly effective in its unpleasant depictions of violence, sexual assault and murder (alongside an endless stream of racial abuse) but rather that the majority of the controversy is unfounded: gratuitous moments aside, director Robert A. Endelson created an intriguing character study in the power play between a strong black family and an unpleasant, pathetic man who seeks to have control and authority over them.

This is to say, there's no denying that the film includes squirm-inducing scenes of rape, a child being murdered, and a baby being threatened at gunpoint (shades of The Hills Have Eyes), but rather the accusations that the film is racist are completely unfounded. The characters are well developed beyond simple stereotypes, and the black family taken hostage show strength and defiance against their captors which are typically unseen in similar 42nd Street films of this nature (which leads to the inevitable series of revenge scenes against the criminals which are handled superbly, especially in comparison to vengeance-fantasy films like I Spit On Your Grave and Last House on the Left) As a lowbrow profile of the psychology of racism, the film is absolutely fascinating; consider that despite travelling with both a Hispanic and an Asian, who he also racially taunts, Kane only chooses to victimise the family when they don't offer him the authority that he feels he deserves over them, and subsequently his ongoing racist taunts come off less powerfully and become more and more pathetic as the film proceeds. Like most people who discriminate against race/gender/sexual preference/so on, this character is robbed of his power by the presence of these people who don't share his values, who discomfort him, who he perceives as a threat, and must regain the lost power through abuse. His ultimate destiny is that of a pathetic underhung child who cannot stand up to one with real values and worth, and this is understood by patriarch Ted Turner (a fantastic Robert Judd).

I'm very pleased that this film is now easily available, as exploitation fans and film fans in general now have the opportunity to view it. For those who can take the violent scenes and the often unbearable racial tirades, this is a fascinating grindhouse classic that's worth its cult status - just not for the reasons it has been remembered for.

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Transfer Quality

Video

The video is presented in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio. It is 16x9 enhanced.

Just as I was surprised by the quality of the film, I was astonished by the quality of the transfer, which is phenomenal for a low budget 1970's grindhouse film. Some light grain aside, this is a very strong, bright, focused video transfer that looks better here on DVD than a lot of the high budget 1970's films. The colours are vivid and bright, sometimes to the point where they draw attention to the low budget (observe Dirty Harry-esque fake blood that looks like delicious strawberry topping).

There are numerous issues with the dark scenes, however, which are haunted by low level noise and a lack of detail (see early in the film, such as 8:34) and minor film artefacts appear across the running time. On the flip side, although this is an NTSC transfer I saw no interlacing at all, and despite changes in film stock the transfer maintains a high level of detail throughout.

There are no subtitles.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

The audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 (Mono).

This is a no-frills audio track which still offers a very strong listenable soundtrack. There isn't a lot of music used across the film, but the levels of the effects and dialogue are maintained and always audible, with no drop outs or other issues that are heard frequently heard in such low budget fare - it seems someone has done a very good job of cleaning this up. As mentioned in the past when reviewing low budget fare, for this DVD this sound is perfectly serviceable; I can't imagine Fight For Your Life in fully mastered DTS or better. I am perfectly satisfied with the audio and video transfers on the whole.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Animated Menus with Sound

The menus here misrepresent the film using some action and stills from the film in conjunction with intense music and some of the unpleasant dialogue from Kane. This seems the logical extension of the idiotic DVD cover art, which depicts a scene that never ever happens in the film.

Audio Commentary with writer Straw Weisman and Director of Photography Lloyd Freidus

Moderated by Blue Underground's William Lustig (who sounds like the excitable Troma guru Michael Herz) your mileage may vary with this yak track with the DOP and writer; all are very pleased with the film and are full of anecdotes and thoughts on the proceedings, as well as some discussion of subtext and the audience reception to the film. Unfortunately too much of the commentary is wasted on being impressed by everything onscreen and not enough time spent on the really intriguing topics, like why the director didn't want to be a part of the DVD revival.

Theatrical Trailers - "White" Version (2:56), "Black" Version (3:20), Teaser (0:26)

Although all of these trailers are symptomatic of the awkward trailers of the time period, the "White" and "Black" trailers are interesting as to how they market the film to their namesake: the "White" version presents the film as a revenge thriller, whereas the "Black" version is aimed at empowering its black audience and includes extra scenes focusing on empowering the black characters. The music and narration is completely different and exemplifies this aim. The Teaser trailer is much more boring, a soundless still from the end of the film. All are in quite-good 1.85:1.

TV Spots - "White" Version (0:32), "Black" Version (0:33)

Once again separated into versions by race, these shorts feature a few choice scenes from the film showing off the basic premise. I'm a little stumped as to where they would have been broadcast, since both feature nudity and violence that I'm sure wouldn't be tolerated on TV. In 1.33:1 with black bars at the sides.

Poster and Still Gallery

This no-frills gallery includes various posters and stills that were used as promotional material.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

The R1 and R4 versions of this film are identical - I recommend local R4 for the PAL transfer.

Summary

Fight For Your Life is a grindhouse cult classic, much better than a lot of its remembered and recognised kin.

The video and audio transfers are both good, if minimalist.

The extras are also minimalist, unfortunately lacking any comprehensive coverage of the film and context.

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Ryan Aston (Bioshock)
Saturday, June 21, 2008
Review Equipment
DVDSony Playstation 3 (HDMI 1.3) with Upscaling, using Component output
DisplayBenq PE7700. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device has a maximum native resolution of 720p.
Audio DecoderLogitech 5500 THX. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationLogitech 5500 THX
SpeakersLogitech 5500 THX

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