The world has become a dusty desert, populated by barbarians and warriors. Sounds like “Mad Max,” its sequels and copycats, but in this case it’s not influenced by the cult classic: exploitation mogul Roger Corman brought “Giants with Steel Fists” (now better known by its original title “Deathsport”) to theaters in 1978 Years before “Mad Max”!
The result, however, is not an unforgettable pioneer of post-apocalyptic action cinema, but rather nonsensical, unfocused garbage whose turbulent origins are constantly clear. But that’s exactly why it’s a sinful pleasure in the right context: TELE 5 will show “Deathsport” today, October 13, 2023, from 10 p.m. on SchleFaZ (“The worst films of all time”).
This gives you a teasing supporting program that improves on “Deathsport”: “SchleFaZ” hosts Oliver Kalkofe and Peter Rütten reveal what went wrong in the production of this sci-fi actor and point the finger at its shortcomings as lovingly as it bluntly from the movie. And there are many!
“Deathsport”: death race with lasers and motorcycles
In a future some 1,000 years away, Earth has been devastated and society is brutalized: not only do cannibalistic mutants and ruthless warriors lurk behind every corner – bloody death rallies have become the new opium of the people! The infamous ranger Kaz (David Carradine) is forced to participate. But maybe with the help of the rebel Deneer (Claudia Jennings), he can turn this sport, played with motorcycles and laser cannons, to his own advantage?!
In 1975, producer Roger Corman and his label New World Pictures celebrated a real hit: the action dystopia “Death Race 2000” (launched in Germany as “Frankenstein’s Death Race”) set the box office on fire. So Corman planned to exploit the idea of ”the doomed men racing in a death race” again – only on two wheels instead of four.
However, quality did not come from the hasty ‘self-copy mission’: The script was so half-baked that no lead actor was initially found for the project. Ultimately, after some hesitation, David Carradine agreed, but was met with surprising resistance. As Carradine revealed decades later, Corman in particular tried to talk him out of the project.
A chaos production
Carradine ignored the warnings, but ended up on a dramatically underfunded set: Corman did not want to sell Carradine, who was currently enjoying a high career and little value, but this meant that his fee was the absolute lion’s share of the budget.. This only delayed the damage to Carradine’s career that Corman had warned him about: the cheap production, plagued with logical holes, steeped in laziness, shamefully over-equipped, became a derided mistake that kept Carradine with him for a long time.
The fact that director Nicholas Niciphor had enormous difficulty standing up for his stars and therefore repeatedly tampered with them ultimately doomed the project to failure: the newcomer director, who previously only made student films, became personally involved in the course of the production. with Allan Arkush and Corman replaced.
According to Carradine’s memoirs, the later villain of “Kill Bill” also directed one scene, the sex scene between him and ex-playmate Claudia Jennings.. The reason for this: Niciphor got sick at the thought of seeing his leading lady naked.
“Deathsport” also deals with alcohol abuse and the massive consumption of illegal drugs by its stars. This, combined with the blazing California sun under which the film was shot, resulted in crazy, disorienting performances, to say the least.
The fact that towards the finale more and more things get blown up with huge explosions and the alibi plot finally happily resolves itself, still doesn’t make “Deathsport” good movie entertainment. But Combined with the “I can’t believe they got away with it” displays, this chaos of destruction becomes a cinematic motorcycle accident you won’t be able to take your eyes off.