Reviewed/Written by: Tor2600
Posted by: Root Rot
Fight for your Life (1977)
Directed by: Robert A Endelson
Ok so, a redneck, a Mexican, and a Chinese guy rob a liquor store after escaping from prison. Sounds like the beginning of a bad joke right? Well this is actually the first 10 minutes of Fight for your Life the 1977 action/Blaxploitation flick. Now the beginning might sound cheesy but it gets better. Although the movie was extreme and even banned in a few countries, the movie was not as extreme as I was expecting. It may have been the pace of the movie, or just that compared to today’s standards it seemed unrealistic. Don’t get me wrong there are some horrible things that go on including a ton of racism especially from the redneck. It seemed that every other word coming out of his mouth was a racial slur. There is rape, revenge, and even a child murder. The rape scene in Fight for your life was not as intense as the original Last House on the Left or I Spit on your Grave. Probably because a lot of it was off camera, it still was terrible.
So when the 3 escaped convicts rob the liquor store they take a hostage a young black girl sent to the store to get some wine for the family dinner. The cons take the girl back to her house is full of her and family including her preacher father getting ready for dinner. The cons plan to hide out in the house for a while, until some of the heat from the liquor store incident blows over.
The redneck (obviously the leader) becomes very demanding and disrespectful to everyone around him, especially when he has a few drinks in him. Little by little he starts pushing the boundaries of the preacher. Calling him and his family names and questioning his faith. All humans including preachers have a breaking point and it was reached. What probably pushed him over the line was when the redneck requested that he “turn the other cheek” while continuously beating the preacher in the face with his bible.
The movie came to a really expected but well deserving end, which I will let you find out when watching it yourself. I would not give say this is a must see, but definitely worth a watch. If you’re going to pick up a copy I suggest the Blue Underground released copy. One of the cool things I found on the Blue Underground disc is the trailers. While this movie is not the typical Blaxploitation film, in my opinion it still fits the subgenre. The trailers on the disc have 2 separate versions one “White version” and one “Black version”. The “Black version” I found extremely entertaining because of the obviously ethnic commentator talking about black power and the alternate title card “STAYIN ALIVE”. The “White version” trailer has the typical exploitation trailer feel. From what I’ve read Blue Underground disc is not the most complete version of the movie. The VHS clocks in at 89 minutes while the BU disc is 82.
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