Deathsport (1978) from Tuna

Deathsport (1978) is a Roger Corman film directed by Alan Arkush, who found his niche directing for TV. It stars David Carradine and former bunnyperson Claudia Jennings as "Range Guides."

It is the distant future, and most of civilization has been destroyed. Some live in cities, and have some remaining machinery. Outside the cities, there are mutants, and range guides. The range guides live by sacred traditions, and have much wisdom and even more fighting and survival skills. The leader of a town wants to convince his constituents to begin a war with another town, and decides to capture some Range Guides, and kill them in the arena during deathsport to show the superiority of his new Death Machines, which are tricked out dirt bikes. The good guys get away, and kick bad guy ass.

NUDITY REPORT
see the main commentary

DVD info from Amazon.

  • full screen only

  • Roger Corman interview
Yes, the story is every bit as lame as it sounds. There is a lot of exposure (all three Bs) from Jennings, which is welcome, especially as her career was cut short by a fatal auto accident. A one-time wonder, Valerie Rae Clark, also shows all three Bs.  While there is good exposure, all of it is in bad light. The scene with Jennings strapped to the table is shot with a lime jello colored strobe, for instance.

The Critics Vote

  • no major reviews online

The People Vote ...

  • With their votes ... IMDB summary: IMDB readers say 4.8/10.

 
IMDb guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence, about like three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, about like two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, about like two stars from the critics. Films under five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film, equivalent to about one and a half stars from the critics or less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

My own guideline: A means the movie is so good it will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not good enough to win you over if you hate the genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an open mind about this type of film. C means it will only appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if you love the genre. F means that the film is not only unappealing across-the-board, but technically inept as well.

Based on this description, this is a D, not even a good genre effort.

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