Deathsport – 1978 – David Carradine
I stumbled upon Deathsport really. I thought it looked cool and when Roger Corman is involved, what could actually go wrong? And not only that. David Carradine is in the lead role as well. I know he hasn’t always been in great movies but he, as an actor, does always have something working for him. There’s some kind of presence there which are not necessarily synonymous with great acting. I just like him, let’s leave it at that. It doesn’t hurt that I really like the B-action movies from the ’70s either. In short, what could go wrong?
The Plot
Well, most of it really. The plot is silly, I don’t know if it’s really the original idea portrayed in this movie or if most of the elements have been copied from other, better, movies. But when analyzing it, it’s apparent that you can go a pretty long way with some futuristic-looking motorcycles and a shoehorned plot. I know I have seen such mikes in better movies. Those that come to mind are of course Enzo G. Castellari’s The New Barbarians aka Warriors of the Wasteland, and Lucio Fulci’s The New Galdiators. It has something more similar to the latter one too. Both films center around some kind of gladiator game which brings the thought so old Rome.
In the case of Deathsport, there is a very loose connection but some of the “enemies of the state” are forced to compete against each other, whoever is alive after the battle is free, and the other one is dead. These gladiator games are known as Deathsport and it’s carried out with futuristic-looking motorcycles. But that is only a small part of the movie. Most of it revolves around these characters that apparently have some magical power and are a threat to the regime. It’s really a mess. I just saw this movie and still can’t say what it’s really about.
Trash Cinema
On top of that, there are also some kind of mutants and a small child that needs to be saved. I don’t know if that’s the future queen or something. So…we have gladiator games, enemies of the state, futuristic bikes and weapons, some kind of honor code that eventually leads to a duel to the death, and ugly-looking mutants. I do like trash cinema but this one was too much even for me.
