Fight For Your Life (Blue Underground DVD Review)

Is Fight For Your Life a Hidden Treasure or Dumpster Fire?

DVD Distributed By: Blue Underground / February 24, 2004

The Incendiary Grindhouse Classic Of Racism, Rape And Revenge… Now Uncut And Uncensored!

Some have only heard of it as the notorious gut-cruncher in the tradition of LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT and I SPIT ON YOUR GRAVE. Others know it as one of the few movies to ever drive even the most jaded 42nd Street audiences into uncontrollable frenzy. This is the story of three escaped convicts (led by William Sanderson of BLADE RUNNER as the sickest psycho redneck in cinema history) who take a middle-class Black family hostage for a relentless nightmare of racist humiliation, sexual violence and extreme vengeance. No sleazehound who’s seen it can ever forget FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE!

Censored across America and banned outright in Britain, FIGHT FOR YOUR LIFE was released in various chopped-down versions as I HATE YOUR GUTS, STAYING ALIVE, GETTING EVEN and even THE HOSTAGE’S BLOODY REVENGE. Blue Underground presents this rarely seen shocker now fully restored from its original camera negative for an all-new look at one of the most disturbing and depraved exploitation films ever made!

Jamie’s Take (5 / 5)

Quite possibly one of the most offensive films ever produced, Fight For Your Life is a film that could never be made today. The amount of racial slurs that are uttered out of our villain’s mouths is about equal to the amount of profanity used in The Wolf of Wall Street. This is one sleazy, mean-spirited film and one that I find captivating as in how this film was ever even made.

Shot in update New York in the mid / late 70’s, Fight For Your Life‘s (also known as I Hate Your Guts, an even more exploitive title) simplistic plot is about three escaped convicts. One is Asian and named Ling. One is Hispanic named Chino. The white leader is named Kane (played by William Sanderson, a role he now is embarrassed to admit). These lowlifes kill a store clerk (where Kane puts a gun to a orphan baby’s head) and take refuge at an African-American family’s home. These God-fearing, good-natured people are put to some physical and psychological torture as these pieces of shit ridicule, beat, rape, and torture these good people until they can take no more and turn the tables on these bastards.

The film is no doubt offensive and shocking, especially in the world we live in where we have millennial snowflakes who get bent out of shape over every little thing that is said and done. There is no question this film would never be made today as the racial slurs uttered by Kane are not only shocking they become un-intentionally funny because of how shocking it is and how often he says it. What makes the movie even more shocking is that the daughter and Grandmother start their own racial slurs against “whitey” once the tables are turned.

The film doesn’t make all white people evil. The white cop, who is assigned to the case, throws a gun to the black father once he has Kane cornered. A black son, who died in Vietnam, still has a white girlfriend. She frequents the family even after his passing. (Although she gets raped and thrown off a cliff by Ling.) And the son of a white police officer tries to help the family only to meet his demise by getting his head beaten in with a rock, again by Ling. (As a side note, apparently this scene has been cut from most prints until Blue Underground’s DVD restored it)

Blue Underground has said the original negative was destroyed in a hurricane so this DVD release will most likely be the only available version that is fully uncut. I love regional, indie films especially in the horror / action genre. I love watching this low budget shocker and have a great time with it as it’s never boring and at times well-acted with a satisfying climax.

Jimbo’s Take (4 / 5)

(Warning: this NSFW trailer contains some very offensive language)

Kane. Chino. Ling. These are the names of the three antagonists. Can you guess the character’s race based on these names? Does that make you a racist? Does that make the filmmakers racist?

This film depicts racism so absurdly and stereo-typically that I just want to say… It is okay to laugh. I think Jamie interprets the film to be a slightly more serious exploration of racial tension. I don’t think that’s what we have here. I think we have an opportunistic, 42nd street, grindhouse, sleaze-fest made to shock audiences to the point that “you have to see that movie”.

Fight For Your Life is simply audacious in its blatant profanity, ultra-violence, and racial slurs. The lead villain, played magnificently by William Sanderson, is written as a completely unhinged racist. Sanderson spouts off so many variations of racial slurs, my chin still has rug burns from the time it spent on the floor.

However, just so I’m clear, this is not D.W. Griffith’s 1915 pro-KKK epic The Birth of a Nation. I don’t believe the filmmakers are racists. They’re trying to make a film that entertains while dealing with racism in a format that would have played in drive-ins or grindhouse cinemas. It’s supposed to be extreme. It’s supposed to feel trashy. It’s meant to push your buttons. And again, it’s okay to laugh. Not because racism is funny, but because the situations portrayed are so outlandishly cartoon like in their depiction, laughter is a natural reaction for some.

Granted, laughter may not be your reaction. You may feel genuinely offended by this film and there’s certainly reason to feel so. However, you shouldn’t feel that this film is taking advantage of, nor portraying blacks as anything less than positive.

I know some of you may argue that a movie like this only promotes more racial tension and threatens to throw us back to the 1960s. To that end, I would simply say that’s your opinion. And you’re entitled to it.

However, today the mere sound of the N-word makes people tense up or recoil. You’ll probably do that on first viewing of this film. And there may still be arguments about race relations in our country today, but I’m not here to explore any of that. Personally I don’t care about your skin color, only the content of your character (as Dr. King so famously said). And the content of these fictional characters is pretty clear. The terrorized family is the force for good. The three prisoners are racist and evil. And watching them battle is fucking awesome!

Fight For Your Life will shock you. The film will probably offend you. This, of course, makes Blue Underground’s DVD a must own for anyone who loves exploitation and trash cinema…even if the film makes you feel like taking a shower afterwards.

Hidden Treasure/Dumpster Fire?

Jamie:	(5.0 / 5)
Jimbo:	(4.0 / 5)
Average:	(4.5 / 5)

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