Fight for Your Life is a 1977 action film starring
William Sanderson-Biography:Sanderson was born on January 10, 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father. He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He holds business and law degrees from the University of Memphis...
(of
Blade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick...
fame), who plays Kane, a hate-fuelled redneck who absconds from jail with his sidekicks (an
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n and a
MexicanThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
). They hole up in the secluded house of a
blackAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
minister and his family, where harsh epithets are exchanged and the minister is forced to take action to defend his family.
Tagline:
There is no greater violence than a father's revenge for the rape of his daughter.
Probably one of the most controversial
exploitation filmExploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. Thus, films need something to "exploit", such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s ever produced, largely because of its endless stream of racial abuse and on-screen exploits including
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
, the terrorizing of a baby and the
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a child.
Although the idea of criminals terrorizing the inhabitants of an isolated house is nothing new in the field of exploitation cinema (see
The Desperate HoursThe Desperate Hours is a 1955 film from Paramount Pictures starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March. The movie was produced and directed by William Wyler and based on a novel and play written by Joseph Hayes which were loosely based on actual events....
,
Death WeekendDeath Weekend is a 1976 Canadian horror/thriller film. It stars Brenda Vaccaro and Don Stroud and was one of the first films from Canadian director William Fruet. The low-budget production was shot in rural Canada and at a studio in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada. The film was released in the US under...
,
The Last House on the Left, and others),
Fight For Your Life has been singled out for its profane and racist dialogue (most of it Sanderson's).
Discussion
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Fight for Your Life is a 1977 action film starring
William Sanderson-Biography:Sanderson was born on January 10, 1944 in Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. to an elementary school teacher mother and a landscape designer father. He is a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha Fraternity. He holds business and law degrees from the University of Memphis...
(of
Blade RunnerBlade Runner is a 1982 American science fiction film, directed by Ridley Scott and starring Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, and Sean Young. The screenplay, written by Hampton Fancher and David Peoples, is based on the novel Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philip K. Dick...
fame), who plays Kane, a hate-fuelled redneck who absconds from jail with his sidekicks (an
AsiaAsia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.6% of the earth's total surface area and with approximately 4 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population.Asia is traditionally defined as part of the...
n and a
MexicanThe United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
). They hole up in the secluded house of a
blackAfrican Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have origins in any of the black populations of Africa. In the United States, the terms are generally used for Americans with at least partial Sub-Saharan African ancestry...
minister and his family, where harsh epithets are exchanged and the minister is forced to take action to defend his family.
Tagline:
There is no greater violence than a father's revenge for the rape of his daughter.
Probably one of the most controversial
exploitation filmExploitation film is a type of film that is promoted by "exploiting" often lurid subject matter. The term "exploitation" is common in film marketing, used for all types of films to mean promotion or advertising. Thus, films need something to "exploit", such as a big star, special effects, sex,...
s ever produced, largely because of its endless stream of racial abuse and on-screen exploits including
rapeRape, also referred to as sexual assault, is an assault by a person involving sexual intercourse with or without sexual penetration of another person without that person's consent....
, the terrorizing of a baby and the
murderMurder, as defined in common law countries, is the unlawful killing of another human being with intent , and generally this state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide...
of a child.
Although the idea of criminals terrorizing the inhabitants of an isolated house is nothing new in the field of exploitation cinema (see
The Desperate HoursThe Desperate Hours is a 1955 film from Paramount Pictures starring Humphrey Bogart and Fredric March. The movie was produced and directed by William Wyler and based on a novel and play written by Joseph Hayes which were loosely based on actual events....
,
Death WeekendDeath Weekend is a 1976 Canadian horror/thriller film. It stars Brenda Vaccaro and Don Stroud and was one of the first films from Canadian director William Fruet. The low-budget production was shot in rural Canada and at a studio in Kleinburg, Ontario, Canada. The film was released in the US under...
,
The Last House on the Left, and others),
Fight For Your Life has been singled out for its profane and racist dialogue (most of it Sanderson's). One reviewer remarked that he couldn't have been paid enough to have been the only white man in the auditorium when the film played in
HarlemHarlem is a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center. Originally a Dutch village, formally organized in 1658, it is named after the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands.Harlem has been defined by a series...
.
Fight For Your Life was denied a
BritishGreat Britain is an island lying to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island. With a population of about 59.6 million people, it is the third most populated island on Earth. Great Britain is surrounded by over 1000 smaller...
theatrical release in 1981, but a video release the following year allowed the public brief access to the film before it wound up on the video nasties list and was outlawed.
Availability
Briefly available in the
United KingdomThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
on the independent video label Vision On, released circa 1982, but outlawed with the advent of the
Video Recordings Act (1984)The Video Recordings Act 1984 is an unenforceable UK Act of Parliament that was passed in 1984. It states that commercial video recordings offered for sale or for hire within the UK must carry a classification that has been agreed upon by an authority designated by the Home Office...
,
Fight For Your Life was denied a British cinema release when it was rejected by the BBFC in October 1981.
Fight For Your Life remains unavailable in the UK, in any form, but in the United States it was recently reissued by
Blue UndergroundBlue Underground is a company specializing in releasing authoritative editions of cult and exploitation movies on DVD.It was originally formed as a shell company to oversee 'making of' documentaries during founder William Lustig's time at Anchor Bay Entertainment, but became an independent entity...
in a fully-remastered
DVDDVD, also known as Digital Versatile Disc or Digital Video Disc,is an optical disc storage media format, and was founded in 1995. Its main uses are video and data storage...
treatment.