Fight For Your Life

Fight for Your Life (1975) from Tuna

This is the least politically correct action thriller you will ever see. Many theaters wouldn't even screen this film, fearing violence on their premises. It is banned to this day in Great Britain.

A group of three convicts escapes from a transport wagon after a traffic accident, and ends up invading the home of a law-abiding black family, including a deacon father, a mother, a salty grand mother, a young son, and a virginal teenaged daughter. The gain consists of a southern white trash bigot, an Asian rapist/murderer, and a Latino murderer. Before they arrive at the house, they rob a filling station, and then a liquor store, shooting the owner right next to his baby.

The three are pure evil, and most of the film consists of their heaping one indignity after another upon their victims, to set and justify up the revenge ending. Their actions include killing a young boy, raping and killing a white woman (Bonnie Martin) who had been engaged to a different son who died tragically, and taking turns raping the virginal daughter (Yvonne Ross).

The film was made for less than $90K, and is much better than the budget would suggest. Fight for Your Life is not a pleasant film, but it does produce a powerful visceral reaction. I can almost guarantee you will get involved enough to hate the villains by the end of the film.

DVD INFO

Audio Commentary with author Straw Weisman and director of photography Lloyd Freidus

NUDITY REPORT

Bonnie Martin and Yvonne Bass show their breasts in brutal rape scenes.

The Critics Vote ...

There are no major reviews online, but the IMDb page has about a dozen reviews from genre-oriented sites, if you would care to read more about this unusual, forgotten video nasty.

The People Vote ...

IMDB summary. IMDb voters score it 6.5/10

The meaning of the IMDb score: 7.5 usually indicates a level of excellence equivalent to about three and a half stars from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm watchability, comparable to approximately two and a half stars from the critics. The fives are generally not worthwhile unless they are really your kind of material, equivalent to about a two star rating from the critics, or a C- from our system. Films rated below five are generally awful even if you like that kind of film - this score is roughly equivalent to one and a half stars from the critics or a D on our scale. (Possibly even less, depending on just how far below five the rating is.

Our 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. Any film rated B- or better is recommended for just about anyone. In order to rate at least a B-, a film should be both a critical and commercial success. Exceptions: (1) We will occasionally rate a film B- with good popular acceptance and bad reviews, if we believe the critics have severely underrated a film. (2) We may also assign a B- or better to a well-reviewed film which did not do well at the box office if we feel that the fault lay in the marketing of the film, and that the film might have been a hit if people had known about it. (Like, for example, The Waterdance.)
C+ means it has no crossover appeal, but will be considered excellent by people who enjoy this kind of movie. If this is your kind of movie, a C+ and an A are indistinguishable to you.
C means it is competent, but uninspired genre fare. People who like this kind of movie will think it satisfactory. Others probably will not.
C- indicates that it we found it to be a poor movie, but genre addicts find it watchable. Any film rated C- or better is recommended for fans of that type of film, but films with this rating should be approached with caution by mainstream audiences, who may find them incompetent or repulsive or both. If this is NOT your kind of movie, a C- and an E are indistinguishable to you.
D means you'll hate it even if you like the genre. We don't score films below C- that often, because we like movies and we think that most of them have at least a solid niche audience. Now that you know that, you should have serious reservations about any movie below C-. Films rated below C- generally have both bad reviews and poor popular acceptance.
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 film is a C-, a case of a low budget film which provokes a powerful visceral reaction, ala I Spit On Your Grave. Most people should avoid it, but if you are comfortable with the description above, you may find it involving.