The 20th film on the video nasty DPP 39 list is a troubling watch. Unlike most of the other films it's not a horror but a home invasion thriller with a few faces you'd recognise. On paper it sounds surprisingly tame and then you start to watch and quickly realise why it ended up on that infamous list.
Jesse Lee Kane (William Sanderson) has just escaped from a prison transport van and along with his fellow inmates, Chino and Ling he goes on the run, killing anyone who gets in their way. During a liquor store robbery/murder they kidnap Corrie Turner (Yvonne Ross) and decide to hide out from the law in her house and in the process take her whole family hostage. Hostages that include her brother, her grandmother, her mother and her father Ted (Robert Judd). Jesse takes an instant dislike to Ted and tortures him both physically and psychologically. All the while Ted holds out until the moment he gets a chance to strike back.
Fight For Your Life was filmed in 1977 but didn't hit British shores until 1981 where it was instantly refused a cinema certificate. Distributors took advantage of the lawless early days of the video boom and released it on VHS and Betamax and less than 3 years later it became one of the notorious video nasties. The only one on the list for language. Language? Yup. There's racist invective in here that will turn your hair white courtesy of Jesse Lee Kane and his hatred for the Turner family. Every racial epiphet you've ever heard is spewn here and plenty you haven't. It's a torrent of bigotry and christ is it hard to watch. God only knows how difficult is was for the actors facing it. Throughout the film the Turner family is beaten, raped, almost lynched and verbally abused and the only reason you'll keep watching is for the revenge you know is coming. And then when it finally arrives it ....... well it falls curiously flat. It's tame, rushed and ends with a whimper leaving you with the distinct impression the film was made with only one thing in mind. And that one thing wasn't the justice portion of the story. Far be it for me to say what writer Straw Weisman and director Robert A. Endelson were thinking when they made this but you could get the feeling at times that their motives weren't pure.
Like fellow nasty, I Spit On Your Grave this is a revenge thriller in name only. And like ISOYG it revels in it's nastiness, rubs it in your face, spends far more time on it than anything else. Bafflingly ISOYG has been reappraised as a feminist classic in recent years but I can't seen FFYL being reappraised anytime soon. There's a real tang of unpleasantness about it all and in today's climate and with it's complexities regarding racial issues it's no surprise a modern release hasn't been attempted in the UK. It probably could get an uncut release now but there'd be uproar about it the second social media got wind of it. Actually, thinking on it, I'm amazed it hasn't had a disc release because those boutique film distributors who specialise in releasing the nasties love a dose of controversy. Uproar always sells films.
Is it any good though? Not really. Leads William Sanderson (who went on to play Mayor E.B. Farnum in Deadwood) and Robert Judd aside it's an amateurish affair and it looks like an episode of a cheap TV show. There's no redeeming values here, there's nothing on offer. Even the worst nasties like Devil Hunter and Bloody Moon gave us something to laugh at (not with, at) but here you'll just cringe. It's bad when an 89 minute long film becomes an ordeal.
Is Fight For Your Life worth your time and/or money. Nope. If you're desperate to see it look it up on youtube.
Did it deserve it's banned status? I can see why it happened.
What's next? Flesh For Frankenstein. Thankfully one of the most enjoyable of the nasties. I need fun after this one.
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