Modern audiences may be familiar with Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race, starring Jason Statham and Tyrese Gibson. In the high-adrenaline film, the head of a privatized prison earns millions by broadcasting "Death Race," a vehicular combat racing series where dangerous inmates battle each other in weaponized and armored cars with the goal of winning their freedom. Among the racers is a masked driver named Frankenstein (Statham). However, the story isn’t entirely original.

The idea originated from the 1956 short story, "The Racer," by Ib Melchior. The story was then adapted into the dystopian sci-fi thriller, Death Race 2000, directed by Paul Bartel and produced by the legendary Roger Corman for New World Pictures. Released in 1975, the film starred David Carradine as the protagonist, "Frankenstein," and a young as the racer, Joe "Machine Gun" Viterbo. Unfortunately, the filming process was chaotic, and while at it, Stallone and fellow stars broke a few laws.

A film of visceral immediacy, Death Race 2000 takes us to the year 2000 (the future in this case) when. To please the people, the government , where a group of skilled gearheads race across the country in their high-powered, modified cars.

The race is super gory, and the drivers, utterly desensitized to violence, earn bonus points for striking and killing innocent pedestrians: 100 points for a person in a wheelchair, 70 points for the elderly, 50 points for children, and so on. In one memorable scene, sadistic nurses place the wheelchairs of several patients on the road and wait for the gore, only for him to swerve off the road and run over the medics instead.

The current key drivers — who appear to be thriving amid the gloom — are Frankenstein, a mysterious black-garbed man who has won many other races before; Calamity Jane, a cowgirl obsessed with Wild West culture; Machine Gun Joe Viterbo, a Chicago hoodlum; Matilda the Hun, a white supremacist; and Nero the Hero, an alleged Roman gladiator. Among them,

The real fun begins when Thomasina Paine, a descendant of the 1770s American Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine, forms a resistance group to stop the games. Their aim is to sabotage the race, murdering most of the drivers, and kidnapping Frankenstein, aiming to use him as a negotiating tool against Mr. President. Eager for things to flow as smoothly as possible, the government tries to cover up the disruption, lying that French dissidents are to blame. For romance lovers, there’s a twisty plot to parse too, involving Frankenstein marrying one of the rebels (not Thomasina). And you won’t believe the new career he chooses when all this is done.

Roger Corman was famously known as “The King of B-Movies,” and Death Race 2000’s production story proves that he totally deserved that tag. First, . Additionally, the limited budget meant that many of Hiring private roads would have cost too much.

Then came the job actors ought to have complained about. For most of its running time, According to the movie’s Making Of documentary, Sylvester Stallone and David Carradine were The original stunt drivers refused to drive them in places where they could be apprehended. Driving such cars also meant insurance trouble in case of a crash.

Stallone and Carradine thus Thankfully, there were no overenthusiastic police officers in sight. Still, it’s hard not to imagine the risk that driving a modified car poses. Mary Woronov, who played Calamity Jane, luckily earned an exemption from the stunt work because she had no idea how to drive a car. Her car was towed by a flatbed truck all along, but you’d hardly notice it.

Don’t let the low budget and production issues fool you. Death Race 2000 is unquestionably the best film about Frankenstein (the driver). It is an oddball road-themed motion picture with some of the quirkiest characters you're likely to encounter, and a frighteningly deadpan portrayal of madness on the skids Roger Corman always knew how to create magic out of limited resources, and he did so again here.

Stallone also got his name on the map with his performance. The actor gives a powerhouse performance, summoning the grace of those who starred in movies like Excuse my Dust and Ten Laps to Spare. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a score of 82%, while the Jason Statham remake only managed half of that (41%).

The newer film presents the action exceedingly well, especially the final showdown, butand because it only relies on spectacle, a problem most Jason Statham films tend to have. The original film, on the other hand, prioritizes themes and characterization. All the drivers stand for something, and the script offers clear psychological explanations for the homicidal rampage we witness, so as not to diminish the haunting feeling that this disquieting story evokes.

Beyond that, the parallel plot involving the attempt to bring down a totalitarian government adds to the intrigue, resulting in a film that entertains while offering great political commentary.

Major critics hated the Stallone film when it first came out. However, his criticism was misguided because it focused more on society than the dystopian thriller. Without offering any particular points about the movie itself, Ebert insisted that he was dismayed “small children were digging for gratuitous bloodshed.” Such blame ought to have been directed by those responsible for enforcing the R-rating. Gene Siskel gave it one star out of four, describing it as "the goofiest and sleaziest film I've seen in the last five years". Thankfully, retrospective reviews were kinder, hence the high Rotten Tomatoes score.

Interestingly, the Statham film had a chance to be better than it was. , with Tom Cruise marked to star. Nothing would have gone wrong with such a combination. Regrettably, Cruise pulled out because he felt the script wasn’t good enough, forcing Corman to also lose interest. Corman would produce Death Race 2050 years later, which, to be fair, is worth watching too. Check it out if you can.