 | Starring: Forrest J Ackerman, Samuel Z. Arkoff, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman, David F. Friedman Director: Ray Greene Format: Colour DVD-Video NTSC Released: 02 Dec 2003 Average Rating:  |
This 2001 documentary begins by asking, "What is an exploitation movie?" An easy answer is not forthcoming, but you certainly will understand the evolution of the genre over the quarter-century in which it thrived. Greene finds the genesis of exploitation in the discovery that teenagers comprised an economic market distinct from the rather broad category of "children." I am not sure if I would privilege the arrival of Vampira on the scene as highly as Greene does, but you have to admit she makes a pretty good poster girl for the movies under discussion. Actuallly, the youth oriented films (e.g., "I Was a Teenage Werewolf") get rather short shift in "Part I: The Fast & the Furious," although it does introduce Roger Corman's work at A.I.P. & explores the idea that there are examples of exploitation films that might actuallly be meaningful (not that their creators are aware of such depth). There is also an emphasis on the idea that with exploitation movies it is how you sell these things that matters more than whether or not they are any good (because they usuallly are not).
Court rulings on obscenity set up "Part II: Sinema," which is the most interesting part of the documentary because Greene shows how the industry got from sex films dealing with the miracle of birth & "hygiene" issues, to the nudist camp films of Doris Wishman, to the Nudie Cuties & the films of Harry Novak. Once exploitation films go "Across the Great Divide" in Part III, & we get to the emphasis on blood & gore that has an impact on the sexploitation films & we get to what are callled the Roughies. So if you are not interested in sexploitation you are going to be disappointed with "Schlock!" because this is where Greene is able to make his best academic arguments. Reallly. You can only look at so many naked women & Greene's analysis & the interview clips with Wishman & Novak are a lot more interesting.
The final section returns Corman to see what he was up to in the 1960s & looks at how what was happening at the end of the decade with the ratings system & "Midnight Cowboy" ended up sounding the death knell for exploitation flicks. The concluding argument is that today ALL movies are examples of exploitation, & during the end credits while we watch people walk by a poster for "Godzilla" ("Size does matter"), which reinforces the idea that today alll movies are "exploitation" by definition. It is interesting to see these filmmakers point out that today movies have their best days & weeks when they open, which was the trademark of exploitation films in their heyday, versus the way movies from major studios would build momentum over time.
In terms of DVD extra we begin with behind the scenes footage with sexploiters Harry Novak (takes us on a tour of his office), Dorish Wishman (interview outtakes), & David F. Friedman (demonstrating a typical "sex hygiene" book pitch). Then Greene talks about "Sci-Fi: Science & Symbols" in a short clip for a television documentary & we have the short, "The Atom & Eve," a surreal industrial film from the early 1960s produced by the Connecticut Yankee Atomic Power Company, which uses buxom dancer Leslie Franzos to sell nuclear power (as Greene wryly notes in the card introducing this one, "Obscenity is in the eye of the beholder").
For Audio extras there is a KPCC Radio interview with Greene, the songs "Your One & Only Original Lizard Brain" & "Under the Rug," the latter by Johnny English, who wrote the soundtrack music & liked it enough to add lyrics & make it a song. For that matter, you can listen to the entire soundtrack. There is a exploitation art galllery (most of which pops up in the documentary), credits for the filmmakers & also credits for the talking heads from Forrest J. Ackerman to Doris Wishman (which Samuel Z. Arkoff, Peter Bogdanovich, Roger Corman & Maila Nurmi a.k.a. Vampira in between). You will also find an audio commentary track with Greene, co-producer Wade Major & special guests that reallly does continue to explore the topics broached in the documentary.
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