American Grindhouse

Just watched this fascinating documentary on the exploitation movies of the last 100 or so years on Hulu.com. Many interesting insights from various figures like John Landis, Joe Dante, Herschell Gordon Lewis, Jack Hill, Fred Williamson, and the late Don Edmonds, the last one had died not long after filming his interview. He's the one responsible for that infamous Nazi (or possibly anti-) flick that introduced Ilsa (which I have yet to watch in its entirety). This possibly won't be the last word on the various genres that played in various grindhouse and drive-in theatres over the last several decades but it's certainly one of the most essential that I'd highly recommend. Many quotable lines and interesting clips abound here.

Just saw "American Grindhouse" at The Boston Underground Film Festival and loved it. Very insightful, very fast and very funny. I enjoyed that they have a couple of witty female interviewees, as well. I thought I knew a lot of movies - particularly grindhouse a.k.a. exploitation films, but this movie puts it all into perspective for me.

I thought that this documentary would mainly focus on the exploitation most of us think of from the 60's on to present day. I am glad to say that is has a much more interesting approach then just that obvious plot. It starts at the turn of the 18th century at the dawn of cinema, all and while amusing classic clips. It progresses decade by decade comparing more contemporary films to pre code Hollywood. These are things most exploitation fans would never really think of...'Where did the 70s exploit films come from, and what inspired them?' I personally welcome this lesson, and don't worry you get the schlock and gore too! My point? Even if your a 'know it all' go see it, it's academic with a punch line. Now if I can only find all of these amazing movies they talked about.

I love grindhouse films, especially the gore of Herschell Gordon Lewis, horror like The Last House on the Left, and exploitation films, whether they be blaxploitation, women in prison films, and even nunsploitation.

I guess that makes me weird, but grindhouse films in various forms have existed from the birth of motion pictures. Films like Maniac, Reefer Madness, and more have titillated moviegoers for almost 100 years.

This documentary does an excellent job of reviewing exploitation from the beginning, complete with uncensored clips from the movies they talk about.

If grindhouse is something you are not familiar with, then this documentary will enlighten you. It is for all those who want to know more.

About as interesting as a loosely-related series of sparse conversations with cult-favorite directors is likely to get. The goal seems to have been the assembly of a "straight from the horse's mouth" oral history of exploitation at large in cinema, but none of the subjects could really nail down the outer limits of what the term meant. So, instead, it became a crash-course history of underground film, decorated at all corners with vaguely familiar old men reminiscing about their glory days. The narrative jumps all over the place, sometimes floating from the '20s to the '90s over the course of a single sentence - that's OK, though, because the sheer breadth of knowledge and a shared recollection of the crazy promotional stunts each film undertook to get noticed makes the journey worthwhile. It's also one hell of a Netflix recommendation engine.

This is a terrific documentary for fans of exploitation cinema and B movies. The documentary charts the history of US exploitation films from the beginnings of cinema to the modern day.

It was Tarantino and Rodriguez that revitalised the term Grindhouse when they made their double feature but it took off in the 1960s with the change of mores and loosening of censorship laws.

It allowed filmmakers to exploit and challenge an area of cinema that was designed for discerning adults that like terror, sex, violence and buckets of blood.

The documentary is narrated by Robert Forster and interviews starts, directors and fans of the genre including Joe Dante, John Landis, Fred Williamson, Larry Cohen, William Lustig, Lewis Teague and others.

However it is not just talking heads, you have clips from grindhouse films and especially a good representation of clips from films of the 1960s and 70s.