American Grindhouse

I really, really enjoyed this. At the same time, though entertaining and informative, it leaves one yearning for so much more. The clips from the films shown are usually VERY short, and quite often, they are not directly discussed by the commentators. Instead, they are used to "illustrate" a more general discussion of one of the sub-genres covered her (ie: pre-code; nudist camp, nudie cuties, etc). I look forward to someone expanding upon this introduction to provide us with a film exploring each of the sub-genres in more depth.

Finally, I was pleased to hear John Landis refer to PASSION OF THE Christ as an Exploitation film, as that's exactly how I viewed it... with total delight, I must say. In fact, given it and APOCALYPTO, an argument could be made for Mel Gibson as the greatest Exploitation film director of the past decade... even if he does not exactly see his own films in that light.

It's a far ranging exploration of the exploitation cinema. It takes a history trip from the beginning of film all the way to today. It doesn't really try to limit the scope, and skims through 100 years. It features several talking heads. The most famous of the experts is director John Landis.

This serves as a general documentary of the fringe movie world. The best thing is all the clips of these old movies. The talking heads aren't digging too deep but are generally well informed. Robert Forster does a good job as the narrator. His gruff voice isn't the normal narration but somehow fits the subject matter. This is a steady march through history categorizing all the major movements hitting the big moments. The best interviews are the actual participants who are talking about their own movies. The doc does grind down as the movie has nowhere to go with the arrival of porn. I guess that's another doc. The final section of Hollywood trying to rip off the grindhouse isn't quite as compelling. As a general doc, it hits most of the big points.

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.

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.

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.