Speaker 1: Hey everybody, This is Chuck and welcome to this week's
Speaker 1: edition of the Stuff You Should Know Saturday Curated selects.
Speaker 1: This week, I decided to go with How Exploitation Films
Speaker 1: Work from April fourteenth, twenty eleven. And this one was
Speaker 1: an easy pick because I like all of our movie
Speaker 1: episodes and I think Josh might have put this one
Speaker 1: together way back in the day when we recorded it,
Speaker 1: and it was just a really cool one. Not only
Speaker 1: do we get to talk a lot about just some
Speaker 1: of the great exploitation films, but just a little bit
Speaker 1: about the history and how they came about. So I
Speaker 1: just remember really enjoying recording this one and got great
Speaker 1: feedback on it. So give it a shot, and if
Speaker 1: you've already listened to it, give it another shot. That
Speaker 1: is what I suggest enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Should
Speaker 1: Know from HowStuffWorks dot com.
Speaker 2: Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's
Speaker 2: Charles W. Chuck Bryant. This is Stuff you Should Know,
Speaker 2: the podcast and kind of a special edition. Frankly, I
Speaker 2: am a little excited, Chuck, I'm a little giddy.
Speaker 1: Shut your mouth.
Speaker 2: That's yeah, okay, sure, all right, this is our first
Speaker 2: ever movie centric podcast.
Speaker 1: Right, movie centric for sure. Yeah, we've mentioned movies of
Speaker 1: course all the time, but this one is like, this
Speaker 1: is all about movies.
Speaker 2: So this is by popular request to an extent. People
Speaker 2: want to see like, uh, they want to hear us
Speaker 2: talk about movies and just do a movie podcast. So
Speaker 2: we decided to focus on exploitation films.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 2: This is also probably the first podcast that we're going
Speaker 2: to say, if you are a teacher of children in
Speaker 2: eighth grade or younger, and you're using this as a
Speaker 2: teaching tool, you might want to go to the one
Speaker 2: before this or the one after. Yeah, we don't generally
Speaker 2: try to alienate. Add it says, we're not attempting to now,
Speaker 2: it's just a natural byproduct of the exploitation film.
Speaker 1: Can't talk about exploitation films without talking about some lurid
Speaker 1: subject matter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you can't say exploitation without ploit.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they weren't exploiting, just people being nice, right, nice ploitation.
Speaker 2: So, Chuck, I went and saw a movie the other
Speaker 2: day called I Saw the Devil. It's a Korean movie.
Speaker 2: It's by the guy who did the Tale of Two Sisters.
Speaker 1: I think Oh, he said more violent than Old Boy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the Old Boy is one of the main characters.
Speaker 2: And I've seen Old Boy. I've seen what's the other
Speaker 2: one he did, the vampire movie, Yeah, Thirst, So I
Speaker 2: think it's pretty good. It was okay, this one is
Speaker 2: it's the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 2: It's the most graphically violent movie I've ever seen in
Speaker 2: my life. The only the only reason, like I was
Speaker 2: able to complete is because I'm like, this is it's
Speaker 2: a movie, but I walked out of it like it's
Speaker 2: so over the top, it's so gory. It's clearly an
Speaker 2: exploitation film.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, But the problem is is, like, really, if you
Speaker 2: start to look around, John Hughes, films technically are exploitation films.
Speaker 2: The Breakfast Club is technically an exploitation film.
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's a big wave of teen exploitation films, and
Speaker 1: we'll get to that, but yeah, you're right.
Speaker 2: So one of the broader definitions of exploitation films is
Speaker 2: basically anything that's really like over the top, that is
Speaker 2: beyond reality, or that maybe focuses on people's fears, their
Speaker 2: sexuality and basically just kind of serves it up in
Speaker 2: a larger than life manner. That's one way of looking
Speaker 2: at exploitation films.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you're basically they're exploiting some of the seedier aspects
Speaker 1: of humanity most times.
Speaker 2: Sure, like murder or sex, like weird sex, that kind
Speaker 2: of thing, sex, weird.
Speaker 1: Sex, teenage rebelling against parents.
Speaker 2: Sure, like weird science. Have you ever been to a
Speaker 2: party where a couch shot out of the chimney and
Speaker 2: into the pond? I mean it's a pretty nice party.
Speaker 2: I don't think it's ever really happened, you know. So
Speaker 2: that's the vast definition of exploitation. But you and I
Speaker 2: are kind of qualified to teach a cinema class at
Speaker 2: like maybe a low level community college at this point,
Speaker 2: after the amount of research we've done in this sure,
Speaker 2: and we found that academically there's a there's a much
Speaker 2: more distinct definition for exploitation, and it's seemingly interchangeable term grindhouse.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, what's the Is there a definition definition?
Speaker 2: It's more like a timeframe. Okay, so from like nineteen
Speaker 2: nineteen when they really first started making movies to I
Speaker 2: think nineteen sixty nineteen fifty nine, when the Hayes Act
Speaker 2: went away, that was exploitation and then after that it
Speaker 2: became Grindhouse. Gotcha, it's my understanding. Okay, so let's do
Speaker 2: this all.
Speaker 1: Right, Well, that's the old joke.
Speaker 2: Was it?
Speaker 1: In the awesome documentary American Grindhouse, which documents this era
Speaker 1: of filmmaking. Yeah, the old joke, one of the guys says,
Speaker 1: is that exploitation films began five minutes after the camera
Speaker 1: was invented, the motion picture camera.
Speaker 2: Because the guy was like the directors like to his girlfriend, hey,
Speaker 2: would you mind taking your clothes off.
Speaker 1: Or the camera exactly? So it says something about the
Speaker 1: human condition that you invent the film camera, and the
Speaker 1: first moving images were often Lurid Edison's film that showed
Speaker 1: clips of like decapitations and violence and guys fighting, yeah,
Speaker 1: and nit naked women as film tests. So it's just
Speaker 1: that says a lot about people like, all right, now
Speaker 1: we know how to capture things, so let's capture sex
Speaker 1: and violence right first.
Speaker 2: Right, And although that really kind of jibed with public tastes,
Speaker 2: or at least public fascination, it didn't jibe with the
Speaker 2: prevailing standards. They agreed upon standards, right.
Speaker 1: Right, I think he said nineteen nineteen. But the first
Speaker 1: exploitation film was nineteen thirteen, Oh, okay, Trafficking Souls or
Speaker 1: While New York Sleeps, right, and that, like you said,
Speaker 1: exploitation often plays into fears. That played into the fear
Speaker 1: at the time of the white slave trade. Budget of
Speaker 1: fifty seven grand and gross four hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
Speaker 1: which nineteen thirteen is a lot of dough.
Speaker 2: That is a ton of though, and.
Speaker 1: That was Universal Pictures and they went, hey, going on
Speaker 1: to something here.
Speaker 2: Right after that was released the Hayes Code. Will Hayes
Speaker 2: was the Postmaster General and the Presbyterian elder and he
Speaker 2: was making one hundred grand a year during the depression.
Speaker 1: Unbelievable, right.
Speaker 2: He basically said, like, look, we need we need to
Speaker 2: apply some moral standards to filmmaking. There's decapitation, there's naked breast,
Speaker 2: there's white white slavery, Like we need to we need
Speaker 2: to fure this right.
Speaker 1: Well, actually there wasn't nudity yet like those early test films.
Speaker 1: There were, but nudity we'll get to that later, okay,
Speaker 1: But yes, that's what Hayes tried to do. And like
Speaker 1: prohibition didn't exactly quell drinking, the Hayes code actually sort
Speaker 1: of gave rise to the exploitation movement.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's just like just like prohibition, just like marijuana prohibition,
Speaker 2: just like well any drug prohibition. Anytime you say you
Speaker 2: can't do this, you can't have something that you want,
Speaker 2: somebody else is going to operate in a black market.
Speaker 2: A black market's going to spring up, simple economics. Yeah,
Speaker 2: and that's exactly what happened, and that's where exploitation cinema
Speaker 2: came up. It's like, you can't get this from Hollywood
Speaker 2: because Hollywood has to play by the rules. But my
Speaker 2: production studio is my model t and let's go make
Speaker 2: this movie. Give me some money. I'm going to film
Speaker 2: a child being born close up and put it in
Speaker 2: the movies.
Speaker 1: Yes, and you can do that. You can make your
Speaker 1: movies all day long. But if they're never exhibited, than
Speaker 1: what good are you doing or not? Like they were
Speaker 1: trying to do some good, but you're not making any scratch.
Speaker 1: So the forty thieves they talk about in the documentary
Speaker 1: were these filmmakers and exhibitors basically that traveled around like carnies,
Speaker 1: setting up these sort of gorilla film screenings and some
Speaker 1: places sort of out of the way where they can't
Speaker 1: get caught. And that was for the first time, you know,
Speaker 1: they were taking films outside of the mainstream.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Different. Sometimes they weren't even theaters. They would show them
Speaker 1: like VFW halls if you want to go see Birth
Speaker 1: of a Baby films. Apparently they were popular.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that was a whole genre, early genre of exploitation.
Speaker 1: Well, and so was early on a lot of the
Speaker 1: film centered around like how to wear a condom and
Speaker 1: the sex hygiene films.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because there was no information about that out there,
Speaker 2: and so exploitation filmmakers, whether disingenuously or genuinely, were presenting
Speaker 2: their stuff like this is a public service. People need
Speaker 2: to know this, right and making movies about it. But
Speaker 2: also and people were going on that excuse as well,
Speaker 2: like well, I need to know about this, but at
Speaker 2: the same time, it's like I want to see this
Speaker 2: the craziest thing I'll ever see in my life exactly,
Speaker 2: you know, on screen.
Speaker 1: Or they argued a lot of times that they were
Speaker 1: cautionary tales. If they were about drugs or violence, they
Speaker 1: would say, hey, this could happen to you, so you
Speaker 1: should educate yourself. But what they really want to do
Speaker 1: is get the.
Speaker 2: Movie scene and make some money exactly.
Speaker 1: Paramount Decision of nineteen forty eight. This is pretty big.
Speaker 1: This Supreme Court voted that movie studios could no longer
Speaker 1: own their own movie theaters. At the time, you know,
Speaker 1: there would be like the Paramount Theater in Hollywood from
Speaker 1: the Paramount film production company. It would show their movies.
Speaker 1: Supreme Court said no more, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: exploitation films became a little bit more legit because the
Speaker 1: Hayes Code kind of fell apart. Yeah, and this is
Speaker 1: post World War two, so people.
Speaker 2: Had seen a lot of death recently out.
Speaker 1: Of death, and then a little more they thought ladies
Speaker 1: in suggestive roles were good for morale, and there was
Speaker 1: a little bit of loosening on the sex thing a
Speaker 1: little bit post World War two.
Speaker 2: And that led to another subgenre of exploitation film, the
Speaker 2: newdest colony films, which were pawned off as documentaries. A
Speaker 2: lot well most of these were pawned off as document documentaries,
Speaker 2: which legitimized them, but really it was maybe maybe it
Speaker 2: actually was film that a news camp. Probably not. Mostly
Speaker 2: there were actors and actresses just engaged in archery naked
Speaker 2: or long walks naked.
Speaker 1: There could be no sex. Still that was still no taboo.
Speaker 2: But it was just like naked pretty people right at
Speaker 2: a newdist colony, which is interesting because you're not a nudist,
Speaker 2: so come learn about them exactly.
Speaker 1: Yeah, after that, through the history, we had things like
Speaker 1: the teen like you said, the teen Rebellion of the
Speaker 1: fifties with that rebel thought, a car in Blackboard Jungle,
Speaker 1: and movies like that. All of a sudden, we're targeted
Speaker 1: specifically at teens, which was new. And then drive in
Speaker 1: theaters were built so teenagers could see movies where their
Speaker 1: parents weren't going to be. Apparently the adults didn't go
Speaker 1: to drive ins a lot at first.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, it's all kids. I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: So they showed exploitation films, and then later the beach films,
Speaker 1: which were marketed as it's silly, it's Frankie avalon, but
Speaker 1: they were decidedly weird and overtly sexual sometimes.
Speaker 2: And then chuck, if you'll notice, we're kind of progressing
Speaker 2: along in this chronological order, and each thing is kind
Speaker 2: of being built on the last.
Speaker 1: It was very much a step process.
Speaker 2: Right, And apparently that was kind of the form that
Speaker 2: exploitation filmmaking followed. Until nineteen sixty it was just it
Speaker 2: was centered around drugs, violence, sex, and in a lot
Speaker 2: of ways they were presented as documentaries. They might not
Speaker 2: have a plot. Basically, it was one person would make
Speaker 2: some film and it would just break all the rules,
Speaker 2: and then then a bunch of other people would make
Speaker 2: similar films, and that was the way it went. And
Speaker 2: then in the nineteen sixties things just started to go
Speaker 2: every which way, all sorts of directions. Right, So nudity
Speaker 2: nudy films were a long standing thread of exploitation films
Speaker 2: and then they probably reached their pinnacle with Russ Myers, right,
Speaker 2: King of the Nudies is what he's called.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he was the first guy to He's significant because
Speaker 1: he was the first director to have films featuring nudity
Speaker 1: that actually were dramatic narratives and had plots and characters,
Speaker 1: and they weren't classified as documentaries anymore. And then the
Speaker 1: Roughies came along and they offered up violence for the
Speaker 1: not first time, but big time for the first time, right,
Speaker 1: And that has a lot to do with the fact
Speaker 1: that it was the sixties and Kennedy was shot and
Speaker 1: the United States was just becoming increasingly violent.
Speaker 2: America lost its innocence. Yeah, and the other thing that
Speaker 2: really happened in the nineteen sixties was the Hayes Coote
Speaker 2: officially won away, was replaced by the MPAA and the
Speaker 2: the I guess the long standing prohibition on Hollywood producing
Speaker 2: exploitation films was it was lessened, decreased, and so studios
Speaker 2: were like, oh, we can make money over here too, Well,
Speaker 2: let's start making exploitation films right, And this is where
Speaker 2: grindhouse was born. So my cinema professor definition of grindhouse
Speaker 2: is big budget, studio backed exploitation films. Okay, okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: that's that's mine.
Speaker 4: I like it.
Speaker 2: That's gonna be a quiz question later.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll go with that. Actually, back up one second.
Speaker 1: We got to mention Herschel Gordon Lewis. He was a
Speaker 1: director who had a co director. I can't remember the
Speaker 1: other guy's named you. Anyway, he was a co director
Speaker 1: and he was one of these exploitation guys that was
Speaker 1: getting frustrated because there weren't a lot of places to
Speaker 1: show your movie. So it was a pretty crowded marketplace.
Speaker 1: So he said, what's the one taboo that like people
Speaker 1: will pay to see that you're allowed to show in theaters,
Speaker 1: but that studios won't make. And it was Gore.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah.
Speaker 1: He was the first guy to start showing really disgusting
Speaker 1: bloody scenes in his movie, uh, blood Feast, Blood Feast, yeah,
Speaker 1: which actually was three years after Psycho, and Psycho also
Speaker 1: did a lot for the mainstream ushering in of sure,
Speaker 1: a little bit of Gore in that, but there was a.
Speaker 2: Shot of blood following Janet Lee's murder, you know, which
Speaker 2: is I imagine it's pretty graphic for Hollywood, right, and
Speaker 2: that's what you think of your like, oh, those stupid sixties,
Speaker 2: but that's you know, they were so naive, like that
Speaker 2: was controversial, not really though, Like if you stepped just
Speaker 2: slightly outside of Hollywood, you ran into things like Blood Feast, right,
Speaker 2: or you know Last House on the Left, Yes, well
Speaker 2: that's nineteen seventy two, I think.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Wes Craven. So that was important because all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, a drugs started, well three things. Political themes
Speaker 1: started popping up, right, sexual freedom, the youth generation. Drugs
Speaker 1: started popping up in movies for the first time drug use.
Speaker 1: Well not for the first time. We'll talk about reefer madness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but teenagers were depicted as victims of violence for the
Speaker 1: first time. Like Last House on the Left, I believe
Speaker 1: is kind of regarded as the first teen slasher film.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Wes Craven, it was almost a snuff film. It
Speaker 2: was almost regarded like that.
Speaker 1: It's pretty hardcore, but yeah, it.
Speaker 2: Definitely blood Feasts definitely allowed Last House on the Left
Speaker 2: to come around, but it also probably more directly formed
Speaker 2: the foundation for slasher exploitation, like Friday the thirteenth, Third
Speaker 2: Nightmare on Elm Street. Absolutely, My Bloody Valentine's another big one.
Speaker 1: Yeah, The Crazy Oh yeah, that was in a digital right,
Speaker 1: there's a remake now, I think, yeah, yeah, remakes. So
Speaker 1: that brings us We're in the seventies, politically charged movies
Speaker 1: brought race to the mix, and all of a sudden
Speaker 1: we had black exploitation or black exploitation movement starting exploiting
Speaker 1: the civil rights movement basically. But the cool thing about
Speaker 1: black exploitation films is for the first time you had
Speaker 1: African Americans as heroes.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and not heroes in a typical sense, not even
Speaker 2: anti heroes, but heroes that were like, they didn't ride
Speaker 2: into town on on a white horse or wearing a
Speaker 2: white hat, right, They very clearly wore black hats if
Speaker 2: need be, Like they would engage in crime, they would
Speaker 2: murder people if nippy they were. They were basically like
Speaker 2: the face of black America coming out of the Civil
Speaker 2: Rights are like, we're ticked off.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you know, and we're gonna stick it to the
Speaker 1: white man, stick it to the man, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: do it in these movies.
Speaker 2: Chuck, I know the movie you're about to to mention.
Speaker 2: Let's this is it?
Speaker 1: You keep the fath of me.
Speaker 3: You my man, You're my favorite man, can you.
Speaker 4: So?
Speaker 1: Yes? That was a landmark film for a lot of reasons.
Speaker 1: One because it grows four million bucks and it made
Speaker 1: the major studio say, hey, you know what the black
Speaker 1: hero is marketable?
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, you haven't said the title yet.
Speaker 1: Oh I didn't know.
Speaker 2: Okay, you gotta say it right too.
Speaker 1: Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetbacks, Badass.
Speaker 2: Song, Nice That was well done. That was nineteen seventy one.
Speaker 2: Melvin Van Peebles, whose last name may sound familiar. He's
Speaker 2: the father of Mario Van Peebles for you younger cats
Speaker 2: listening to this.
Speaker 1: One cats our age actually younger cats, because he's kind of.
Speaker 2: Like, okay, so cats are Yeah, that's Mario van Peebles's dad,
Speaker 2: you know, New Jack City.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: So Melvin Van Peebles made this movie. He produced it,
Speaker 2: he raised the money for it, he wrote it, he
Speaker 2: directed it, he starred in it. And it was the
Speaker 2: beginning of the blaxploitation subgenre, which is one of the
Speaker 2: most important genres of any American.
Speaker 1: Cinema absolutely ever, absolutely.
Speaker 2: And so considering how important that subgenre is, this quote
Speaker 2: from Time Magazine's film critic Richard Corliss should really hit home.
Speaker 2: Sweet Sweet Back is quote, without question or competition, the
Speaker 2: most influential movie by a black filmmaker. So this is
Speaker 2: a really big deal, right, yeah.
Speaker 1: And it was just quickly on the plot. It was
Speaker 1: about a black man who was a jiggielow who.
Speaker 2: Had which is a male prostitute for you, young.
Speaker 1: Cat, and he had a deal worked out with the
Speaker 1: cops where he said, you know, you can arrest me
Speaker 1: as much as you want, release me right afterward, fill
Speaker 1: your quota. It's all good. And then one day, while
Speaker 1: the arrest is going down, the cops attack a black panther,
Speaker 1: and Sweet Sweet Back kills one of the cops and
Speaker 1: then just says he just goes on a rampage against
Speaker 1: the white man after that.
Speaker 5: Yep.
Speaker 2: So you've got prostitution, tons and tons of nudity and sex,
Speaker 2: lots of violence, and other crimes all wrapped up into
Speaker 2: a black power theme.
Speaker 1: That's right.
Speaker 2: And then to top it all off, you have what
Speaker 2: is arguably a child sex scene starring Mario Van Peebles
Speaker 2: Melvivan People's son at I think age six, He's a
Speaker 2: kid having sex as Sweet Sweet Pack. It's his first
Speaker 2: sexual encounter with an older person. And in the cult podcast,
Speaker 2: if he became a cult leader, he would have taken
Speaker 2: any younger bride, remember I am. It's right. So if
Speaker 2: you're interested in that movie and you can't get enough
Speaker 2: of Sweet Sweetbacks bad Ass Song, you could also check
Speaker 2: out Bad Ass exclamation Point, which is Mario Van Peebles's
Speaker 2: biopic about his father making that movie.
Speaker 1: That's right, And I have not seen that, but I
Speaker 1: wanted to at the time, and it just sort of
Speaker 1: supped tough the cracks.
Speaker 2: There's always Netflix, Baby, that's right.
Speaker 1: And what happened with Sweet Sweetback was that, like I said,
Speaker 1: that told the studios, hey, that we can market this,
Speaker 1: and so they got a little more mainstream with movies
Speaker 1: like Superfly, which were a little safer Shaft Shaft movies
Speaker 1: at wide audiences would enjoy as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, the ones that didn't scare the man exactly like
Speaker 2: Shaft's a good guy. He doesn't take any guff from them.
Speaker 2: But the people he's not taking gup from or the cops,
Speaker 2: who's really on the same side as That's right. So
Speaker 2: chuck exploitation obviously huge. It affected everything from you know,
Speaker 2: Menace to society to Blackula. All of that came from
Speaker 2: Sweet Sweet Back. And we mentioned the guy who directed
Speaker 2: this next movie, Russ Myers. This is probably a seminal work.
Speaker 2: Let's listen to this clip from the trailer.
Speaker 3: You ladies and gentlemen gold go for a wild wild
Speaker 3: ride with the Watusi cuts, but beware the sweetest kittens
Speaker 3: have the sharpest claw or your own safety. See faster
Speaker 3: pussy cuts, kill kill wild weather, wild wheels. Race the
Speaker 3: fastest pussy cuts and they'll be jill so far woman sulpit.
Speaker 6: Placing your stuff on this kid then hanging. It's a
Speaker 6: nothing by nothing.
Speaker 5: He's got nothing to do with the Moneys, the money.
Speaker 2: Jack and Jill.
Speaker 3: They make a mafia look like brownie They.
Speaker 1: Make the mafia look like Browniees.
Speaker 2: That's right. That says quite a bit about them. So
Speaker 2: that was faster pussy Cat Kill Kill. In nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: five russ Meyer's basically women exploitation film nudy film. Remember
Speaker 2: russ Meyers was King of the nudies. He made twenty
Speaker 2: six movies, but this is probably at the very least
Speaker 2: is his best known, if not like his masterpiece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and he hatched a slew of I mean not
Speaker 1: that he wasn't legit. He was, but what mainstream people
Speaker 1: would call legit filmmakers were came up through the russ
Speaker 1: Meyer film camp basically. Yeah, So it's pretty cool.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and russ Meyer also a little known fact. Another
Speaker 2: movie that's mentioned in this article. There's an article on
Speaker 2: the site, by the way, called ten noteworthy exploitation Films
Speaker 2: that this is based on, Yeah, written by you, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which I showingly recommend going to read because it has
Speaker 2: a lot of extra stuff we're not going to cover
Speaker 2: in this one. Yeah, or at least extra movies. But
Speaker 2: russ Meyer directed a movie called Beyond the Valley of
Speaker 2: the Dolls two, right, which was the bastard son of
Speaker 2: the legitimate film that Beyond Valley of Dolls is a
Speaker 2: jiggle fest written by none other than Roger Ebert's right, Yeah.
Speaker 1: The movie Roger Ebert ever wrote.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he had a Yeah, it was a very brief career.
Speaker 2: But that's it. That's an illustrious one. Really.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So if you're going to talk about the plot,
Speaker 1: a faster pussy cat kill kill And I say that
Speaker 1: because there's three exclamation points and a comma.
Speaker 2: Exclamation point kill it three exclamation points.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Okay, I thought it was a comment then too.
Speaker 1: All right, either way, that's a lot of punctuation for
Speaker 1: a film title, right, And it was about three bisexual
Speaker 1: go go dancers. They go on a crime spree out
Speaker 1: in the desert and what do they do. They end
Speaker 1: up killing a man or no, they kill the man
Speaker 1: and a couple keep girl.
Speaker 2: They basically empower her, yeah, come on with by murdering
Speaker 2: her boyfriend and she ends up on the crimes free
Speaker 2: with them.
Speaker 1: And they basically end up going to an isolated house
Speaker 1: with a wheelchair bound old man and his sons.
Speaker 2: Who's a leech. They're all leeches.
Speaker 1: They want these women, Yeah, but they don't know that
Speaker 1: these women are tough, tough ladies.
Speaker 2: And the men and his son, the man and his
Speaker 2: sons apparently are allegedly have a large amount of cash
Speaker 2: stashed in this house. So it's kind of like a
Speaker 2: standoff of gall see who will come out on top?
Speaker 1: Well, and you know who comes out on top. And
Speaker 1: this film was noteworthy for one big reason was that
Speaker 1: there's a lot of duelism towards gender. So on one hand,
Speaker 1: he's exploiting these women and apparently got women in their
Speaker 1: first trimester of pregnancy, so they were more voluptuous.
Speaker 2: Yeah, not in this film, but in his other films
Speaker 2: he would hire I can't remember the lady's name, but
Speaker 2: the star of Festor pussy Cat Kill Kill is in
Speaker 2: other Russ Meyers films, gotcha, and he made sure that
Speaker 2: she was like well in to her third first trimester
Speaker 2: to enhance her natural bustiness.
Speaker 1: That's right, yeah, her bosom if you will. But the script,
Speaker 1: like I said, it was dualism because while he did that,
Speaker 1: it also empowered women because the women in his films
Speaker 1: bowed to no man. No, they were the champs. They
Speaker 1: were they were heroines really for the first time.
Speaker 2: But they were objectified very clearly. But at the same time,
Speaker 2: if you follow the script and really look at their characters,
Speaker 2: then yeah, they're powerful women.
Speaker 1: And this kind of kicked off a big slew of
Speaker 1: women exploitation films, exploitation films, the women in Prison movies.
Speaker 2: Yes, which we Lead's sisters very big.
Speaker 1: At the time. Women were lead actors for the first time,
Speaker 1: they were aggressors for the first time, still nude often
Speaker 1: while they were doing this stuff.
Speaker 2: Spawn the television show The Facts of Life.
Speaker 1: But the interesting thing is they found that these movies
Speaker 1: appealed to men and women because men would go see
Speaker 1: it for obvious reasons. Yeah, women would go see it
Speaker 1: because it was empowering and they didn't mind, you know,
Speaker 1: looking at the naked ladies because women are much more
Speaker 1: grown up, sure than men are. But Josh, the seventies
Speaker 1: also got a little schlocky, which in a sense was
Speaker 1: true to the exploitation model. They like, they really went
Speaker 1: over the top. No more political statements, no more advancing
Speaker 1: of women's gender or African merin Americans. It just got
Speaker 1: really shlocky and outrageous at that point.
Speaker 2: Well, what happened starting in the sixth really took hold
Speaker 2: in the seventies, and then from that point on was
Speaker 2: exploitation cinema, early on showing a live birth, nudest camps,
Speaker 2: these are all geared toward adults in the sixties, and
Speaker 2: then later on big time in the seventies, the audience
Speaker 2: became almost exclusively teenagers, like those driving teenagers or well
Speaker 2: teenagers anywhere, who cares, but the audience was teenagers, and
Speaker 2: the cast started to become teenage, so it had a
Speaker 2: little more of a bent on what teenagers we're having
Speaker 2: to deal with, like bullying, like the kid in this
Speaker 2: next clip right, which is I have to say, one
Speaker 2: of my favorite movies from way way back.
Speaker 1: Here we go with Toxic Avenger.
Speaker 2: Yeah, meet little Melvin.
Speaker 6: He's a ninety pound weekly. Everyone hated Melbourne.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm going to take this mop and shove it
Speaker 3: down your throat.
Speaker 2: They teased him.
Speaker 1: I want to do it with you, PoCA. They taunted him.
Speaker 6: They tormented him until he had a horrifying accident and
Speaker 6: fell into a vat of nuclear waste, transforming Little Melbourne
Speaker 6: into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength.
Speaker 5: Movement became the Toxic Avenger.
Speaker 1: So Josh. The Toxic Avenger movie was unique in that
Speaker 1: its film production company, Trauma mm HM, is very popular
Speaker 1: in their own right.
Speaker 2: Have you ever seen surf Nazis Must Die?
Speaker 1: I haven't, but I know about Trump. I mean, they
Speaker 1: are master self promoters and marketiers.
Speaker 2: They were one of the first production companies to have
Speaker 2: a website, like a really comprehensive website. You should go
Speaker 2: on their website, their whole catalog. It's really just well done.
Speaker 2: It's schlocky, but it's well done, right.
Speaker 1: And Toxic Avenger follows the story of a ninety eight
Speaker 1: pound weekling who was picked on released the same year's Ghostbusters.
Speaker 1: Do you notice that nineteen eighty four.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, so it was it occurred at zero year.
Speaker 1: It's year zero. Yeah, we'll just put the null set
Speaker 1: represent that. And this kid gets pushed out of a
Speaker 1: window into a that of toxic sludge.
Speaker 2: Which that's beyond bullying.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, I mean, this is basically it's a more
Speaker 1: twisted version of modern problems. The Chevy Chase film from
Speaker 1: a couple of years earlier.
Speaker 2: Okay, I have seen that one.
Speaker 1: Oh you never saw a modern problem. No, it's very silly,
Speaker 1: but he got toxic sledge dumped on him and had
Speaker 1: special powers.
Speaker 2: From years earlier, prior or after.
Speaker 1: What when was the movie, Yeah, it was two years
Speaker 1: before Toxic Avenger. But Toxic Avenger took it into are
Speaker 1: special effects way that modern Problems never did.
Speaker 2: So the janitor Melvin I believe his name is, becomes toxified,
Speaker 2: it becomes toxic. The Toxic Avenger who beats the tar
Speaker 2: out of people at the health club where he was
Speaker 2: abused and mutated and has tons of sex as the
Speaker 2: Toxic Avenger because his newfound manhood is just irresistible to women.
Speaker 2: And one of the things that's noteworthy about the Toxic
Speaker 2: Avenger is that they actually tried to make decent effects. Yeah,
Speaker 2: it wasn't just it wasn't horrible. I guess you could.
Speaker 1: Say, well for the time, you know, it wasn't bad.
Speaker 2: No, they remained bad, and they probably were kind of
Speaker 2: bad even back then, but for for grindhouse films, yeah
Speaker 2: they were, they were great, right. And it was also
Speaker 2: noteworthy because it came out of Trauma Productions or Trouma
Speaker 2: Studios and it led to a whole line of Toxic
Speaker 2: Avenger movies and schlock in general, which is basically like
Speaker 2: some crazy, horrible thing has happened, but we're not going
Speaker 2: to dwell too much on that. Let's see what let's
Speaker 2: let's see where the action takes us. Yeah, exactly, So
Speaker 2: like Bad Taste, the Peter Peter Jackson's first film, right
Speaker 2: is a great example of schlock that came out of
Speaker 2: Toxic Avenger.
Speaker 1: And he had the film that followed, Peter Jackson Dead Alive,
Speaker 1: which was at one point supposedly the gorriest film ever made. Really,
Speaker 1: although it sounds like your new Korean movie has surpassed that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it probably has. I haven't seen that
Speaker 2: Alive's seen Bad Taste and Bad Taste it was horribly gory,
Speaker 2: but I think this has it beat.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but I bet you if anything. I mean, I
Speaker 1: haven't seen the one you're talking about. But is it
Speaker 1: more realistic gore?
Speaker 2: Yeah, with bad just like these are aliens that are
Speaker 2: having their heads blown off. So it definitely takes you
Speaker 2: at least a a degree away from caring this is
Speaker 2: happening to human beings. And I saw the Devil, so
Speaker 2: it definitely is driven home a little more well.
Speaker 1: And the violence that even the gore back then it
Speaker 1: was so over the top, right out of Fangora magazine.
Speaker 2: It's like, you know, dude, Fangoria is still around, is it? Yeah?
Speaker 1: I figured it was.
Speaker 2: I'm glad it is. We follow it on our Twitter feed.
Speaker 1: Oh we do. Yeah, Like Ahead'll explode in scanners and
Speaker 1: you know, it's not disturbing because it's so clearly over
Speaker 1: the top. But these new movies are much more disturbing.
Speaker 2: If you ask me, I agree wholeheartedly because they're more realistic.
Speaker 2: So carrying on with Chucks and my Ciscal and eber Act.
Speaker 2: This is the second to last movie in our little
Speaker 2: list today, and this one's from way back from the thirties.
Speaker 2: So let's talk about reefer madness.
Speaker 5: Lee's high school boys and girls are having a hot
Speaker 5: at the local soda fountain. Innocently they dance innocent of
Speaker 5: you and deadly menace lurking behind closed doors. May wanna
Speaker 5: the burning weed with its roots in hell or watchcase
Speaker 5: if you want to, you will meet Bill, who once
Speaker 5: took pride in his strong will, as he takes the
Speaker 5: first step toward enslavement. Here he.
Speaker 1: Softly so, so that was the excellent reefer Madness, which
Speaker 1: was an exploitation drug exploitation film and very much a
Speaker 1: cautionary tale. It even shaped the drug culture and how
Speaker 1: people looked at drugs. Is you know marijuana at the time,
Speaker 1: Is this really evil thing that can make you crazy
Speaker 1: and kill people?
Speaker 2: Yeah? And actually, in very much the vein of early
Speaker 2: exploitation films, it was produced and distributed as a public service,
Speaker 2: like the alternate title for it was Tell Your Children,
Speaker 2: And the whole thing set in a pta meeting where
Speaker 2: this guy is relating the story, and it's a story
Speaker 2: about lost lives, about murder, about guilt and paranoia, and
Speaker 2: all of it is fed and based on rampant drug use,
Speaker 2: which is really just a lot of pot smoking which
Speaker 2: can turn you into a fiend. And it's apparently the
Speaker 2: director his name is Dwayne Esper. He did other exploitation
Speaker 2: films from the thirties like Sex Madness, Psychotic Connections, and
Speaker 2: he made a name for himself basically taking these things
Speaker 2: that may have originally been written as a public service
Speaker 2: right and making them so outlandish that he exploited the
Speaker 2: people who were making these movies right and created this
Speaker 2: legacy of like just insanely over the top exploitation films
Speaker 2: from the thirties.
Speaker 1: Well, and ironically, refor Madness years later would become not
Speaker 1: so much an anti drug propaganda film, how should I
Speaker 1: say this, but a film that college students would sit
Speaker 1: around and watch while partaking and laughing at this whole thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and a cult film.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because it puts drugs so far out there that
Speaker 2: if you, despite all the warnings, take drugs anyway and
Speaker 2: you realize that you don't turn into a fiend and
Speaker 2: murder somebody, you refor Madness basically dares you to go further.
Speaker 2: So it's kind of an it's the opposite. It has
Speaker 2: the opposite effect of what I think its original intent
Speaker 2: was before Duayne Asberg got its hands on it. And
Speaker 2: as a side note, I had trouble deciding between Reefer
Speaker 2: Madness and another nineteen thirties film by a guy named
Speaker 2: Todd Browning called Freaks.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, well that was that was huge because it
Speaker 1: was the first big exploitation film pre Hayes Code and Last.
Speaker 2: Yeah, first and last, and it was it was an
Speaker 2: MGM film. Yeah, and it's widely considered a masterpiece.
Speaker 1: Yeah, mean, it looks great. It's it's not it was
Speaker 1: well done.
Speaker 2: It's a huge it's a it's a revenge movie, which
Speaker 2: is a very common theme in exploitation films. Yeah, especially
Speaker 2: violent ones. But it's it featured Browning dared to have
Speaker 2: real freaks.
Speaker 1: I guess if you yes, Circus side show freaks, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Star in this and they basically exact their revenge on
Speaker 2: people who've mistreated them. And I have not seen it.
Speaker 2: Oh really yeah, yeah, I wanted to. I hear it's
Speaker 2: just awesome. I can't win.
Speaker 1: It ended his career though, unfortunately. Really yeah, and he
Speaker 1: was a popular filmmaker at the time.
Speaker 2: Well, hats off to him for first staying true to
Speaker 2: his art. Chuck just took his hat off on the
Speaker 2: old cap. All right, Chuck, here's the last one that
Speaker 2: we've got a clip for which I think everybody will
Speaker 2: notice or recognize without even a word. There's not even
Speaker 2: a word in this clip, and you will understand what's
Speaker 2: going on.
Speaker 4: So here we go.
Speaker 1: So, Josh, those are the unmistakable sounds of fist of
Speaker 1: fury of mister one.
Speaker 2: Mister Bruce Ley, Bruce Lee kicking bottom. This first movie, Yeah,
Speaker 2: which was originally titled well, it's still title I think
Speaker 2: in Asia the Big and in America it is its
Speaker 2: titled Fists of Fury.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was on the other night. Okay, Well I
Speaker 1: saw part of it. Oh yeah, yeah, I didn't realize
Speaker 1: it was his first one, though I would have tuned in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And it was first of what five five major films, right,
Speaker 2: And basically it's the story of a martial arts student
Speaker 2: who's investigating the murder of his teacher. And it began
Speaker 2: the martial arts exploitation sub genre.
Speaker 1: Which later would become just martial arts films. Right or
Speaker 1: was it still considered exploitation.
Speaker 2: It's all the same, Okay, they're one and the same.
Speaker 2: Anything that even remotely resembles a Bruce Lee movie, specifically
Speaker 2: The Big Boss or any of them, is martial arts
Speaker 2: exploitation technically, because again we arrive at that one definition.
Speaker 2: It's over the top, like Bruce Ley's taking on scores
Speaker 2: of anonymous thugs for two hours, one after the other,
Speaker 2: for two hours, just beating the tar out of all
Speaker 2: these people without tiring. Really, everybody's kind of waiting their
Speaker 2: turn politely in a circle around him, and he has
Speaker 2: to beat everybody right, and then he works his way
Speaker 2: up and it's over the top, so it is exploitation.
Speaker 2: But it led to other films like Samurai exploitation. Remember
Speaker 2: American Ninja. Remember the whole ninja film thing that came
Speaker 2: out in the mid eighties. Uh huh, that's from Bruce
Speaker 2: Lee's that's Bruce Lee's doing well.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you go to these at the time when
Speaker 1: I was first going to New York many years ago,
Speaker 1: that would be uh, you know, you go to Times
Speaker 1: Square and this was still when Time Square was kind
Speaker 1: of gross, and that would be just the the Martial
Speaker 1: Arts movie store where it was all that stuff. Man,
Speaker 1: like thousands of movies about ninja's and samuraiz and martial
Speaker 1: artists and very big.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I was inspired by American Ninja to become a ninja.
Speaker 2: Remember I entered a ninja training with Tommy Roper, who
Speaker 2: had like more throwing stars than any kid.
Speaker 1: I ever, what did you have? Like one throwing star?
Speaker 2: I borrowed his. Okay, I was not allowed to have
Speaker 2: throwing stars on my own.
Speaker 1: Oh I wasn't either.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Baptist, No, that was very violent. No, nunbchucks.
Speaker 2: Not even that transcends like religious back. It's like, if
Speaker 2: you're a good parent, you shouldn't let your kid have
Speaker 2: throwing star.
Speaker 1: It's a good point. And as you point in the article,
Speaker 1: this actually led to another subgenre, which was Bruce Lee
Speaker 1: lookalike movies. Yeah.
Speaker 2: So he made five movies and then died at age
Speaker 2: thirty two. Yeah, and nineteen seventy three. So Big Boss
Speaker 2: released in nineteen seventy one, he dies two years later.
Speaker 2: Everybody's like, no, so let's find some guys that look
Speaker 2: like him, which is really kind of stereotypical and racist
Speaker 2: for the West. But Bruce Lee l I or Lee
Speaker 2: or l E or just l E. Well, Bruce l
Speaker 2: I or Bruce ell Ee. I don't think there was
Speaker 2: ever like Bruce l e I g H. I don't
Speaker 2: think it ever got that far. But I mean they
Speaker 2: released dozens of Bruce Lee and I just made air
Speaker 2: quote films.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So Bruce Lee created the martial arts exploitation genre and subgenre,
Speaker 2: and he inadvertently created the Bruce Lee exploitation subgenre of
Speaker 2: the martial arts exploitation subgenre.
Speaker 1: By dying young, Yeah and being very popular. Yeah, And
Speaker 1: which one was the one he had? Kareem Antal Jabbarian
Speaker 1: Enter the Dragon.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, if you've never seen a like seven foot plus
Speaker 1: guy to martial arts, you should check that out.
Speaker 2: And if you can't get enough Bruce Lee and you
Speaker 2: have a good sense of humor, check out Kentucky Fried
Speaker 2: movie made by one Jerry's Rucker, Jerry who we met
Speaker 2: in Los Angeles recently and who used an exploitive to me.
Speaker 2: He did it was one of the high points of
Speaker 2: my life, it is. But yeah, Kentucky Fry movie awesome.
Speaker 1: Actually, when we met Jerry Zucker, we told him that
Speaker 1: our little speech we were given that night was one
Speaker 1: of the highlights of our career thus far. And he says, well,
Speaker 1: it doesn't say much about your career, does it. Like
Speaker 1: the first thing to do does is something.
Speaker 2: Funny and we just like kind of fawned over the man.
Speaker 1: We should mention briefly and it's in the article, but
Speaker 1: just as a teaser. The late seventies we got Nazi
Speaker 1: exploitation movies, not exploitation as a subgenre. Yeah, And one
Speaker 1: of the major players there movie was ilsa she Wolf
Speaker 1: of the.
Speaker 2: S S Yeah, which led to ilsa Siberian Tigris and
Speaker 2: ilsa harm Keeper of the oil sheeks. Really, there's a
Speaker 2: whole sex violence franchise, Dominatrix franchise that was based out
Speaker 2: of the Nazis' floitation film.
Speaker 1: You know, one could argue that q T mister Tarantino
Speaker 1: has made nothing but exploitation films since pulp fiction, because
Speaker 1: the kill bills were definitely martial arts exploitation. The Jackie
Speaker 1: Brown was a riff on on black exploitation. Sure, death
Speaker 1: Proof obviously that was what they were trying to do there.
Speaker 2: Death Proof is Carsploitation, which follows in the tradition of
Speaker 2: Vanishing Point, which was released the same year as basically
Speaker 2: its rival to the founder, the founding movie of Carsploitation
Speaker 2: Two Lane Blacktop right, whichat movie. Yeah, if you want
Speaker 2: to start an argument with an exploitation film, buff tell him.
Speaker 2: Vanishing Point was the beginning of copl They'll get mad
Speaker 2: at you.
Speaker 1: And then finally Tarantino with The Inglorious Bastards, which was
Speaker 1: clearly a riff on the Nazi exploitation films. Yeah, beaten
Speaker 1: Nazis to death with the baseball bat, yes, about as
Speaker 1: over the top and lurid as it gets awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, and then Machete I hated it, but Robert
Speaker 2: it's terrible.
Speaker 1: And of course he was the other half of the
Speaker 1: Rodriguez was the other half with his Planet Terror of
Speaker 1: the Grindhouse double feature. Yeah, okay, and Machete was born
Speaker 1: from one of the little fake trailers they made in
Speaker 1: that movie.
Speaker 2: Oh is that right?
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was one of the fake movie previews.
Speaker 2: It is even as far as like a purposefully B
Speaker 2: movie not good.
Speaker 1: No, well, death Proof was okay, but I didn't like
Speaker 1: Planet Tear that much.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and then Chuck. Well, first of all, before we
Speaker 2: get to today, we also have to give a shout
Speaker 2: out to Porno's. Porno came out of the exploitation film genre.
Speaker 1: And it arguably had a lot to do with killing
Speaker 1: the X or pushing it into the mainstream, because once
Speaker 1: you had the movie Deep Throat and all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: pornography was on the screen, it's like, you can't do
Speaker 1: an exploitation film about it anymore. If there's the real
Speaker 1: deal going on, it loses all its power. And then
Speaker 1: a little movie called Jaws came along and all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, a quote unquote B movie style movie made
Speaker 1: gobs and gobs of money, and that put a little
Speaker 1: bit of mainstream respectability on the map all of a sudden,
Speaker 1: And so one might argue, Josh that movies like Jaws
Speaker 1: and Pornography kind of shoved exploitation films even though they
Speaker 1: still exist. They're sort of mainstream movies now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, yeah, I guess another word for grindhouse these
Speaker 2: days is blockbuster. Jaws was the first blockbuster movie, summer blockbuster,
Speaker 2: and now you have to have summer blockbusters, and they're
Speaker 2: always over the top and exploitive of viewers' tastes.
Speaker 1: And not only Tarantino, those other filmmakers out that are
Speaker 1: trying to capture that seventies vibe with overt exploitation films again,
Speaker 1: shot that way, shot on thirty five or I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: sixteen millimeter film, stuff like that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so, Chuck, I say, our message to everybody is
Speaker 2: number one, go on to the site, read ten noteworthy
Speaker 2: exploitation films. Number two if that interests you. Like, even
Speaker 2: the ten noteworthy exploitation films I chose don't cover even
Speaker 2: I think a third of the exploitation subgenres. So there'll
Speaker 2: probably be another article forthcoming at some point. If there is,
Speaker 2: we'll let you know and then go watch some exploitation
Speaker 2: movies and enjoy them.
Speaker 1: Yeah, watch the documentary American Grindhouse too, if you're into that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's a great one. It's free on Hulu. Actually
Speaker 2: there's ads, but Hulu dot com has American Grindhouse for free.
Speaker 2: It is not safe for work now, in no way,
Speaker 2: shape or form. I was watching it at work and
Speaker 2: I was like, WHOA, Okay, really, yeah, if you are
Speaker 2: watching it at work, tab browsing is what you want
Speaker 2: to be doing, right, and keep your finger over the
Speaker 2: mouse and keep the cursor over the other tab.
Speaker 1: Right and say or in our case, you can just
Speaker 1: say it's research. But you can't do that. If you're
Speaker 1: an accountant at JP Morgan.
Speaker 2: You're just a cicco, a weirdo, that weird guy in accounting.
Speaker 2: So look up ten noteworthy exploitation films. You can type
Speaker 2: that into the handy search bar HowStuffWorks dot Com. And now,
Speaker 2: at long last, it's time for listener mail.
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