WEBVTT - SYSK Selects: How Exploitation Films Work 0:00:01.520 --> 0:00:04.280 Hey everybody, This is Chuck and welcome to this week's 0:00:04.400 --> 0:00:08.200 edition of the Stuff You Should Know Saturday Curated selects. 0:00:08.960 --> 0:00:11.520 This week, I decided to go with How Exploitation Films 0:00:11.560 --> 0:00:16.759 Work from April fourteenth, twenty eleven. And this one was 0:00:16.800 --> 0:00:19.320 an easy pick because I like all of our movie 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:22.800 episodes and I think Josh might have put this one 0:00:22.800 --> 0:00:24.720 together way back in the day when we recorded it, 0:00:25.760 --> 0:00:28.200 and it was just a really cool one. Not only 0:00:28.280 --> 0:00:29.960 do we get to talk a lot about just some 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:32.760 of the great exploitation films, but just a little bit 0:00:32.760 --> 0:00:35.400 about the history and how they came about. So I 0:00:35.479 --> 0:00:38.240 just remember really enjoying recording this one and got great 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:40.839 feedback on it. So give it a shot, and if 0:00:40.840 --> 0:00:43.720 you've already listened to it, give it another shot. That 0:00:43.800 --> 0:00:53.840 is what I suggest enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you Should 0:00:53.840 --> 0:00:59.880 Know from HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:01:00.360 --> 0:01:03.320 Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's 0:01:03.480 --> 0:01:07.400 Charles W. Chuck Bryant. This is Stuff you Should Know, 0:01:07.959 --> 0:01:11.600 the podcast and kind of a special edition. Frankly, I 0:01:11.640 --> 0:01:13.720 am a little excited, Chuck, I'm a little giddy. 0:01:13.880 --> 0:01:14.640 Shut your mouth. 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:20.800 That's yeah, okay, sure, all right, this is our first 0:01:20.880 --> 0:01:24.120 ever movie centric podcast. 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:28.399 Right, movie centric for sure. Yeah, we've mentioned movies of 0:01:28.480 --> 0:01:30.440 course all the time, but this one is like, this 0:01:30.480 --> 0:01:31.400 is all about movies. 0:01:32.400 --> 0:01:35.360 So this is by popular request to an extent. People 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:39.040 want to see like, uh, they want to hear us 0:01:39.080 --> 0:01:41.200 talk about movies and just do a movie podcast. So 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:43.399 we decided to focus on exploitation films. 0:01:43.680 --> 0:01:43.800 Right. 0:01:44.040 --> 0:01:46.200 This is also probably the first podcast that we're going 0:01:46.240 --> 0:01:50.280 to say, if you are a teacher of children in 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.200 eighth grade or younger, and you're using this as a 0:01:53.240 --> 0:01:55.800 teaching tool, you might want to go to the one 0:01:55.880 --> 0:01:58.920 before this or the one after. Yeah, we don't generally 0:01:58.960 --> 0:02:01.559 try to alienate. Add it says, we're not attempting to now, 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.720 it's just a natural byproduct of the exploitation film. 0:02:05.200 --> 0:02:08.840 Can't talk about exploitation films without talking about some lurid 0:02:08.880 --> 0:02:09.560 subject matter. 0:02:09.840 --> 0:02:14.079 Yeah, you can't say exploitation without ploit. 0:02:14.320 --> 0:02:19.399 Yeah, they weren't exploiting, just people being nice, right, nice ploitation. 0:02:19.919 --> 0:02:22.160 So, Chuck, I went and saw a movie the other 0:02:22.240 --> 0:02:25.120 day called I Saw the Devil. It's a Korean movie. 0:02:25.160 --> 0:02:29.800 It's by the guy who did the Tale of Two Sisters. 0:02:29.840 --> 0:02:32.000 I think Oh, he said more violent than Old Boy. 0:02:32.240 --> 0:02:36.040 Yeah, the Old Boy is one of the main characters. 0:02:36.200 --> 0:02:41.040 And I've seen Old Boy. I've seen what's the other 0:02:41.080 --> 0:02:45.280 one he did, the vampire movie, Yeah, Thirst, So I 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.000 think it's pretty good. It was okay, this one is 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:49.880 it's the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life. 0:02:49.880 --> 0:02:52.320 It's the most graphically violent movie I've ever seen in 0:02:52.320 --> 0:02:56.400 my life. The only the only reason, like I was 0:02:56.440 --> 0:02:58.880 able to complete is because I'm like, this is it's 0:02:58.880 --> 0:03:02.519 a movie, but I walked out of it like it's 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.520 so over the top, it's so gory. It's clearly an 0:03:05.560 --> 0:03:06.760 exploitation film. 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:07.399 Yeah. 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:10.359 Yeah, But the problem is is, like, really, if you 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:15.560 start to look around, John Hughes, films technically are exploitation films. 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.360 The Breakfast Club is technically an exploitation film. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:22.360 Yeah, there's a big wave of teen exploitation films, and 0:03:22.639 --> 0:03:23.959 we'll get to that, but yeah, you're right. 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:26.840 So one of the broader definitions of exploitation films is 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:30.480 basically anything that's really like over the top, that is 0:03:30.919 --> 0:03:37.839 beyond reality, or that maybe focuses on people's fears, their 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.000 sexuality and basically just kind of serves it up in 0:03:42.040 --> 0:03:44.320 a larger than life manner. That's one way of looking 0:03:44.360 --> 0:03:45.320 at exploitation films. 0:03:45.400 --> 0:03:51.000 Yeah, you're basically they're exploiting some of the seedier aspects 0:03:51.000 --> 0:03:52.600 of humanity most times. 0:03:52.320 --> 0:03:56.560 Sure, like murder or sex, like weird sex, that kind 0:03:56.640 --> 0:03:58.760 of thing, sex, weird. 0:03:58.680 --> 0:04:01.680 Sex, teenage rebelling against parents. 0:04:01.360 --> 0:04:04.480 Sure, like weird science. Have you ever been to a 0:04:04.480 --> 0:04:06.480 party where a couch shot out of the chimney and 0:04:06.520 --> 0:04:08.880 into the pond? I mean it's a pretty nice party. 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.800 I don't think it's ever really happened, you know. So 0:04:13.440 --> 0:04:16.160 that's the vast definition of exploitation. But you and I 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:21.640 are kind of qualified to teach a cinema class at 0:04:21.680 --> 0:04:26.000 like maybe a low level community college at this point, 0:04:26.040 --> 0:04:28.120 after the amount of research we've done in this sure, 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.840 and we found that academically there's a there's a much 0:04:30.839 --> 0:04:39.520 more distinct definition for exploitation, and it's seemingly interchangeable term grindhouse. 0:04:39.600 --> 0:04:41.960 Right, Yeah, what's the Is there a definition definition? 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.760 It's more like a timeframe. Okay, so from like nineteen 0:04:45.880 --> 0:04:49.080 nineteen when they really first started making movies to I 0:04:49.120 --> 0:04:53.120 think nineteen sixty nineteen fifty nine, when the Hayes Act 0:04:53.160 --> 0:04:57.720 went away, that was exploitation and then after that it 0:04:58.520 --> 0:05:03.240 became Grindhouse. Gotcha, it's my understanding. Okay, so let's do 0:05:03.320 --> 0:05:04.400 this all. 0:05:04.360 --> 0:05:05.440 Right, Well, that's the old joke. 0:05:05.640 --> 0:05:05.920 Was it? 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:10.920 In the awesome documentary American Grindhouse, which documents this era 0:05:11.040 --> 0:05:13.480 of filmmaking. Yeah, the old joke, one of the guys says, 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:17.599 is that exploitation films began five minutes after the camera 0:05:17.720 --> 0:05:19.640 was invented, the motion picture camera. 0:05:19.480 --> 0:05:22.000 Because the guy was like the directors like to his girlfriend, hey, 0:05:22.040 --> 0:05:23.400 would you mind taking your clothes off. 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:25.880 Or the camera exactly? So it says something about the 0:05:25.960 --> 0:05:28.760 human condition that you invent the film camera, and the 0:05:28.760 --> 0:05:32.119 first moving images were often Lurid Edison's film that showed 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:36.159 clips of like decapitations and violence and guys fighting, yeah, 0:05:36.360 --> 0:05:41.000 and nit naked women as film tests. So it's just 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:42.640 that says a lot about people like, all right, now 0:05:42.640 --> 0:05:45.800 we know how to capture things, so let's capture sex 0:05:45.839 --> 0:05:47.960 and violence right first. 0:05:48.200 --> 0:05:53.839 Right, And although that really kind of jibed with public tastes, 0:05:53.960 --> 0:05:58.120 or at least public fascination, it didn't jibe with the 0:05:58.839 --> 0:06:02.599 prevailing standards. They agreed upon standards, right. 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:05.679 Right, I think he said nineteen nineteen. But the first 0:06:05.800 --> 0:06:10.520 exploitation film was nineteen thirteen, Oh, okay, Trafficking Souls or 0:06:10.680 --> 0:06:13.919 While New York Sleeps, right, and that, like you said, 0:06:14.040 --> 0:06:16.599 exploitation often plays into fears. That played into the fear 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:21.120 at the time of the white slave trade. Budget of 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:24.119 fifty seven grand and gross four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 0:06:24.160 --> 0:06:25.839 which nineteen thirteen is a lot of dough. 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:27.240 That is a ton of though, and. 0:06:27.200 --> 0:06:29.800 That was Universal Pictures and they went, hey, going on 0:06:29.839 --> 0:06:30.440 to something here. 0:06:30.680 --> 0:06:34.960 Right after that was released the Hayes Code. Will Hayes 0:06:35.040 --> 0:06:39.479 was the Postmaster General and the Presbyterian elder and he 0:06:39.640 --> 0:06:42.680 was making one hundred grand a year during the depression. 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:43.760 Unbelievable, right. 0:06:44.200 --> 0:06:48.600 He basically said, like, look, we need we need to 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:54.040 apply some moral standards to filmmaking. There's decapitation, there's naked breast, 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.600 there's white white slavery, Like we need to we need 0:06:58.640 --> 0:07:00.400 to fure this right. 0:07:00.440 --> 0:07:03.560 Well, actually there wasn't nudity yet like those early test films. 0:07:03.560 --> 0:07:06.480 There were, but nudity we'll get to that later, okay, 0:07:07.279 --> 0:07:09.120 But yes, that's what Hayes tried to do. And like 0:07:09.880 --> 0:07:15.040 prohibition didn't exactly quell drinking, the Hayes code actually sort 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.200 of gave rise to the exploitation movement. 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:22.440 Yeah, it's just like just like prohibition, just like marijuana prohibition, 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.760 just like well any drug prohibition. Anytime you say you 0:07:25.800 --> 0:07:29.000 can't do this, you can't have something that you want, 0:07:30.280 --> 0:07:32.440 somebody else is going to operate in a black market. 0:07:32.480 --> 0:07:35.040 A black market's going to spring up, simple economics. Yeah, 0:07:35.120 --> 0:07:37.800 and that's exactly what happened, and that's where exploitation cinema 0:07:37.880 --> 0:07:40.360 came up. It's like, you can't get this from Hollywood 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:43.080 because Hollywood has to play by the rules. But my 0:07:43.200 --> 0:07:47.680 production studio is my model t and let's go make 0:07:47.720 --> 0:07:50.200 this movie. Give me some money. I'm going to film 0:07:50.520 --> 0:07:55.000 a child being born close up and put it in 0:07:55.080 --> 0:07:55.600 the movies. 0:07:55.840 --> 0:07:58.040 Yes, and you can do that. You can make your 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:00.760 movies all day long. But if they're never exhibited, than 0:08:01.360 --> 0:08:03.280 what good are you doing or not? Like they were 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:05.720 trying to do some good, but you're not making any scratch. 0:08:06.040 --> 0:08:09.800 So the forty thieves they talk about in the documentary 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.400 were these filmmakers and exhibitors basically that traveled around like carnies, 0:08:15.280 --> 0:08:19.400 setting up these sort of gorilla film screenings and some 0:08:19.600 --> 0:08:21.360 places sort of out of the way where they can't 0:08:21.400 --> 0:08:25.440 get caught. And that was for the first time, you know, 0:08:25.440 --> 0:08:28.440 they were taking films outside of the mainstream. 0:08:28.680 --> 0:08:28.920 Yeah. 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:31.160 Different. Sometimes they weren't even theaters. They would show them 0:08:31.280 --> 0:08:34.840 like VFW halls if you want to go see Birth 0:08:34.880 --> 0:08:36.840 of a Baby films. Apparently they were popular. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:39.600 Yeah, that was a whole genre, early genre of exploitation. 0:08:39.880 --> 0:08:42.880 Well, and so was early on a lot of the 0:08:42.880 --> 0:08:45.559 film centered around like how to wear a condom and 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:47.040 the sex hygiene films. 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.400 Yeah, because there was no information about that out there, 0:08:50.400 --> 0:08:57.360 and so exploitation filmmakers, whether disingenuously or genuinely, were presenting 0:08:57.400 --> 0:08:59.959 their stuff like this is a public service. People need 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:03.680 to know this, right and making movies about it. But 0:09:04.360 --> 0:09:07.000 also and people were going on that excuse as well, 0:09:07.040 --> 0:09:09.240 like well, I need to know about this, but at 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:11.320 the same time, it's like I want to see this 0:09:11.760 --> 0:09:14.280 the craziest thing I'll ever see in my life exactly, 0:09:14.480 --> 0:09:15.920 you know, on screen. 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:17.199 Or they argued a lot of times that they were 0:09:17.200 --> 0:09:20.280 cautionary tales. If they were about drugs or violence, they 0:09:20.320 --> 0:09:22.560 would say, hey, this could happen to you, so you 0:09:22.559 --> 0:09:24.880 should educate yourself. But what they really want to do 0:09:24.920 --> 0:09:25.280 is get the. 0:09:25.240 --> 0:09:27.280 Movie scene and make some money exactly. 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:32.240 Paramount Decision of nineteen forty eight. This is pretty big. 0:09:32.280 --> 0:09:35.920 This Supreme Court voted that movie studios could no longer 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:38.800 own their own movie theaters. At the time, you know, 0:09:39.040 --> 0:09:42.439 there would be like the Paramount Theater in Hollywood from 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:45.720 the Paramount film production company. It would show their movies. 0:09:46.160 --> 0:09:49.000 Supreme Court said no more, and all of a sudden, 0:09:49.720 --> 0:09:53.040 exploitation films became a little bit more legit because the 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.480 Hayes Code kind of fell apart. Yeah, and this is 0:09:55.520 --> 0:09:58.199 post World War two, so people. 0:09:57.960 --> 0:10:00.360 Had seen a lot of death recently out. 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:02.800 Of death, and then a little more they thought ladies 0:10:03.200 --> 0:10:08.000 in suggestive roles were good for morale, and there was 0:10:08.360 --> 0:10:11.800 a little bit of loosening on the sex thing a 0:10:11.800 --> 0:10:13.080 little bit post World War two. 0:10:13.160 --> 0:10:18.599 And that led to another subgenre of exploitation film, the 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:23.960 newdest colony films, which were pawned off as documentaries. A 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:26.839 lot well most of these were pawned off as document documentaries, 0:10:26.840 --> 0:10:30.480 which legitimized them, but really it was maybe maybe it 0:10:30.520 --> 0:10:33.520 actually was film that a news camp. Probably not. Mostly 0:10:33.559 --> 0:10:38.160 there were actors and actresses just engaged in archery naked 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:40.720 or long walks naked. 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:43.800 There could be no sex. Still that was still no taboo. 0:10:43.440 --> 0:10:46.800 But it was just like naked pretty people right at 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:49.800 a newdist colony, which is interesting because you're not a nudist, 0:10:49.880 --> 0:10:51.480 so come learn about them exactly. 0:10:51.679 --> 0:10:54.959 Yeah, after that, through the history, we had things like 0:10:55.360 --> 0:10:58.440 the teen like you said, the teen Rebellion of the 0:10:58.440 --> 0:11:01.080 fifties with that rebel thought, a car in Blackboard Jungle, 0:11:01.080 --> 0:11:03.360 and movies like that. All of a sudden, we're targeted 0:11:03.360 --> 0:11:07.559 specifically at teens, which was new. And then drive in 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.880 theaters were built so teenagers could see movies where their 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:13.520 parents weren't going to be. Apparently the adults didn't go 0:11:13.559 --> 0:11:14.600 to drive ins a lot at first. 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:16.800 Oh yeah, it's all kids. I didn't know that. 0:11:17.040 --> 0:11:19.840 So they showed exploitation films, and then later the beach films, 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:23.840 which were marketed as it's silly, it's Frankie avalon, but 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:27.720 they were decidedly weird and overtly sexual sometimes. 0:11:28.200 --> 0:11:32.400 And then chuck, if you'll notice, we're kind of progressing 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:37.960 along in this chronological order, and each thing is kind 0:11:37.960 --> 0:11:39.280 of being built on the last. 0:11:39.480 --> 0:11:41.679 It was very much a step process. 0:11:41.480 --> 0:11:46.040 Right, And apparently that was kind of the form that 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:50.760 exploitation filmmaking followed. Until nineteen sixty it was just it 0:11:50.800 --> 0:11:55.000 was centered around drugs, violence, sex, and in a lot 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:57.200 of ways they were presented as documentaries. They might not 0:11:57.240 --> 0:12:03.000 have a plot. Basically, it was one person would make 0:12:03.040 --> 0:12:05.200 some film and it would just break all the rules, 0:12:05.200 --> 0:12:07.200 and then then a bunch of other people would make 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:12.400 similar films, and that was the way it went. And 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:16.000 then in the nineteen sixties things just started to go 0:12:16.240 --> 0:12:19.680 every which way, all sorts of directions. Right, So nudity 0:12:20.120 --> 0:12:26.600 nudy films were a long standing thread of exploitation films 0:12:26.920 --> 0:12:29.880 and then they probably reached their pinnacle with Russ Myers, right, 0:12:30.000 --> 0:12:31.720 King of the Nudies is what he's called. 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.480 Yeah, he was the first guy to He's significant because 0:12:34.520 --> 0:12:38.840 he was the first director to have films featuring nudity 0:12:38.960 --> 0:12:44.880 that actually were dramatic narratives and had plots and characters, 0:12:44.880 --> 0:12:48.599 and they weren't classified as documentaries anymore. And then the 0:12:48.679 --> 0:12:51.440 Roughies came along and they offered up violence for the 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:56.360 not first time, but big time for the first time, right, 0:12:57.040 --> 0:12:59.120 And that has a lot to do with the fact 0:12:59.120 --> 0:13:01.800 that it was the sixties and Kennedy was shot and 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:04.760 the United States was just becoming increasingly violent. 0:13:04.840 --> 0:13:08.200 America lost its innocence. Yeah, and the other thing that 0:13:08.240 --> 0:13:10.880 really happened in the nineteen sixties was the Hayes Coote 0:13:10.920 --> 0:13:16.640 officially won away, was replaced by the MPAA and the 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.120 the I guess the long standing prohibition on Hollywood producing 0:13:21.160 --> 0:13:27.199 exploitation films was it was lessened, decreased, and so studios 0:13:27.240 --> 0:13:29.800 were like, oh, we can make money over here too, Well, 0:13:29.880 --> 0:13:32.840 let's start making exploitation films right, And this is where 0:13:32.880 --> 0:13:39.559 grindhouse was born. So my cinema professor definition of grindhouse 0:13:39.720 --> 0:13:45.600 is big budget, studio backed exploitation films. Okay, okay, yeah, 0:13:45.720 --> 0:13:46.720 that's that's mine. 0:13:46.800 --> 0:13:47.240 I like it. 0:13:47.360 --> 0:13:48.960 That's gonna be a quiz question later. 0:13:49.040 --> 0:13:52.400 Yeah, I'll go with that. Actually, back up one second. 0:13:52.400 --> 0:13:54.600 We got to mention Herschel Gordon Lewis. He was a 0:13:54.720 --> 0:13:57.800 director who had a co director. I can't remember the 0:13:57.800 --> 0:14:01.280 other guy's named you. Anyway, he was a co director 0:14:01.320 --> 0:14:03.360 and he was one of these exploitation guys that was 0:14:03.360 --> 0:14:05.959 getting frustrated because there weren't a lot of places to 0:14:06.000 --> 0:14:08.040 show your movie. So it was a pretty crowded marketplace. 0:14:08.480 --> 0:14:11.720 So he said, what's the one taboo that like people 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.160 will pay to see that you're allowed to show in theaters, 0:14:15.920 --> 0:14:20.720 but that studios won't make. And it was Gore. 0:14:21.280 --> 0:14:21.760 Oh yeah. 0:14:21.800 --> 0:14:25.080 He was the first guy to start showing really disgusting 0:14:25.120 --> 0:14:30.040 bloody scenes in his movie, uh, blood Feast, Blood Feast, yeah, 0:14:30.040 --> 0:14:32.320 which actually was three years after Psycho, and Psycho also 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:35.480 did a lot for the mainstream ushering in of sure, 0:14:35.600 --> 0:14:38.600 a little bit of Gore in that, but there was a. 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:41.640 Shot of blood following Janet Lee's murder, you know, which 0:14:41.680 --> 0:14:44.680 is I imagine it's pretty graphic for Hollywood, right, and 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:47.120 that's what you think of your like, oh, those stupid sixties, 0:14:47.320 --> 0:14:49.920 but that's you know, they were so naive, like that 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.840 was controversial, not really though, Like if you stepped just 0:14:52.880 --> 0:14:57.440 slightly outside of Hollywood, you ran into things like Blood Feast, right, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.160 or you know Last House on the Left, Yes, well 0:15:00.160 --> 0:15:01.760 that's nineteen seventy two, I think. 0:15:01.760 --> 0:15:05.320 Yeah, Wes Craven. So that was important because all of 0:15:05.320 --> 0:15:10.800 a sudden, a drugs started, well three things. Political themes 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:15.120 started popping up, right, sexual freedom, the youth generation. Drugs 0:15:15.160 --> 0:15:17.920 started popping up in movies for the first time drug use. 0:15:18.080 --> 0:15:21.600 Well not for the first time. We'll talk about reefer madness. Yeah, 0:15:21.640 --> 0:15:24.760 but teenagers were depicted as victims of violence for the 0:15:24.760 --> 0:15:27.920 first time. Like Last House on the Left, I believe 0:15:28.080 --> 0:15:31.000 is kind of regarded as the first teen slasher film. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:36.440 Yeah, Wes Craven, it was almost a snuff film. It 0:15:36.520 --> 0:15:38.120 was almost regarded like that. 0:15:38.160 --> 0:15:39.520 It's pretty hardcore, but yeah, it. 0:15:39.560 --> 0:15:43.360 Definitely blood Feasts definitely allowed Last House on the Left 0:15:43.360 --> 0:15:47.320 to come around, but it also probably more directly formed 0:15:47.360 --> 0:15:52.040 the foundation for slasher exploitation, like Friday the thirteenth, Third 0:15:52.160 --> 0:15:56.120 Nightmare on Elm Street. Absolutely, My Bloody Valentine's another big one. 0:15:57.920 --> 0:16:00.520 Yeah, The Crazy Oh yeah, that was in a digital right, 0:16:00.520 --> 0:16:30.880 there's a remake now, I think, yeah, yeah, remakes. So 0:16:30.960 --> 0:16:35.320 that brings us We're in the seventies, politically charged movies 0:16:35.680 --> 0:16:38.800 brought race to the mix, and all of a sudden 0:16:38.840 --> 0:16:44.160 we had black exploitation or black exploitation movement starting exploiting 0:16:44.200 --> 0:16:47.040 the civil rights movement basically. But the cool thing about 0:16:47.360 --> 0:16:49.600 black exploitation films is for the first time you had 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:51.640 African Americans as heroes. 0:16:52.320 --> 0:16:55.400 Yeah, and not heroes in a typical sense, not even 0:16:55.480 --> 0:16:59.240 anti heroes, but heroes that were like, they didn't ride 0:16:59.240 --> 0:17:02.280 into town on on a white horse or wearing a 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:06.119 white hat, right, They very clearly wore black hats if 0:17:06.200 --> 0:17:08.880 need be, Like they would engage in crime, they would 0:17:09.000 --> 0:17:13.720 murder people if nippy they were. They were basically like 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:18.359 the face of black America coming out of the Civil 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:20.360 Rights are like, we're ticked off. 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:22.520 Yeah, you know, and we're gonna stick it to the 0:17:22.520 --> 0:17:24.320 white man, stick it to the man, and we're gonna 0:17:24.320 --> 0:17:25.119 do it in these movies. 0:17:25.320 --> 0:17:27.600 Chuck, I know the movie you're about to to mention. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:29.520 Let's this is it? 0:17:31.480 --> 0:17:32.480 You keep the fath of me. 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:38.440 You my man, You're my favorite man, can you. 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:49.320 So? 0:17:49.440 --> 0:17:52.840 Yes? That was a landmark film for a lot of reasons. 0:17:52.840 --> 0:17:56.080 One because it grows four million bucks and it made 0:17:56.119 --> 0:17:59.119 the major studio say, hey, you know what the black 0:17:59.160 --> 0:18:00.639 hero is marketable? 0:18:00.960 --> 0:18:02.600 Yeah, well, you haven't said the title yet. 0:18:02.840 --> 0:18:03.560 Oh I didn't know. 0:18:04.200 --> 0:18:05.680 Okay, you gotta say it right too. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:09.960 Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetbacks, Badass. 0:18:10.119 --> 0:18:13.400 Song, Nice That was well done. That was nineteen seventy one. 0:18:13.560 --> 0:18:16.920 Melvin Van Peebles, whose last name may sound familiar. He's 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.320 the father of Mario Van Peebles for you younger cats 0:18:20.480 --> 0:18:21.280 listening to this. 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:25.200 One cats our age actually younger cats, because he's kind of. 0:18:25.200 --> 0:18:29.520 Like, okay, so cats are Yeah, that's Mario van Peebles's dad, 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:30.680 you know, New Jack City. 0:18:30.800 --> 0:18:31.440 Yeah, exactly. 0:18:31.840 --> 0:18:34.800 So Melvin Van Peebles made this movie. He produced it, 0:18:34.800 --> 0:18:36.800 he raised the money for it, he wrote it, he 0:18:36.880 --> 0:18:39.840 directed it, he starred in it. And it was the 0:18:39.880 --> 0:18:44.560 beginning of the blaxploitation subgenre, which is one of the 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:48.520 most important genres of any American. 0:18:48.600 --> 0:18:51.360 Cinema absolutely ever, absolutely. 0:18:50.840 --> 0:18:54.160 And so considering how important that subgenre is, this quote 0:18:54.200 --> 0:18:58.480 from Time Magazine's film critic Richard Corliss should really hit home. 0:18:58.720 --> 0:19:03.240 Sweet Sweet Back is quote, without question or competition, the 0:19:03.280 --> 0:19:06.480 most influential movie by a black filmmaker. So this is 0:19:06.520 --> 0:19:08.960 a really big deal, right, yeah. 0:19:08.720 --> 0:19:10.760 And it was just quickly on the plot. It was 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.640 about a black man who was a jiggielow who. 0:19:14.560 --> 0:19:16.680 Had which is a male prostitute for you, young. 0:19:16.640 --> 0:19:18.440 Cat, and he had a deal worked out with the 0:19:18.480 --> 0:19:20.639 cops where he said, you know, you can arrest me 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:23.520 as much as you want, release me right afterward, fill 0:19:23.520 --> 0:19:27.080 your quota. It's all good. And then one day, while 0:19:27.080 --> 0:19:30.480 the arrest is going down, the cops attack a black panther, 0:19:31.000 --> 0:19:34.439 and Sweet Sweet Back kills one of the cops and 0:19:34.480 --> 0:19:36.960 then just says he just goes on a rampage against 0:19:36.960 --> 0:19:37.679 the white man after that. 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:38.040 Yep. 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:43.320 So you've got prostitution, tons and tons of nudity and sex, 0:19:44.520 --> 0:19:51.000 lots of violence, and other crimes all wrapped up into 0:19:51.040 --> 0:19:52.240 a black power theme. 0:19:52.520 --> 0:19:52.960 That's right. 0:19:54.040 --> 0:19:56.800 And then to top it all off, you have what 0:19:57.000 --> 0:20:00.919 is arguably a child sex scene starring Mario Van Peebles 0:20:01.000 --> 0:20:04.359 Melvivan People's son at I think age six, He's a 0:20:04.440 --> 0:20:09.760 kid having sex as Sweet Sweet Pack. It's his first 0:20:09.760 --> 0:20:13.760 sexual encounter with an older person. And in the cult podcast, 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:15.640 if he became a cult leader, he would have taken 0:20:15.680 --> 0:20:18.320 any younger bride, remember I am. It's right. So if 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:21.440 you're interested in that movie and you can't get enough 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:25.960 of Sweet Sweetbacks bad Ass Song, you could also check 0:20:25.960 --> 0:20:30.720 out Bad Ass exclamation Point, which is Mario Van Peebles's 0:20:30.720 --> 0:20:32.880 biopic about his father making that movie. 0:20:32.920 --> 0:20:34.840 That's right, And I have not seen that, but I 0:20:34.880 --> 0:20:36.159 wanted to at the time, and it just sort of 0:20:36.160 --> 0:20:36.919 supped tough the cracks. 0:20:37.000 --> 0:20:38.919 There's always Netflix, Baby, that's right. 0:20:39.720 --> 0:20:44.080 And what happened with Sweet Sweetback was that, like I said, 0:20:44.080 --> 0:20:45.840 that told the studios, hey, that we can market this, 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:48.200 and so they got a little more mainstream with movies 0:20:48.240 --> 0:20:52.520 like Superfly, which were a little safer Shaft Shaft movies 0:20:52.520 --> 0:20:54.280 at wide audiences would enjoy as well. 0:20:54.359 --> 0:20:57.919 Yeah, the ones that didn't scare the man exactly like 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:00.240 Shaft's a good guy. He doesn't take any guff from them. 0:21:00.240 --> 0:21:02.800 But the people he's not taking gup from or the cops, 0:21:03.000 --> 0:21:06.320 who's really on the same side as That's right. So 0:21:06.520 --> 0:21:12.480 chuck exploitation obviously huge. It affected everything from you know, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:16.000 Menace to society to Blackula. All of that came from 0:21:16.040 --> 0:21:20.200 Sweet Sweet Back. And we mentioned the guy who directed 0:21:20.200 --> 0:21:24.080 this next movie, Russ Myers. This is probably a seminal work. 0:21:24.160 --> 0:21:26.240 Let's listen to this clip from the trailer. 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.399 You ladies and gentlemen gold go for a wild wild 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.440 ride with the Watusi cuts, but beware the sweetest kittens 0:21:35.480 --> 0:21:39.560 have the sharpest claw or your own safety. See faster 0:21:39.760 --> 0:21:45.280 pussy cuts, kill kill wild weather, wild wheels. Race the 0:21:45.400 --> 0:21:51.240 fastest pussy cuts and they'll be jill so far woman sulpit. 0:21:57.680 --> 0:21:59.800 Placing your stuff on this kid then hanging. It's a 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:01.320 nothing by nothing. 0:22:01.560 --> 0:22:04.840 He's got nothing to do with the Moneys, the money. 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:05.720 Jack and Jill. 0:22:06.080 --> 0:22:12.720 They make a mafia look like brownie They. 0:22:10.800 --> 0:22:12.320 Make the mafia look like Browniees. 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:15.880 That's right. That says quite a bit about them. So 0:22:16.200 --> 0:22:19.600