WEBVTT - SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Exploitation Films Work 0:00:00.760 --> 0:00:03.440 Hey, everyone, Chuck here. If you're wondering why you have 0:00:04.280 --> 0:00:07.480 suddenly ten new episodes in your feed, this is because 0:00:07.520 --> 0:00:10.159 we thought we might group things together and try a 0:00:10.200 --> 0:00:12.280 little playlist here for the summer and see how it went. 0:00:12.320 --> 0:00:14.880 And in this case, we're covering some of our movies 0:00:15.160 --> 0:00:18.360 or movies in general. And I am setting up our 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:22.520 semi recent episode from Oh, I guess it's not that recent. 0:00:22.560 --> 0:00:25.920 It's from April twenty eleven on exploitation films and how 0:00:25.960 --> 0:00:27.560 they work. It was a really fun one to do. 0:00:28.120 --> 0:00:31.120 And if you love cinema and you love movies, and 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:34.600 if you love exploitation movies especially, you're gonna love this episode. 0:00:34.760 --> 0:00:41.920 So please enjoy. Welcome to Stuff you should know from 0:00:41.920 --> 0:00:48.880 HowStuffWorks dot com. 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:51.880 Hang on there, fella, Oh yes, I know what we're doing. 0:00:51.960 --> 0:00:53.360 Go ahead, get us going here. 0:00:53.479 --> 0:00:57.480 Well, Chuck, the other night you may have noticed. I 0:00:57.520 --> 0:01:00.480 know you did, because I watched you watch this just 0:01:00.560 --> 0:01:03.560 kind of creepy but not really. You and I were 0:01:03.560 --> 0:01:05.720 on TV, Yeah, on the Science Channel. 0:01:05.880 --> 0:01:09.520 Yeah, we did the little shorts and we're actually proud 0:01:09.520 --> 0:01:11.200 of how these turned out, which is a rarity for 0:01:11.280 --> 0:01:12.760 us when there's a camera. 0:01:12.600 --> 0:01:16.360 It is, so we have more shorts coming up on 0:01:16.480 --> 0:01:21.360 Science Channel. They're running Saturdays and Sundays until I think 0:01:21.360 --> 0:01:23.400 the first week of May or something, right. 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:26.000 Yes, and now that they're all running between ten and 0:01:26.040 --> 0:01:29.959 ten thirty now supposedly during the shows I think on Saturdays, 0:01:30.000 --> 0:01:32.880 this is Oddities, which is an awesome and weird show 0:01:32.959 --> 0:01:35.440 it is, and then Sundays, which is Firefly, which is 0:01:36.240 --> 0:01:37.160 everyone loves Firefly. 0:01:37.319 --> 0:01:39.800 Yeah, I mean, I actually consider it an honor to 0:01:39.880 --> 0:01:42.360 be played during Firefly. Yeah, me too, even though the 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.360 cast of Firefly has no idea that this is going 0:01:45.360 --> 0:01:46.880 on because it's pre recorded. 0:01:46.560 --> 0:01:51.320 Exactly, Josh, So this what'sa day Thursday obviously, yeah, Saturday 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.840 and Sunday night this weekend. Yeah, on the Science Channel. 0:01:54.880 --> 0:01:57.760 That is the Science Channel, it's part of the Discovery 0:01:57.760 --> 0:02:01.160 Networks between ten and ten already, set your little DVR 0:02:01.760 --> 0:02:04.440 and then look, they run during the commercial breaks, or. 0:02:04.440 --> 0:02:06.280 If you're not so fancy that you have a DVR, 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.639 you can actually watch it as it happens. 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:10.919 That's right. And we are able to run a few 0:02:10.919 --> 0:02:12.840 of these online. Now I'm not the ones that are 0:02:12.840 --> 0:02:15.920 on TV, but there are three funny ones if you 0:02:15.960 --> 0:02:19.400 know how to navigate to the video page of HowStuffWorks 0:02:19.400 --> 0:02:21.840 dot Com. Do that, or you can just type in 0:02:21.880 --> 0:02:24.200 how stuff Works video and to Google and it'll take 0:02:24.200 --> 0:02:25.560 you straight to the video page. 0:02:25.639 --> 0:02:29.840 You could also search stuff you should know, Colon large 0:02:29.880 --> 0:02:34.040 hadron collider, stuff you should know, Colon body farms and 0:02:34.080 --> 0:02:37.440 stuff you should know, Colon mirror, neurons on a search 0:02:37.440 --> 0:02:39.000 engine and it should take you right there. 0:02:39.040 --> 0:02:39.480 That's right. 0:02:39.520 --> 0:02:41.440 And if it doesn't, you tell us and we will 0:02:41.480 --> 0:02:42.720 talk to those search engines. 0:02:42.760 --> 0:02:44.240 And if you just get to the video page, you 0:02:44.240 --> 0:02:47.200 can search stuff you should know in search videos and 0:02:47.240 --> 0:02:49.799 it'll bring up that in a couple of other little 0:02:49.840 --> 0:02:50.680 funny things we've done. 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:53.359 Yeah, so that's it. We just take like ten minutes 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:54.240 onto this episode. 0:02:54.400 --> 0:02:57.840 I know. We appreciate your support. Who mine, No, oh, 0:02:57.880 --> 0:03:01.560 everyone that wants to watch these okay. 0:03:01.080 --> 0:03:04.040 Okay, so are you ready? Okay, hey, and welcome to 0:03:04.080 --> 0:03:08.720 the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. 0:03:08.960 --> 0:03:12.359 This is Stuff you should know the podcast and kind 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.799 of a special edition. Frankly, I am a little excited, Chuck, 0:03:15.840 --> 0:03:16.600 I'm a little giddy. 0:03:16.760 --> 0:03:17.520 Shut your mouth. 0:03:18.480 --> 0:03:23.080 That's yeah, okay, sure, all right, this is this is 0:03:23.160 --> 0:03:27.560 our first ever movie centric podcast, right. 0:03:27.800 --> 0:03:31.640 Movie centric for sure. Yeah, we've mentioned movies of course 0:03:31.680 --> 0:03:33.480 all the time, but this one is like, this. 0:03:33.360 --> 0:03:37.400 Is all about movies. So this is by popular request 0:03:37.440 --> 0:03:41.400 to an extent. People want to see, like, they want 0:03:41.440 --> 0:03:43.360 to hear us talk about movies and just do a 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:46.800 movie podcast. So we decided to focus on exploitation films. Right. 0:03:46.920 --> 0:03:49.080 This is also probably the first podcast that we're going 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:53.160 to say, if you are a teacher of children in 0:03:53.600 --> 0:03:56.120 eighth grade or younger, and you're using this as a 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.680 teaching tool, you might want to go to the one 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:02.040 before this or the one after. We don't generally try 0:04:02.040 --> 0:04:05.040 to alienate audiences. We're not attempting to now. It's just 0:04:05.040 --> 0:04:07.840 a natural byproduct of the exploitation film. 0:04:08.080 --> 0:04:11.720 Can't talk about exploitation films without talking about some lurid 0:04:11.800 --> 0:04:12.440 subject matter. 0:04:12.720 --> 0:04:17.000 Yeah, you can't say exploitation without ploit. 0:04:17.240 --> 0:04:22.280 Yeah, they weren't exploiting, just people being nice, right, niceploitation. 0:04:22.839 --> 0:04:25.080 So, Chuck, I went and saw a movie the other 0:04:25.160 --> 0:04:28.040 day called I Saw the Devil. It's a Korean movie. 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:32.719 It's by the guy who did the Tale of Two Sisters. 0:04:32.720 --> 0:04:34.880 I think Oh, he said more violent than Old Boy. 0:04:35.160 --> 0:04:38.960 Yeah, the guy old Boy is one of the main characters. 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.920 And I've seen old Boy. I've seen what's the other 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:48.200 one he did, the vampire movie, Yeah, Thirst, So I 0:04:48.240 --> 0:04:50.880 think it's pretty good. It was okay, this one is 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.760 it's the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life. 0:04:52.760 --> 0:04:55.200 It's the most graphically violent movie I've ever seen in 0:04:55.200 --> 0:04:59.279 my life. The only the only reason, like I was 0:04:59.320 --> 0:05:01.760 able to complete is because I'm like, this is it's 0:05:01.800 --> 0:05:04.840 a movie, I know, but I walked out of it 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.960 like it's so over the top, it's so gory. It's 0:05:08.000 --> 0:05:09.640 clearly an exploitation film. 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:10.280 Yeah. 0:05:11.120 --> 0:05:13.279 Yeah, but the problem is is, like, really, if you 0:05:13.320 --> 0:05:18.440 start to look around, John Hughes, films technically are exploitation films. 0:05:18.440 --> 0:05:21.239 The Breakfast Club is technically an exploitation film. 0:05:21.400 --> 0:05:25.240 Yeah, there's a big wave of teen exploitation films, and 0:05:25.520 --> 0:05:26.839 we'll get to that, but yeah, you're right. 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:29.760 So one of the broader definitions of exploitation films is 0:05:29.760 --> 0:05:33.400 basically anything that's really like over the top, that is 0:05:33.800 --> 0:05:40.720 beyond reality, or that maybe focuses on people's fears, their 0:05:41.160 --> 0:05:44.880 sexuality and basically just kind of serves it up in 0:05:44.960 --> 0:05:47.240 a larger than life manner. That's one way of looking 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:48.240 at exploitation films. 0:05:48.279 --> 0:05:53.839 Yeah, you're basically they're exploiting some of the seedier aspects 0:05:53.880 --> 0:05:55.479 of humanity most times. 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:59.440 Sure, like murder or sex, like weird sex, that kind 0:05:59.480 --> 0:06:02.159 of thing, sexed. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:04.200 Sex, teenagers rebelling against parents. 0:06:04.240 --> 0:06:07.240 Sure, like a weird science. Have you ever been to 0:06:07.279 --> 0:06:09.280 a party where a couch shot out of the chimney 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:11.800 and into the pond? I mean, it's a pretty nice party. 0:06:11.800 --> 0:06:15.680 I don't think it's ever really happened, you know. So 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.040 that's the vast definition of exploitation. But you and I 0:06:19.279 --> 0:06:24.560 are kind of qualified to teach a cinema class at 0:06:24.560 --> 0:06:28.880 like maybe a low level community college at this point 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.000 after the amount of research we've done in this sure, 0:06:31.080 --> 0:06:33.720 and we found that academically there's a there's a much 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:42.440 more distinct definition for exploitation, and it's seemingly interchangeable term grindhouse. 0:06:42.520 --> 0:06:44.840 Right, Yeah, what's the Is there a definition definition? 0:06:44.960 --> 0:06:48.679 It's more like a timeframe. Okay, So from like nineteen 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.000 nineteen when they really first started making movies to I 0:06:52.000 --> 0:06:56.000 think nineteen sixty nineteen fifty nine when the Hayes Act 0:06:56.040 --> 0:07:01.200 went away, that was exploitation, and then after that it 0:07:01.400 --> 0:07:06.040 became Grindhouse. Okay, gotcha, it's my understanding. Okay, so let's 0:07:06.040 --> 0:07:07.400 do this all right. 0:07:07.440 --> 0:07:10.240 Well, that's the old joke. Was that in the awesome 0:07:10.280 --> 0:07:14.880 documentary American Grindhouse, which documents this this era of filmmaking. Yeah, 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:16.680 the old joke, one of the guys says, is that 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.080 exploitation films began five minutes after the camera was invented, 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:22.520 the motion picture camera. 0:07:22.400 --> 0:07:24.960 Because the guy was like the directors like to his girlfriend, hey, 0:07:24.960 --> 0:07:27.280 would you mind taking your clothes off or the camera exactly? 0:07:27.680 --> 0:07:30.440 So it says something about the human condition that you 0:07:30.480 --> 0:07:32.680 invent the film camera, and the first moving images were 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:36.560 often lurid Edison's film. It showed clips of like decapitations 0:07:37.160 --> 0:07:41.000 and violence and guys fighting, yeah, and knit naked women 0:07:42.040 --> 0:07:44.520 as film tests. So it's just that says a lot 0:07:44.520 --> 0:07:45.920 about people, like, all right, now we know how to 0:07:45.920 --> 0:07:50.840 capture things, so let's capture sex and violence right first. 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:56.720 Right, And although that really kind of jibed with public tastes, 0:07:56.840 --> 0:08:00.960 or at least public fascination, it didn't jibe with the 0:08:01.760 --> 0:08:05.560 prevailing standards. They agreed upon standards, right. 0:08:05.760 --> 0:08:08.559 Right, I think he said nineteen nineteen. But the first 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:13.400 exploitation film was nineteen thirteen. Oh, okay, Trafficking Souls or 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:16.800 While New York Sleeps, right, and that, like you said, 0:08:16.960 --> 0:08:19.520 exploitation often plays into fears. That played into the fear 0:08:19.520 --> 0:08:24.000 at the time of the white slave trade. Budget of 0:08:24.040 --> 0:08:27.040 fifty seven grand and gross four hundred and fifty thousand dollars, 0:08:27.080 --> 0:08:28.720 which nineteen thirteen. It's a lot of dough. 0:08:28.800 --> 0:08:30.120 That is a ton of though, And. 0:08:30.080 --> 0:08:32.680 That was Universal Pictures and they went, hey, going on 0:08:32.760 --> 0:08:33.280 to something here. 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:37.839 Right after that was released the Hayes Code. Will Hayes 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:42.640 was the Postmaster General and Presbyterian elder and he was 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.560 making one hundred grand a year during the depression. 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:46.640 Unbelievable, right. 0:08:47.080 --> 0:08:51.480 He basically said, like, look, we need we need to 0:08:51.640 --> 0:08:56.880 apply some moral standards to filmmaking. There's decapitation, there's naked breast, 0:08:57.000 --> 0:09:03.319 there's white slavery, Like we need to pure this up, right. 0:09:03.320 --> 0:09:06.400 Well, actually, there wasn't nudity yet like those early test films. 0:09:06.440 --> 0:09:09.360 There were, but nudity. We'll get to that later, okay, 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.000 But yes, that's what Hayes tried to do. And like 0:09:12.760 --> 0:09:17.960 prohibition didn't exactly quell drinking, the Hayes Code actually sort 0:09:17.960 --> 0:09:20.079 of gave rise to the exploitation movement. 0:09:20.360 --> 0:09:25.320 Yeah, it's just like just like prohibition, just like marijuana prohibition, 0:09:25.600 --> 0:09:28.679 just like well any drug prohibition. Anytime you say you 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:32.280 can't do this, you can't have something that you want, 0:09:32.600 --> 0:09:35.400 the somebody else is going to operate in a black market. 0:09:35.400 --> 0:09:38.000 A black market's going to bring up simple economics. Yeah, 0:09:38.040 --> 0:09:40.720 and that's exactly what happened, and that's where exploitation cinema 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:43.240 came up. It's like, you can't get this from Hollywood 0:09:43.320 --> 0:09:45.960 because Hollywood has to play by the rules. But my 0:09:46.120 --> 0:09:50.559 production studio is my model t and let's go make 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.080 this movie. Give me some money. I'm going to film 0:09:53.440 --> 0:09:57.880 a child being born close up and put it in 0:09:57.960 --> 0:09:58.480 the movies. 0:09:58.720 --> 0:10:01.160 Yes, you can do that. You can make your movies 0:10:01.200 --> 0:10:04.320 all day long, but if they're never exhibited, then what 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:06.400 good are you doing or not? Like they were trying 0:10:06.400 --> 0:10:08.600 to do some good, but you're not making any scratch. 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:12.720 So the forty thieves they talk about in the documentary 0:10:12.720 --> 0:10:17.280 were these filmmakers and exhibitors basically that traveled around like carnies, 0:10:18.160 --> 0:10:22.319 setting up these sort of gorilla film screenings and some 0:10:22.520 --> 0:10:24.280 places sort of out of the way where they can't 0:10:24.280 --> 0:10:28.320 get caught. And that was for the first time, you know, 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.360 they were taking films outside of the main stream. 0:10:31.600 --> 0:10:31.840 Yeah. 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:34.080 Different. Sometimes they weren't even theaters. They would show them 0:10:34.160 --> 0:10:37.760 like VFW halls if you want to go see Birth 0:10:37.760 --> 0:10:39.720 of a Baby films. Apparently they were popular. 0:10:39.800 --> 0:10:42.480 Yeah, that was a whole genre, early genre of exploitation. 0:10:42.760 --> 0:10:45.760 Well, and so was early on a lot of the 0:10:45.760 --> 0:10:48.480 film centered around like how to wear a condom in 0:10:48.520 --> 0:10:50.240 these sex hygiene films. 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:53.280 Yeah, because there was no information about that out there, 0:10:53.320 --> 0:11:00.280 and so exploitation filmmakers, whether disingenuously or genuinely, were ending 0:11:00.320 --> 0:11:03.000 their stuff like this is a public service. People need 0:11:03.040 --> 0:11:06.560 to know this, right and making movies about it. But 0:11:07.240 --> 0:11:09.880 also and people were going on that excuse as well, 0:11:09.920 --> 0:11:12.120 like well, I need to know about this, But at 0:11:12.160 --> 0:11:14.200 the same time, it's like I want to see this 0:11:14.640 --> 0:11:17.160 the craziest thing I'll ever see in my life exactly, 0:11:17.400 --> 0:11:18.800 you know, on screen. 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:20.080 Or they argued a lot of times that they were 0:11:20.080 --> 0:11:23.200 cautionary tales. If they were about drugs or violence, they 0:11:23.200 --> 0:11:25.319 would say, hey, this could happen to you. Yeah, so 0:11:25.400 --> 0:11:27.640 you should educate yourself. But what they really want to 0:11:27.679 --> 0:11:28.120 do is get. 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:30.200 Their movie scene and make some money exactly. 0:11:32.440 --> 0:11:35.120 Paramount decision of nineteen forty eight. This is pretty big. 0:11:35.160 --> 0:11:38.839 This Supreme Court voted that movie studios could no longer 0:11:38.880 --> 0:11:41.720 own their own movie theaters. At the time, you know, 0:11:41.920 --> 0:11:45.319 there would be like the Paramount Theater in Hollywood from 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:48.640 the Paramount Film production Company. They would show their movies. 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.920 Supreme Court said no more, and all of a sudden, 0:11:52.600 --> 0:11:55.920 exploitation films became a little bit more legit because the 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:58.400 Hayes Code kind of fell apart. Yeah, and this is 0:11:58.400 --> 0:11:59.760 post World War two, so. 0:12:00.520 --> 0:12:03.280 People had seen a lot of death recently, well a lot. 0:12:03.080 --> 0:12:08.120 Of death, and then they thought ladies in suggestive roles 0:12:08.200 --> 0:12:11.839 were good for morale. And there was a little bit 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.400 of loosening on the sex thing a little bit post 0:12:15.400 --> 0:12:15.920 World War two. 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:21.520 Enough that led to another subgenre of exploitation film, the 0:12:21.600 --> 0:12:26.840 nwdest colony film, which were pawned off as documentaries. A 0:12:26.880 --> 0:12:29.719 lot well most of these were pawned off as document documentaries, 0:12:29.720 --> 0:12:33.800 which legitimized them, but really it was maybe it actually 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:36.560 was film that a news camp. Probably not. Mostly there 0:12:36.559 --> 0:12:41.720 were actors and actresses just engaged in archery naked or 0:12:42.520 --> 0:12:43.560 long walks naked. 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:44.600 There could be no sex. 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:46.920 Still that was still no taboo, but it was just 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:50.880 like naked pretty people right at a newdist colony, which 0:12:50.920 --> 0:12:53.360 is interesting because you're not a nudist, so come learn 0:12:53.400 --> 0:12:55.400 about them exactly. Yeah. 0:12:55.440 --> 0:12:58.320 After that, through the history we had things like the 0:12:58.400 --> 0:13:01.840 teen like you said, the teen Rebellion of the fifties 0:13:01.880 --> 0:13:04.040 with the rebel thought of Cause and Blackboard Jungle and 0:13:04.080 --> 0:13:06.839 movies like that all of a sudden were targeted specifically 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.880 at teens, which was new, and then drive in theaters 0:13:10.880 --> 0:13:14.199 were built so teenagers could see movies where their parents 0:13:14.360 --> 0:13:16.520 weren't going to be. Apparently the adults didn't go to 0:13:16.559 --> 0:13:19.000 drive ins a lot at first. Oh yeah, it's all kids. 0:13:19.120 --> 0:13:19.679 I didn't know that. 0:13:19.960 --> 0:13:22.760 So they showed exploitation films and then later the beach films, 0:13:23.400 --> 0:13:26.680 which were marketed as it's silly, it's Frankie avalon, but 0:13:26.760 --> 0:13:31.160 they were decidedly weird and overtly sexual sometimes. 0:13:31.120 --> 0:13:35.319 And then chuck, if you'll notice, we're kind of progressing 0:13:35.360 --> 0:13:40.800 along in this chronological order, and each thing is kind 0:13:40.840 --> 0:13:42.160 of being built on the last. 0:13:42.360 --> 0:13:44.880 It was very much a step process, right. 0:13:44.960 --> 0:13:49.880 And apparently that was kind of the form that exploitation 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:53.800 filmmaking followed until nineteen sixty it was just it was 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:58.040 centered around drugs, violence, sex, and in a lot of 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:00.240 ways they were presented as documentaries. They might not have 0:14:00.280 --> 0:14:05.880 a plot, and basically it was one person would make 0:14:05.920 --> 0:14:08.079 some film and it would just break all the rules, 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:11.240 and then a bunch of other people would make similar films, 0:14:10.920 --> 0:14:14.600 right and the same. That was the way it went. 0:14:15.200 --> 0:14:18.680 And then in the nineteen sixties things just started to 0:14:18.720 --> 0:14:21.920 go every which way, all sorts of directions. Right, So 0:14:22.120 --> 0:14:29.040 nudity nudy films were a long standing thread of exploitation 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.760 films and then they probably reached their pinnacle with Russ Myers, right, 0:14:32.880 --> 0:14:34.600 King of the Nudies is what he's called. 0:14:34.760 --> 0:14:37.360 Yeah, he was the first guy to He's significant because 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:41.720 he was the first director to have films featuring nudity 0:14:41.840 --> 0:14:47.760 that actually were dramatic narratives and had plots and characters, 0:14:47.800 --> 0:14:51.480 and they weren't classified as documentaries anymore. And then the 0:14:51.560 --> 0:14:54.320 Roughies came along and they offered up violence for the 0:14:54.600 --> 0:14:59.240 not first time, but big time for the first time. Right, 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:02.000 And that has a lot to do with the fact 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:04.680 that there was the sixties and Kennedy was shot and 0:15:05.200 --> 0:15:07.640 the United States was just becoming increasingly violent. 0:15:07.720 --> 0:15:11.080 America lost its innocence. Yeah, and the other thing that 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.760 really happened in the nineteen sixties was the Hayes Coote 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:18.520 officially won away, was replaced by the MPAA and the 0:15:19.880 --> 0:15:24.680 I guess the long standing prohibition on Hollywood producing exploitation 0:15:24.800 --> 0:15:31.240 films was it was lessened decreased, and so studios were like, oh, 0:15:31.280 --> 0:15:33.240 we can make money over here too, Well, let's start 0:15:33.280 --> 0:15:36.760 making exploitation films right, And this is where grindhouse was born. 0:15:36.960 --> 0:15:44.080 So my cinema professor definition of grindhouse is big budget, 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:49.600 studio backed exploitation films. Okay, okay, yeah, that's that's mine. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:50.160 I like it. 0:15:50.240 --> 0:15:51.840 That's gonna be a quiz question later. 0:15:51.960 --> 0:15:55.240 Yeah, I'll go with that. Actually, back up one second. 0:15:55.280 --> 0:15:57.480 We got to mention Herschel Gordon Lewis. He was a 0:15:57.600 --> 0:16:00.840 director who had a Codre. I can't remember the other 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:04.280 guys named you. Anyway, he was a co director and 0:16:04.360 --> 0:16:06.520 he was one of these exploitation guys that was getting 0:16:06.560 --> 0:16:09.080 frustrated because there weren't a lot of places to show 0:16:09.080 --> 0:16:11.440 your movie. So it was a pretty crowded marketplace. So 0:16:11.480 --> 0:16:14.800 he said, what's the one taboo that like people will 0:16:14.800 --> 0:16:18.040 pay to see that you're allowed to show in theaters, 0:16:18.840 --> 0:16:24.640 but that studios won't make. And it was Gore. Oh yeah, 0:16:24.720 --> 0:16:27.960 he was the first guy to start showing really disgusting 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:32.920 bloody scenes in his movie uh, blood Feast, Blood Feast, Yeah, 0:16:32.920 --> 0:16:35.240 which actually was three years after Psycho, and Psycho also 0:16:35.240 --> 0:16:38.320 did a lot for the mainstream ushering in of sure, 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:40.000 a little bit of Gore in that, but well there's 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:41.480 like a. 0:16:40.840 --> 0:16:44.560 Shot of blood following Janet Lee's murder, you know, which 0:16:44.600 --> 0:16:47.840 is I imagine it's pretty graphic for Hollywood, and that's what 0:16:47.880 --> 0:16:50.360 you think of You're like, oh, those stupid sixties, but 0:16:50.400 --> 0:16:53.760 that's you know, there were so naive like that was controversial, 0:16:54.080 --> 0:16:56.600 not really though, Like if you stepped just slightly outside 0:16:56.600 --> 0:17:00.360 of Hollywood, you ran into things like Blood Feast, right, 0:17:00.520 --> 0:17:03.000 or you know Last House on the Left. Yes, well 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:04.760 that's nineteen seventy two, I think. 0:17:04.640 --> 0:17:08.200 Yeah, Wes Craven. So that was important because all of 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:13.720 a sudden, a drugs started, well three things. Political themes 0:17:13.720 --> 0:17:18.040 started popping up, right, sexual freedom, the youth generation. Drugs 0:17:18.040 --> 0:17:20.800 started popping up in movies for the first time, drug use, 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:24.240 well not for the first time, we'll talk about reefer madness. Yeah, 0:17:24.520 --> 0:17:27.639 but teenagers were depicted as victims of violence for the 0:17:27.640 --> 0:17:30.840 first time, like Last House on the Left I believe 0:17:30.960 --> 0:17:33.880 is kind of regarded as the first teen slasher film. 0:17:34.880 --> 0:17:39.359 Yeah, Wes Craven, it was almost a snuff film. It 0:17:39.400 --> 0:17:41.000 was almost regarded like that. 0:17:41.080 --> 0:17:41.880 It's pretty hardcore. 0:17:41.960 --> 0:17:45.800 But yeah, it definitely blood Feasts definitely allowed Last House 0:17:45.840 --> 0:17:47.720 on the Left to come around, but it also probably 0:17:47.760 --> 0:17:54.119 more directly formed the foundation for slasher exploitation like Friday 0:17:54.160 --> 0:17:57.720 the Thirteenth or Nightmare on Elm Street. Absolutely, My Bloody 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:02.480 Valentine's another big one. Crazy great, yeah, crazy. Oh yeah, 0:18:02.480 --> 0:18:04.320 that was an original, right, there's a remake now. 0:18:04.240 --> 0:18:08.640 I think, Yeah, yeah, remakes. So that brings us We're 0:18:08.680 --> 0:18:13.760 in the seventies, politically charged movies brought race into the 0:18:14.000 --> 0:18:16.040 to the mix, and all of a sudden, we had 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:21.359 black exploitation or black exploitation movement starting exploiting the civil 0:18:21.400 --> 0:18:24.920 rights movement basically. But the cool thing about black exploitation 0:18:25.000 --> 0:18:27.840 films is for the first time you had African Americans 0:18:27.880 --> 0:18:28.520 as heroes. 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.280 Yeah, and not heroes in a typical sense, not even 0:18:32.359 --> 0:18:36.080 anti heroes, but heroes that were like They didn't ride 0:18:36.080 --> 0:18:39.800 into town on a white horse or wearing a white hat. 0:18:40.440 --> 0:18:43.600 They very clearly wore black hats. If need be, like 0:18:43.680 --> 0:18:46.639 they would engage in crime, they would murder people, if 0:18:46.760 --> 0:18:52.760 nimbi they were. They were basically like the face of 0:18:53.280 --> 0:18:56.040 black America coming out of the Civil Rights are like, 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:57.240 we're ticked off. 0:18:57.440 --> 0:18:59.359 Yeah, you know, and we're gonna stick it to the 0:18:59.400 --> 0:19:01.200 white man to get to the man, and we're gonna 0:19:01.200 --> 0:19:02.000 do it in these movies. 0:19:02.200 --> 0:19:04.840 Chuck, I know the movie you're about to mention. Let's 0:19:05.880 --> 0:19:06.359 this is it. 0:19:08.359 --> 0:19:11.440 You keep the faith in me, You my man, You're 0:19:11.440 --> 0:19:13.240 my favorite man. 0:19:14.320 --> 0:19:29.040 Can so Yes. That was a landmark film for a 0:19:29.040 --> 0:19:31.959 lot of reasons. One because it grows four million bucks 0:19:32.520 --> 0:19:35.040 and it made the major studio say, hey, you know 0:19:35.119 --> 0:19:37.520 what the black hero is marketable? 0:19:37.840 --> 0:19:39.440 Yeah, well you haven't said the title yet. 0:19:39.680 --> 0:19:40.399 Oh I didn't know. 0:19:41.040 --> 0:19:42.560 Okay, you gotta say it right too. 0:19:42.840 --> 0:19:47.240 Melvin Van Peebles film Sweet Sweetback's Badass Song. 0:19:47.480 --> 0:19:50.280 Nice, That was well done. That was nineteen seventy one. 0:19:50.440 --> 0:19:53.800 Men Van Peebles, whose last name may sound familiar. He's 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:57.200 the father of Mario van Peebles. For your younger cats 0:19:57.359 --> 0:19:58.480 listening to this one. 0:19:59.480 --> 0:20:01.880 Cats all right, age actually younger cats because he's kind 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:05.439 of like, okay, so cats A, yeah, that's Mario Van 0:20:05.480 --> 0:20:08.320 Peebles's dad, you know, New Jack City. Yeah, exactly. 0:20:08.720 --> 0:20:11.679 So Melvin Van Peebles made this movie. He produced it, 0:20:11.680 --> 0:20:13.679 he raised the money for it, he wrote it, he 0:20:13.720 --> 0:20:16.720 directed it, he starred in it. And it was the 0:20:16.760 --> 0:20:21.399 beginning of the blaxploitation subgenre, which is one of the 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:27.639 most important genres of any American cinema absolutely ever, absolutely, 0:20:27.720 --> 0:20:31.040 and so considering how important that subgenre is, this quote 0:20:31.040 --> 0:20:35.360 from Time Magazine's film critic Richard Corliss should really hit home. 0:20:35.600 --> 0:20:40.080 Sweet Sweet Back is quote, without question or competition, the 0:20:40.160 --> 0:20:43.359 most influential movie by a black filmmaker. So this is 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:45.760 a really big deal, right, yeah. 0:20:45.600 --> 0:20:47.440 And it was. It was just quickly on the plot. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.040 It was about a black man who was a jiggielow. 0:20:51.119 --> 0:20:53.880 Who, which is a male prostitute for you younger cats. 0:20:54.080 --> 0:20:55.639 And he had a deal worked out with the cops 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:57.359 where he was he said, you know, you can arrest 0:20:57.440 --> 0:20:59.880 me as much as you want, release me right after 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.960 fill your quota. It's all good. And then one day, 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:06.720 while the arrest is going down, the cops attack a 0:21:06.760 --> 0:21:10.320 black panther, and Sweet Sweet Back kills one of the 0:21:10.359 --> 0:21:13.119 cops and then just says he just goes on a 0:21:13.200 --> 0:21:14.520 rampage against the white man after that. 0:21:14.720 --> 0:21:14.920 Yep. 0:21:15.119 --> 0:21:20.199 So you've got prostitution, tons and tons of nudity and sex, 0:21:21.359 --> 0:21:27.879 lots of violence, and other crimes all wrapped up into 0:21:27.920 --> 0:21:29.119 a black power theme. 0:21:29.400 --> 0:21:29.800 That's right. 0:21:30.880 --> 0:21:33.679