SYSK’s Summer Movie Playlist: How Exploitation Films Work

In today's SYSK Select episode, we learn about exploitation films. During the 1930s-80s, the work of directors operating in the shadows of Hollywood led to explorations in sexuality and violence that mainstream cinema wouldn't touch. Join Chuck and Josh as they explore the seedy underbelly of grindhouse flicks. See omnystudio.com/listener https://omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:04Josh Clark?

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• 1:09Speaker 02

  Hey, everyone. Chuck here. If you're wondering why you have suddenly 10 new episodes in your feed, it's because we thought we might group things together and try a little playlist here for the summer and see how it went. And in this case, we're covering summer movies, or movies in general. And I am setting up our semi-recent episode from, oh, I guess it's not that recent. It's from April 2011 on exploitation films and how they work. It was a really fun one to do. And if you love cinema and you love movies, and if you love exploitation movies especially, you're going to love this episode. So please enjoy.

• 1:47Speaker 03

  Welcome to Stuff You Should Know from howstuffworks.com.

• 1:57Speaker 02

  Hang on there, fella.

• 1:58Josh Clark?

  Oh, yes, I know what we're doing.

• 2:00Speaker 02

  Go ahead, get us going here.

• 2:02Josh Clark?

  Well, Chuck, the other night, you may have noticed, I know you did, because I watched you watch this. Just kinda creepy, but not really. You and I were on TV.

• 2:13Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:13Josh Clark?

  On the Science Channel.

• 2:14Speaker 02

  Yeah, we did the little shorts, and we're actually proud of how these turned out, which is a rarity for us when there's a camera.

• 2:21Josh Clark?

  It is, so we have more shorts coming up on Science Channel. They're running Saturdays and Sundays until, I think, the first week of May or something, right?

• 2:32Speaker 02

  Yes, and now they're all running between 10 and 10:30 now, supposedly.

• 2:36Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 2:36Speaker 02

  During the shows, I think, on Saturdays, is Oddities.

• 2:39Josh Clark?

  Woo!

• 2:40Speaker 02

  Which is an awesome and weird show.

• 2:41Josh Clark?

  It is.

• 2:42Speaker 02

  And then Sundays, which is Firefly, which is, you know, everyone loves Firefly.

• 2:45Josh Clark?

  Yeah, I mean, I actually considered it an honor to be played during Firefly.

• 2:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, me too.

• 2:50Josh Clark?

  Even though the cast of Firefly has no idea that this is going on, because it's pre-recorded.

• 2:55Speaker 02

  Exactly, Josh. So, this, what's today, Thursday, obviously?

• 2:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 2:59Speaker 02

  Saturday and Sunday night, this weekend, on the Science Channel. That is the Science Channel, it's part of the Discovery Networks. Between 10 and 10:30, set your little DVR, and then, look, they run during the commercial breaks.

• 3:12Josh Clark?

  Or, if you're not so fancy that you have a DVR, you can actually watch it as it happens.

• 3:17Speaker 02

  That's right, and we are able to run a few of these online now, not the ones that are on TV, but there are three funny ones, if you know how to navigate to the video page of HowStuffWorks.com. Do that, or you can just type in "HowStuffWorksVideo" into Google, and it'll take you straight to the video page.

• 3:34Josh Clark?

  You could also search "Stuff You Should Know: Large Hadron Collider", "Stuff You Should Know: Body Farms", and "Stuff You Should Know: Mirror Neurons",

• 3:45Speaker 02

  Right.

• 3:45Josh Clark?

  On the search engine, and it should take you right there.

• 3:47Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 3:48Josh Clark?

  And if it doesn't, you tell us, and we will talk to those search engines.

• 3:51Speaker 02

  And if you just get to the video page, you can search "Stuff You Should Know", and search "Videos", and it'll bring up that and a couple of other little funny things we've done.

• 3:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so...

• 4:00Speaker 02

  That's it.

• 4:00Josh Clark?

  We just tacked like 10 minutes onto this episode.

• 4:02Speaker 02

  I know, we appreciate your support.

• 4:04Josh Clark?

  Who, mine?

• 4:05Speaker 02

  No.

• 4:06Josh Clark?

  Oh.

• 4:06Speaker 02

  Everyone that wants to watch these.

• 4:08Josh Clark?

  Agreed.

• 4:08Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 4:09Josh Clark?

  Okay, so you ready?

• 4:10Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 4:11Josh Clark?

  Okay. Hey and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant. This is Stuff You Should Know, the podcast, and kind of a special edition frankly. I am a little excited Chuck. I'm a little giddy.

• 4:25Speaker 02

  Shut your mouth.

• 4:27Josh Clark?

  That's, yeah, okay, sure.

• 4:29Speaker 02

  Alright.

• 4:29Josh Clark?

  Um, this is, uh, this is our first ever movie centric podcast, right?

• 4:36Speaker 02

  Movie centric for sure, yeah. We've mentioned, uh, movies of course all the time, but this one is like...

• 4:41Josh Clark?

  This is all about movies.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 4:43Josh Clark?

  Um, so this is by, by popular request to an extent. People want to see like, um, uh, they, they want to hear us talk about movies and just do a movie podcast. So we decided to focus on exploitation films.

• 4:55Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 4:55Josh Clark?

  This is also probably the first podcast that we're gonna say if you are a teacher of children in, uh, 8th grade or younger, and you're using this as a teaching tool, you might want to go to the one before this or the one after.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:09Josh Clark?

  We don't generally try to alienate audiences. We're not attempting to now. It's just a natural byproduct of the exploitation film.

• 5:16Speaker 02

  Can't talk about exploitation films without talking about some lurid subject matter.

• 5:21Josh Clark?

  Yeah. You can't say exploitation without ploy.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  Yeah. They weren't exploiting just people being nice.

• 5:28Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 5:30Speaker 02

  Nice ploitation.

• 5:31Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, I went and saw a movie the other day called I Saw The Devil. It's a Korean movie. It's by the guy who did, um, The Tale Of Two Sisters, I think.

• 5:41Speaker 02

  Oh, you said more violent than Old Boy?

• 5:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah. The, the guy, Old Boy is one of the main characters and I've seen Old Boy. I've seen, um, uh, what's the other one? He did the vampire movie?

• 5:54Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 5:54Josh Clark?

  Thirst. Something like that, I think. It's pretty good. It was okay. Um, this one is, it's the most violent thing I've ever seen in my life. It's the most graphically violent movie I've ever seen in my life. Um, the only, the only reason it, like, I was able to complete is because I'm like, this is, it's a movie. I, I know.

• 6:11Speaker 02

  Right.

• 6:12Josh Clark?

  But I walked out of it, like, it's so over the top, it's so gory.

• 6:16Speaker 02

  Right.

• 6:16Josh Clark?

  It's clearly an exploitation film.

• 6:18Speaker 02

  Yeah, alive and well.

• 6:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah, but the problem is, is like, really, if you start to look around, John Hughes films technically are exploitation films. The Breakfast Club is technically an exploitation film.

• 6:29Speaker 02

  Yeah, the, uh, there was a big wave of teen exploitation films.

• 6:33Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:33Speaker 02

  And, uh, we'll get to that, but yeah, you're right.

• 6:35Josh Clark?

  So one of the broader definitions of exploitation films is basically anything that's really, like, over the top, that is beyond reality, um, or that maybe focuses on people's fears.

• 6:47Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 6:47Josh Clark?

  Um, uh, their, their sexuality.

• 6:50Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 6:51Josh Clark?

  Um, and basically just kind of serves it up in a larger-than-life manner. That's one way of looking at exploitation films.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, you're basically, they're exploiting, um, some of the seedier, uh, aspects of humanity, most times.

• 7:03Josh Clark?

  Sure, like murder, or sex, like, um, weird sex, that kind of thing.

• 7:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:09Josh Clark?

  Sex, weird sex.

• 7:11Speaker 02

  Teenagers rebelling against parents.

• 7:12Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 7:13Speaker 02

  That kind of thing.

• 7:13Josh Clark?

  Like, uh, weird science. Have you ever been to a party where a couch shot out of the chimney and into the pond? I mean, it's a pretty nice party. I don't think it's ever really happened, you know?

• 7:22Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:22Josh Clark?

  Um, so, th- that's the vast definition of exploitation, but you and I are, um, kind of qualified to teach a cinema, cinema class at, like, maybe a, a low-level community college.

• 7:36Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 7:37Josh Clark?

  At this point, after the amount of research we've done in this.

• 7:39Speaker 02

  Sure.

• 7:39Josh Clark?

  And we found that academically, there's a, there's a much more distinct, um, definition for exploitation, and it's seemingly interchangeable term grindhouse, right?

• 7:51Speaker 02

  Yeah, what's the, is there a definition, definition?

• 7:53Josh Clark?

  It's, it's more like a timeframe.

• 7:55Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 7:55Josh Clark?

  So from, like, nineteen nineteen, when they really first started making movies, to, I think, nineteen sixty, nineteen fifty-nine, when the Hayes Act went away.

• 8:06Josh Clark?

  That was exploitation. And then after that, it was, it became Grindhouse.

• 8:11Speaker 02

  Okay. Gotcha.

• 8:12Josh Clark?

  It's my understanding.

• 8:13Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 8:14Josh Clark?

  So, let's do this.

• 8:15Speaker 02

  All right, well, that's the old joke was that in, in the awesome documentary, American Grindhouse, which documents this, this era of filmmaking.

• 8:23Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:23Speaker 02

  The old joke, one of the guy says is that, um, exploitation films began five minutes after the camera was invented, the motion picture camera.

• 8:30Josh Clark?

  Because the guy was like, the director was like to his girlfriend, "Hey, would you mind taking your clothes off for the cameras?"

• 8:35Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 8:36Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:36Speaker 02

  So, it says something about the human condition that, uh, you invent the film camera and the first moving images were often lurid. Um, Edison's film, it showed clips of like decapitations and violence and guys fighting.

• 8:47Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 8:47Speaker 02

  And naked women, um, as film tests. So, it's just, that says a lot about people like, "All right, now we know how to capture things, so let's capture sex and violence."

• 8:57Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 8:59Speaker 02

  First.

• 8:59Josh Clark?

  Right. And, um, although that really kind of jibed with public taste, or at least public fascination, uh, it didn't jibe with the prevailing standards, the agreed upon standards, right?

• 9:14Speaker 02

  Right. Uh, I think you said 1919, but the first exploitation film was 1913.

• 9:19Josh Clark?

  Oh, okay.

• 9:20Speaker 02

  Uh, Traffic in Souls.

• 9:21Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  Or While New York Sleeps.

• 9:23Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 9:24Speaker 02

  And that, like you said, exploitation often plays into fears. That played into the fear at the time of the white slave trade.

• 9:30Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 9:31Speaker 02

  Uh, budget of 57 grand and grossed $450,000, which, 1913, that's a lot of dough.

• 9:37Josh Clark?

  That is a ton of dough.

• 9:38Speaker 02

  And that was Universal Pictures and they went, "Hey, got on to something here."

• 9:42Josh Clark?

  Right. After that was released, The Hayes Code, um, Will Hayes was the postmaster general and Presbyterian elder, um, and he was making a hundred grand a year during the Depression.

• 9:54Speaker 02

  That's unbelievable.

• 9:55Josh Clark?

  Right? He, uh, he basically said like, "Look, we need, um, we need to apply some moral standards to filmmaking."

• 10:03Speaker 02

  Right.

• 10:03Josh Clark?

  There's decapitation, there's naked breasts, there's, there's white, white slavery. Like, we need to, we need to pure this up.

• 10:11Speaker 02

  Right, well, actually, there, there wasn't nudity yet. Like, those early test films, there were, but nudity, we'll get to that later.

• 10:17Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 10:18Speaker 02

  But yes, that's what Hays tried to do and like prohibition didn't exactly quell drinking. The Hays Code actually sort of gave rise to the exploitation movement.

• 10:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's just like prohibition, just like marijuana prohibition, just like, well, any drug prohibition. Anytime you say, "You can't do this, you can't have something that you want." Somebody else is going to operate in a black market. A black market's going to spring up in simple economics. Yeah, and that's exactly what happened and that's where exploitation cinema came up. It's like, "You can't get this from Hollywood, because Hollywood has to play by the rules." But my production studio is my Model T. And let's go make this movie. Give me some money, I'm going to film a child being born. Close up and put it in the movies.

• 11:07Speaker 02

  Yes, and you can do that. You can make your movies all day long, but if they're never exhibited, then what good are you doing? Or not like they were trying to do some good, but you're not making any scratch. So, The Forty Thieves, they talk about in the documentary, were these filmmakers and exhibitors, basically, that traveled around like carnies, setting up these sort of guerrilla film screenings. And some places sort of out of the way where they can't get caught. And that was, for the first time, you know, they were taking films outside of the mainstream.

• 11:40Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 11:40Speaker 02

  Different, sometimes they weren't even theaters. They would show them in like VFW halls. If you want to go see Birth of a Baby films, apparently they were popular.

• 11:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that was a whole genre, early genre of exploitation.

• 11:51Speaker 02

  Well, and so was, early on, a lot of the films centered around like how to wear a condom and these sex hygiene films.

• 11:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because there was no information about that out there. And so exploitation filmmakers, whether disingenuously or genuinely, were presenting their stuff like, "This is a public service. People need to know this."

• 12:12Speaker 02

  Right.

• 12:12Josh Clark?

  And making movies about it. But also, and people were going on that excuse as well, like, "Well, I need to know about this." But at the same time, it's like, "I want to see this, the craziest thing I'll ever see in my life."

• 12:25Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 12:25Josh Clark?

  You know, on screen.

• 12:27Speaker 02

  Or they argued a lot of times that they were cautionary tales. If they were about drugs or violence, they would say, "Hey, this could happen to you, so you should educate yourself." But what they really wanted to do is get their movie seen.

• 12:37Josh Clark?

  And make some money.

• 12:38Speaker 02

  Exactly. Paramount decision of nineteen forty-eight, this is pretty big, the Supreme Court voted that movie studios could no longer own their own movie theaters. At the time, you know, there would be like the Paramount Theater in Hollywood from the Paramount Film Production Company.

• 12:56Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 12:56Speaker 02

  They would show their movies.

• 12:57Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 12:57Speaker 02

  Supreme Court said, no more, and all of a sudden, exploitation films became a little bit more legit, because the Hays Code kind of fell apart.

• 13:05Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 13:06Speaker 02

  And this is post-World War II, so...

• 13:09Josh Clark?

  People had seen a lot of death recently.

• 13:11Speaker 02

  Well, a lot of death, and then...

• 13:12Josh Clark?

  Grown up a little more.

• 13:13Speaker 02

  They thought ladies in suggestive roles were good for morale, and there was a little bit of loosening on the sex thing, a little bit, post-World War II. Enough.

• 13:25Josh Clark?

  That led to another subgenre of exploitation film, the nudist colony film.

• 13:31Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 13:31Josh Clark?

  Which were pawned off as documentaries.

• 13:34Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 13:35Josh Clark?

  A lot, well, most of these were pawned off as documentaries, which legitimized them, but really, it was maybe, maybe it actually was filmed at a nudist camp, probably not.

• 13:44Speaker 02

  Right.

• 13:44Josh Clark?

  Mostly, there were actors and actresses, just engaged in archery naked, or long walks naked.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  There could be no sex still, that was still taboo.

• 13:54Josh Clark?

  But it was just like naked, pretty people.

• 13:57Speaker 02

  Right.

• 13:57Josh Clark?

  At a nudist colony, which is interesting, because you're not a nudist, so come learn about them.

• 14:02Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 14:03Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 14:03Speaker 02

  After that, through the history, we had things like the teen, like you said, the teen rebellion of the fifties, with Rebel Without a Cause, and Blackboard Jungle, and movies like that, all of a sudden, were targeted specifically at teens, which was new, and then, drive-in theaters were built, so teenagers could see movies where their parents weren't going to be. Apparently, the adults didn't go to drive-ins a lot at first.

• 14:26Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 14:27Speaker 02

  It was all kids.

• 14:27Josh Clark?

  I didn't know that.

• 14:28Speaker 02

  So they showed exploitation films, and then later, the beach films, which were marketed as a...

• 14:33Josh Clark?

  Like Gidget?

• 14:33Speaker 02

  It's silly, it's Frankie Avalon, but they were decidedly weird, and overtly sexual sometimes.

• 14:39Josh Clark?

  And then, Chuck, if you, if you'll notice, we're kind of progressing along in this... Um chronological order and each thing is kind of being built on the last.

• 14:50Speaker 02

  It was very much a step process.

• 14:52Josh Clark?

  Right, and apparently that that was kind of the the form that exploitation filmmaking followed until nineteen sixty. It was just, it was centered around drugs, violence, sex, and in a lot of ways, they were presented as documentaries. They might not have a plot.

• 15:09Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:09Josh Clark?

  Um, and it basically, it was one person would make some film and it would just break all the rules. And then a bunch of other people would make similar films.

• 15:19Speaker 02

  Right.

• 15:19Josh Clark?

  And and the the same, that that was the way it went. And then um in the nineteen sixties, things just started to go every which way, all sorts of directions, right? So nudity nudity films were a a longstanding thread of exploitation films.

• 15:38Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 15:38Josh Clark?

  And then they probably reached their pinnacle with Russ Myers, right? King of the nudies is what he's called.

• 15:43Speaker 02

  Yeah, he was the first guy to, he's significant because he was the first director to have films featuring nudity that actually were uh dramatic narratives and had plots.

• 15:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 15:55Speaker 02

  And characters and they weren't classified as documentaries anymore. And then the roughies came along and they offered up violence for the, not first time, but uh big time for the first time.

• 16:07Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 16:08Speaker 02

  And that has a lot to do with the fact that it was the sixties and Kennedy was shot and the United States was just becoming increasingly violent.

• 16:16Josh Clark?

  America lost its innocence.

• 16:17Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:18Josh Clark?

  Um, and the other thing that really happened in the nineteen sixties was the haze code officially went away, was replaced by the MPAA. And the the, I guess, the longstanding prohibition on Hollywood producing exploitation films was it it was lessened, decreased.

• 16:37Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 16:37Josh Clark?

  And so studios were like, oh, we can make money over here too. Well, let's start making exploitation films.

• 16:43Speaker 02

  Right.

• 16:43Josh Clark?

  And this is where Grindhouse is born. So my cinema professor definition.

• 16:49Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 16:49Josh Clark?

  Of of Grindhouse is big budget, studio backed exploitation films.

• 16:55Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 16:55Josh Clark?

  Okay?

• 16:56Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 16:57Josh Clark?

  That's, that's mine.

• 16:58Speaker 02

  I like it.

• 16:58Josh Clark?

  That's gonna be a quiz question later.

• 17:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, I'll go with that. Actually, back up one second, we gotta mention Herschel Gordon Lewis. He was a director who had a co-director, I can't remember the other guy's name, do you? Anyway, he was, he was a co-director and he was one of these exploitation guys that was getting frustrated because there weren't a lot of places to show your movie, so it was a pretty crowded marketplace.

• 17:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 17:20Speaker 02

  So he said, what's the one taboo that like people will pay to see? That you, you're allowed to show in theaters, but that, uh, studios won't make? And it was gore.

• 17:32Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah.

• 17:33Speaker 02

  He was the first guy to start showing really disgusting bloody scenes in his movie, uh...

• 17:39Josh Clark?

  Blood Feast?

• 17:40Speaker 02

  Blood Feast.

• 17:41Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 17:41Speaker 02

  Which actually was three years after Psycho, and Psycho also did a lot for the mainstream ushering in of...

• 17:46Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 17:47Speaker 02

  Little bit of gore in that, but nothing like Blood Feast.

• 17:49Josh Clark?

  A shot of blood following Janet Leigh's murder.

• 17:52Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 17:52Josh Clark?

  You know, which is, I imagine is pretty graphic for Hollywood.

• 17:55Speaker 02

  Right.

• 17:56Josh Clark?

  And that's what you think of, you're like, oh, those stupid sixties, but that's, you know, they're, they're so naive.

• 18:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:01Josh Clark?

  Like, that was controversial. Not really, though, like, if you stepped just slightly outside of Hollywood, you ran into things like, uh, Blood Feast.

• 18:08Speaker 02

  Right.

• 18:09Josh Clark?

  Or, you know...

• 18:10Speaker 02

  Last House on the Left.

• 18:11Josh Clark?

  Yes, well, that's nineteen seventy-two, I think.

• 18:13Speaker 02

  Yeah, Wes Craven, so that was important because, um, all of a sudden, A, drugs started, uh... Well, three things, political, uh, themes started popping up.

• 18:23Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 18:23Speaker 02

  Sexual freedom, the youth generation.

• 18:25Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:26Speaker 02

  Uh, drugs started popping up in movies for the first time, drug use, well, not for the first time.

• 18:30Josh Clark?

  No.

• 18:30Speaker 02

  We'll, we'll talk about Reefer Madness.

• 18:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 18:32Speaker 02

  Um, but teenagers were depicted as victims of violence for the first time. Like, Last House on the Left, I believe, is kinda regarded as the first teen slasher film.

• 18:43Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 18:44Speaker 02

  Wes Craven.

• 18:45Josh Clark?

  It, it was almost a snuff film. It was almost regarded like that.

• 18:49Speaker 02

  It's pretty hardcore.

• 18:50Josh Clark?

  But, yeah, it definitely, uh, Blood Feast definitely allowed, uh, Last House on the Left to come around, but it also probably more directly, um, formed the foundation for, um, slasher exploitation like Friday the Thirteenth or Nightmare on Elm Street.

• 19:04Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 19:05Josh Clark?

  Um, My Bloody Valentine's another big one, the crazies.

• 19:08Speaker 02

  Uh-huh.

• 19:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 19:10Speaker 02

  The crazy, oh, yeah, that was an original, right? There's a remake now, I think.

• 19:13Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 19:13Speaker 02

  Eh.

• 19:14Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 19:14Speaker 02

  Remakes. Uh, so that brings us, we're in the seventies, um, politically charged movies, uh, brought race into the, to the mix. And all of a sudden, we had, uh, black exploitation or blaxploitation, uh, movement starting.

• 19:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 19:29Speaker 02

  Exploiting the civil rights movement, basically.

• 19:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 19:31Speaker 02

  But the cool thing about, uh, blaxploitation films is for the first time, you had African Americans as heroes.

• 19:37Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and not heroes in a typical sense, not even anti-heroes.

• 19:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 19:42Josh Clark?

  But heroes that were like, they didn't ride into town on, on a white horse or wearing a white hat.

• 19:48Speaker 02

  Right.

• 19:48Josh Clark?

  They very, um, clearly wore black hats if need be, like, they would engage in crime. They would murder people if need be. They were, um, they, they were basically like the, um, face of black America coming out of the civil rights era. Like, we're ticked off.

• 20:06Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 20:06Josh Clark?

  You know?

• 20:07Speaker 02

  And we're gonna stick it to the white man.

• 20:08Josh Clark?

  Stick it to the man.

• 20:09Speaker 02

  And we're gonna do it in these movies.

• 20:10Josh Clark?

  Chuck, I know the movie you're about to, um, to mention, let's, this is it.

• 20:17Speaker 04

  You keep the faith in me, I you my man. You my favorite man. Can you take it, baby?

• 20:34Speaker 02

  So yes, that was, uh, a landmark film for a lot of reasons. One, because it grossed four million bucks.

• 20:40Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 20:41Speaker 02

  And it made the major studio say, hey, you know what? The black hero is marketable.

• 20:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah, well, you haven't said the title yet.

• 20:48Speaker 02

  Oh, I didn't?

• 20:48Josh Clark?

  No.

• 20:49Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 20:50Josh Clark?

  You gotta say it right, too.

• 20:51Speaker 02

  Melvin Van Peebles film, uh, Sweet Sweet Backs Badass Song.

• 20:56Josh Clark?

  Nice. That was well done. That was nineteen seventy-one. Melvin Van Peebles, whose last name may, uh, sound familiar. He, he's the father of Mario Van Peebles for you younger cats listening to this one. Um.

• 21:08Speaker 02

  Cats our age, actually, younger cats, because he's kinda like.

• 21:11Josh Clark?

  Okay, so Cats are age.

• 21:12Speaker 02

  It's a little watch stuff.

• 21:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah, that's Mario Van Peebles' dad, you know, New Jack City.

• 21:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 21:16Josh Clark?

  Um, so Melvin Van Peebles made this movie. He produced it, he raised the money for it, he wrote it, he directed it, he starred in it.

• 21:23Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 21:24Josh Clark?

  And it was the beginning of the blaxploitation subgenre, which is one of the most important genres of any American cinema.

• 21:34Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 21:35Josh Clark?

  Ever.

• 21:35Speaker 02

  Absolutely.

• 21:36Josh Clark?

  And so considering how important that subgenre is, this quote from Time Magazine's film critic, Richard Corliss, um, should really hit home. Sweet Sweetback, uh, is quote, "Without question or competition, the most influential movie by a black filmmaker." So this is a really big deal, right?

• 21:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, and it was, it was just, uh, quickly on the plot, it was about a, uh, a black man who was a gigolo, who had a-

• 22:00Josh Clark?

  Which is a male prostitute for you younger cats.

• 22:02Speaker 02

  And he had a deal worked out with the cops where he was, he said, you know, you can arrest me as much as you want, release me right afterward, fill your quota, it's all good. And then one day, while the arrest is going down, they, um, the cops attack a Black Panther.

• 22:16Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:16Speaker 02

  And, uh, Sweet Sweetback kills one of the cops.

• 22:19Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:19Speaker 02

  And then just, uh, he just goes on a rampage against the white man after that.

• 22:23Josh Clark?

  Yep. So you've got, um, prostitution, um, tons and tons of nudity and sex, um, lots of violence, um, a- and, uh, other crimes, all wrapped up into a black power theme.

• 22:37Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 22:39Josh Clark?

  Uh, and then to top it all off, you have what is arguably a child sex scene, starring Mario Van Peebles, Melvin Van Peebles' son, at I think age six.

• 22:49Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's a kid.

• 22:50Josh Clark?

  Uh, having sex, uh, as Sweet Sweetback.

• 22:54Speaker 02

  As a kid.

• 22:55Josh Clark?

  It's his first sexual encounter with an older person.

• 22:57Speaker 02

  Right.

• 22:57Josh Clark?

  Um, and in the cult podcast, if he became a cult leader, he would've taken a younger bride, remember?

• 23:02Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, that's right.

• 23:03Josh Clark?

  So, uh, if you're interested in, in that movie, and you can't get enough of Sweet Sweetback's badass song, um, you could also check out, um, Badass, exclamation point, which is Mario Van Peebles' biopic about his father making that movie.

• 23:18Speaker 02

  That's right, and I have not seen that, but, uh, wanted to at the- The time and it just sort of slipped through the cracks.

• 23:22Josh Clark?

  There's always Netflix, baby.

• 23:23Speaker 02

  That's right. And what happened with Sweet Sweet Back was that, like I said, that told the studios, "Hey, we can market this." And so they got a little more mainstream with movies like Superfly, which were a little safer.

• 23:36Josh Clark?

  Shaft.

• 23:36Speaker 02

  Shaft, movies that wide audiences would enjoy as well.

• 23:39Josh Clark?

  Yeah, the ones that didn't scare the man.

• 23:42Speaker 02

  Exactly.

• 23:43Josh Clark?

  Like Shaft's a good guy. He doesn't take any guff from the man, but the people he's not taking guff from are the cops, who he's really on the same side as.

• 23:50Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 23:51Josh Clark?

  So Chuck, blaxploitation, obviously huge. It affected everything from, you know, Menace to Society to Blackhila. All of that came from Sweet Sweet Back. And we mentioned the guy who directed this next movie, Russ Myers. This is probably a seminal work. Let's listen to this clip from the trailer.

• 24:12Speaker 05

  Ladies and gentlemen, go, go for a wild, wild ride with the Watusi Cats. But beware, the sweetest kittens have the sharpest claws. For your own safety, see Faster Pussy Cats, Kill, Kill. Wild women, wild wheels, race the fastest pussy cats and they'll beat you. To death, Silver Woman, belted, buckled and boated.

• 24:42Speaker 06

  You're wasting your stuff on this kid and hanging it up for nothing. For nothing? It's got nothing to do with the money. She is the money. Jack and Jill. They make the mafia look like brownies.

• 24:56Speaker 02

  They make the mafia look like brownies.

• 24:57Josh Clark?

  That's right. That says quite a bit about them. So that was Faster Pussy Cat, Kill, Kill. In 1965, Russ Myers, basically a women exploitation film, nudie film. Remember, Russ Myers was king of the nudies.

• 25:14Speaker 02

  King of the nudies.

• 25:14Josh Clark?

  He made 26 movies, but this is probably, at the very least, his best known, if not like his masterpiece.

• 25:21Speaker 02

  Yeah, and he hatched a slew of, I mean, not that he wasn't legit, he was, but what mainstream people would call legit filmmakers were, came up through the Russ Meyer film camp, basically.

• 25:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 25:33Speaker 02

  So it was pretty cool.

• 25:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and Russ Meyer also, little known fact, another movie that's mentioned in this article, there's an article on the site, by the way, called 10 noteworthy exploitation films that this is based on.

• 25:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, written by you?

• 25:46Josh Clark?

  Yeah, which I strongly recommend going to read because it has a lot of extra stuff we're not going to cover in this one.

• 25:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 25:51Josh Clark?

  Or at least extra movies. But Russ Meyer directed a movie called Beyond the Valley of the Dolls 2.

• 26:00Speaker 02

  Right.

• 26:00Josh Clark?

  Which was the bastard son of the legitimate film Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. It was a jiggle fest written by none other than Roger Ebert.

• 26:09Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 26:09Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 26:10Speaker 02

  Only movie Roger Ebert ever wrote.

• 26:11Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and he had a, yeah, it was a very brief career, but that's an illustrious one, really.

• 26:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, so if you're going to talk about the plot of Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill, and I say that because there's three exclamation points.

• 26:24Josh Clark?

  Faster Pussycat, exclamation point, kill.

• 26:27Speaker 02

  Oh no, is it three exclamation points?

• 26:28Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 26:29Speaker 02

  Okay, I thought it was a comma, then two. All right, either way, that's a lot of punctuation for a film title.

• 26:33Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 26:34Speaker 02

  And it was about three bisexual go-go dancers. They go on a crime spree.

• 26:38Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 26:39Speaker 02

  Out in the desert. And what do they do? They end up killing a man, or no, they kill the man and a couple.

• 26:45Josh Clark?

  Keep the girl. They basically empower her.

• 26:48Speaker 02

  Yeah, say, "Come on with us."

• 26:48Josh Clark?

  By murdering her boyfriend, and she ends up on the crime spree with them.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  And they basically end up going to an isolated house with a wheelchair-bound old man and his sons.

• 26:58Josh Clark?

  Who's a lech. They're all leches. They want these women.

• 27:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, but they don't know that these women are tough.

• 27:04Josh Clark?

  No.

• 27:04Speaker 02

  Tough ladies.

• 27:05Josh Clark?

  And the man and his sons, the man and his sons apparently, or allegedly have a large amount of cash stashed in this house. So it's kind of like a standoff of gall to see who will come out on top.

• 27:18Speaker 02

  Well, and you know who comes out on top.

• 27:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 27:20Speaker 02

  And this film was noteworthy for one big reason was that there was a lot of dualism toward gender. So on one hand, he's exploiting these women and apparently got women in their first trimester of pregnancy, so they were more voluptuous.

• 27:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah, not in this film, but in his other films, he would hire, I can't remember the lady's name, but the star of Faster Pussycat, Kill, Kill, was in other Russ Meyer's films.

• 27:42Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 27:42Josh Clark?

  And he made Sure that she was like well into her third, first trimester to, to enhance her natural bustiness.

• 27:51Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 27:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 27:52Speaker 02

  Her bosom, if you will. Uh, but the script, like I said, it was dualism because while he did that, it also empowered women because the women in his films bowed to no man.

• 28:01Josh Clark?

  No.

• 28:01Speaker 02

  They were the champs. They were the, they were heroines really for the first time.

• 28:05Josh Clark?

  They were, they were objectified very clearly, but at the same time, if you follow the script and really look at their characters, then yeah, they're, they're powerful women.

• 28:14Speaker 02

  And this, uh, kinda kicked off a big slew of women exploitation films, exploitation films, the women in prison movies.

• 28:23Josh Clark?

  Yes, Witch Blade Sisters.

• 28:25Speaker 02

  Very big at the time. Uh, women were lead actors for the first time. They were aggressors for the first time, uh, still nude.

• 28:32Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:33Speaker 02

  Often while they were doing this stuff.

• 28:34Josh Clark?

  Spawn, the television show, The Facts of Life.

• 28:40Speaker 02

  But the interesting thing is they found that these movies appealed to men and women because men would go see it for obvious reasons.

• 28:45Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:45Speaker 02

  Women would go see it because it was empowering and, uh, they didn't mind, you know, looking at the naked ladies because women are much more grown up.

• 28:52Josh Clark?

  Sure.

• 28:52Speaker 02

  Than men are.

• 28:53Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 28:54Speaker 02

  But Josh, the seventies also got a little schlocky, which in a sense was true to the exploitation model.

• 29:02Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 29:02Speaker 02

  They like, they really went over the top. No more political statements, no more advancing of, uh, uh, women's, uh, gender.

• 29:10Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:10Speaker 02

  Or, or African Americans, it just got really schlocky and outrageous at that point.

• 29:14Josh Clark?

  Well, what happened, and starting in the sixties, it really took hold in the seventies and then from that point on was exploitation cinema, early on, showing a live birth, nudist camps. These were all geared toward adults.

• 29:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 29:27Josh Clark?

  In the sixties and then later on, big time in the seventies, the audience became almost exclusively teenagers.

• 29:33Speaker 02

  Right.

• 29:33Josh Clark?

  Like those drive-in teenagers or, um, uh, well, teenagers anywhere, who cares? Um, but they, the, the audience was teenagers and the cast started to become teenagers. So it had a little more of a bent on what teenagers were having to deal with, like bullying, like the, the, the kid in, in this next clip, right? Which is, I have to say, one of my favorite movies from way, way back.

• 29:58Speaker 02

  Here we go with Toxic Avenger.

• 29:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 30:00Speaker 05

  Meet little Melvin. He's a ninety-pound weakling. Everyone hated Melvin. Yeah, I'm gonna take this mop and shove it down your throat. They teased him. I'm gonna do it with you. Okay.

• 30:13Speaker 05

  They taunted him. They tormented him until he had a horrifying accident and fell into a vat of nuclear waste.

• 30:22Speaker 05

  Transforming little Melvin into a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength. Melvin became the Toxic Avenger.

• 30:37Speaker 02

  So Josh, the Toxic Avenger movie was unique in that its film production company, Troma, is very popular in their own right.

• 30:46Josh Clark?

  Have you ever seen Surf Nazis Must Die?

• 30:48Speaker 02

  I haven't, but I know about Troma. I mean, they are master self-promoters and marketers.

• 30:53Josh Clark?

  They were one of the first production companies to have a website.

• 30:57Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 30:58Josh Clark?

  Like, a really comprehensive website. You should go on their website.

• 31:00Speaker 02

  I'll do that.

• 31:00Josh Clark?

  Their whole catalog. It's really just well-done. It's schlocky, but it's well-done.

• 31:06Speaker 02

  Right. And Toxic Avenger follows the story of a 98-pound weakling who is picked on, released the same year as Ghostbusters.

• 31:14Josh Clark?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:14Speaker 02

  Did you notice that? 1984, right?

• 31:17Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so it occurred at zero year.

• 31:19Speaker 02

  At year zero?

• 31:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 31:22Speaker 02

  We'll just put the null set to represent that. And this kid gets pushed out of a window into a vat of toxic sludge.

• 31:30Josh Clark?

  Which, that's beyond bullying, really.

• 31:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, basically, it's a more twisted version of Modern Problems, the Chevy Chase film from a couple of years earlier.

• 31:38Josh Clark?

  Okay. I haven't seen that one.

• 31:40Speaker 02

  Oh, you never saw Modern Problem?

• 31:41Josh Clark?

  No.

• 31:42Speaker 02

  It's very silly. But he got toxic sludge dumped on him and had special powers.

• 31:47Josh Clark?

  From years earlier or prior, or after?

• 31:50Speaker 02

  What, when was the movie?

• 31:51Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 31:52Speaker 02

  It was two years before Toxic Avenger.

• 31:54Josh Clark?

  Huh.

• 31:55Speaker 02

  But Toxic Avenger took it into a gore, special effects way that Modern Problems never did.

• 32:01Josh Clark?

  So the janitor, Melvin, I believe his name is, becomes toxified. He becomes Toxy, the Toxic Avenger,

• 32:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:09Josh Clark?

  who beats the tar out of people at the health club where he was abused and mutated. And has tons of sex as the Toxic Avenger because his newfound manhood is just irresistible to women. And one of the things that's noteworthy about the Toxic Avenger is that they actually tried to make decent effects.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 32:33Josh Clark?

  It wasn't just, it wasn't horrible, I guess you could say.

• 32:37Speaker 02

  Well, for the time, you know, it wasn't bad.

• 32:38Josh Clark?

  No.

• 32:40Josh Clark?

  They remained bad, and they probably were kinda bad even back then, but for Grindhouse films?

• 32:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, there you go.

• 32:47Josh Clark?

  They were great.

• 32:48Speaker 02

  Right.

• 32:49Josh Clark?

  And it was also noteworthy because it came out of Troma Productions or Troma Studios. And it led to a whole line of Toxic Avenger movies, and schlock in general, which is basically like, some crazy horrible thing has happened, but we're not gonna dwell too much on that. Let's see where the action takes us.

• 33:09Speaker 02

  Yeah, exactly.

• 33:09Josh Clark?

  So like Bad Taste, the Peter Jackson's first film.

• 33:13Speaker 02

  Right.

• 33:14Josh Clark?

  Is a great example of schlock that came out of Toxic Avenger.

• 33:17Speaker 02

  And he had the film that followed Peter Jackson, Dead Alive, which was, at one point, supposedly the goriest film ever made.

• 33:23Josh Clark?

  Really?

• 33:24Speaker 02

  Although it sounds like your new Korean movie has surpassed that.

• 33:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I think it probably has. I haven't seen Dead Alive, I've seen Bad Taste. And Bad Taste was horribly gory, but I think this has a beat.

• 33:33Speaker 02

  Yeah, but I betcha if anything... I mean, I haven't seen the one you're talking about, but is it more realistic gore?

• 33:38Josh Clark?

  Yeah, with Bad Taste, it's like, these are aliens that are having their heads blown off, so that definitely takes you at least a degree away from caring.

• 33:47Speaker 02

  Right.

• 33:48Josh Clark?

  This is happening to human beings in I Saw the Devil.

• 33:52Speaker 02

  Gotcha.

• 33:53Josh Clark?

  So it definitely is driven home a little more.

• 33:55Speaker 02

  Well, and the violence, even the gore back then, it was so over the top, right out of Fangora magazine, it's like, you know...

• 34:01Josh Clark?

  Dude, Fangoria is still around.

• 34:03Speaker 02

  Is it?

• 34:03Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 34:04Speaker 02

  I figured it was.

• 34:04Josh Clark?

  I'm glad it is. We follow it on our Twitter feed.

• 34:07Speaker 02

  Oh, we do?

• 34:07Josh Clark?

  Yep.

• 34:08Speaker 02

  Like a head'll explode in scanners, and, you know, it's not disturbing, because it's so clearly over the top, but these new movies are much more disturbing, if you ask me.

• 34:16Josh Clark?

  I agree wholeheartedly, because they're more realistic.

• 34:19Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 34:20Josh Clark?

  So, carrying on with Chuck's and my Siskel and Ebert act. This is the second to last movie in our little list today. And this one's from way back, from the 30s, so let's talk about Reefer Madness.

• 34:37Speaker 05

  These high school boys and girls are having a hop at the local soda fountain. Innocently they dance, innocent of a new and deadly menace lurking behind closed doors. Marijuana, the burning weed with its roots in hell.

• 34:57Speaker 04

  Or watch case. If you want a good smoke, try one of these. You will meet Bill, who wants to pride in his strong will as he takes the first step toward enslavement. Course if you'll say.

• 35:14Speaker 02

  So that was the excellent Reefer Madness, which was an exploitation, a drug exploitation film.

• 35:19Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 35:19Speaker 02

  And very much a cautionary tale. It even shaped the drug culture and how people looked at drugs as, you know, marijuana at the time is this really evil thing that can make you crazy and kill people.

• 35:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and actually, in very much the vein of early exploitation films, it was produced and distributed as a public service. Like the alternate title for it was Tell Your Children. And the whole thing's set in a PTA meeting.

• 35:49Speaker 02

  Right.

• 35:50Josh Clark?

  Where this guy is relating the story.

• 35:52Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 35:52Josh Clark?

  And it's a story about lost lives, about murder, about guilt and paranoia, and all of it is fed and based on rampant drug use, which is really just a lot of pot smoking, which can turn you into a fiend and it's apparently the director, his name is Dwayne Esper.

• 36:12Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 36:13Josh Clark?

  He did other exploitation films from the 30s like Sex Madness.

• 36:16Speaker 02

  Right.

• 36:16Josh Clark?

  Psychotic Connections. And he made a name for himself, basically taking these things that may have originally been written as a public service.

• 36:27Speaker 02

  Right.

• 36:28Josh Clark?

  And making them so outlandish that he exploited the people who were making these movies.

• 36:33Speaker 02

  Right.

• 36:34Josh Clark?

  And created this legacy of like just insanely over the top exploitation films from the 30s.

• 36:40Speaker 02

  Well, and ironically Reefer Madness, years later, would become not so much an anti-drug propaganda film, how should I say this, but a film that... College students would sit around and watch while partaking and laughing at this whole thing.

• 36:55Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 36:55Speaker 02

  And a cult film.

• 36:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah, because it puts drugs so far out there that if you, despite all the warnings, take drugs anyway, and you realize that you don't turn into a fiend and murder somebody, Reefer Madness basically dares you to go further. So it's kind of, it's the opposite. It has the opposite effect of what I think its original intent was before Dwayne Esper got his hands on it. And as a side note, I had trouble deciding between Reefer Madness and another 1930's film by a guy named Todd Browning called Freaks.

• 37:30Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Well, that was, that was huge because it was the first big exploitation film pre Hayes Code. Or, and last.

• 37:39Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 37:39Speaker 02

  First and last.

• 37:40Josh Clark?

  And it was, it was an MGM film.

• 37:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:42Josh Clark?

  And it's widely considered a masterpiece.

• 37:44Speaker 02

  Yeah, I mean, it looks great. It's, it's not, it was well done.

• 37:47Josh Clark?

  It's a huge, it's a revenge movie, which is a very common theme in exploitation films.

• 37:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 37:54Josh Clark?

  Especially violent ones, but it's, it featured, Browning dared to have real freaks, I guess if you'll...

• 38:01Speaker 02

  Yeah, circus sideshow freaks is what it was about.

• 38:03Josh Clark?

  Star in this.

• 38:04Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 38:05Josh Clark?

  And they basically exact their revenge on people who've mistreated them.

• 38:09Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 38:09Josh Clark?

  And I have not seen it.

• 38:11Speaker 02

  Oh, really? Yeah, yeah.

• 38:12Josh Clark?

  I, I want to. I hear it's just awesome. I can't wait.

• 38:14Speaker 02

  It ended his career, though, unfortunately.

• 38:17Josh Clark?

  Did it really?

• 38:17Speaker 02

  Yeah. And he was a popular filmmaker at the time.

• 38:21Josh Clark?

  Well, hats off to him for staying true to his art. Chuck just took his hat off.

• 38:26Speaker 02

  On the old cap.

• 38:27Josh Clark?

  All right, Chuck, here's the last one that we've got a clip for, which I think everybody will notice or recognize. Without even a word, there's not even a word in this clip, and you will understand what's going on. So, here we go.

• 39:09Speaker 02

  So Josh, those are the unmistakable sounds of Fist of Fury of Mr. Uh, one Mr. Bruce Lee.

• 39:15Josh Clark?

  Bruce Lee kicking bottom.

• 39:16Speaker 02

  His first movie.

• 39:17Josh Clark?

  Yeah, um, which was originally titled, well, it's still titled, I think, in Asia, The Big Boss. Um, and, uh, in America, it is, it's, it's titled Fist of Fury.

• 39:28Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was on the other night on cable. I saw part of it.

• 39:30Josh Clark?

  Oh, yeah?

• 39:30Speaker 02

  Yeah, I didn't realize it was his first one, though. I would've tuned in.

• 39:33Josh Clark?

  Yeah, and it was first of what, um, five? Five major films.

• 39:36Speaker 02

  Right.

• 39:37Josh Clark?

  Uh, and basically, it's the story of a martial arts student who's investigating the murder of his teacher. And, um, it began, uh, the martial arts exploitation subgenre.

• 39:49Speaker 02

  Which later would become just martial arts films, right? Or was it still considered exploitation?

• 39:53Josh Clark?

  It's all the same.

• 39:54Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 39:54Josh Clark?

  They're one in the same. Anything that even remotely resembles a Bruce Lee movie, specifically The Big Boss, or any of them, is martial arts exploitation technically. Um, because, again, we arrive at that one definition. It's over the top. Like Bruce Lee's taking on scores of anonymous thugs.

• 40:13Speaker 02

  For two hours.

• 40:14Josh Clark?

  One after the other, for two hours, just beating the tar out of all these people without tiring, really.

• 40:19Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 40:19Josh Clark?

  Um, everybody's kind of waiting their turn politely in a circle around him, and he has to beat everybody.

• 40:25Speaker 02

  Right.

• 40:25Josh Clark?

  And then he works his way up, and it's over the top. So it is exploitation, but, um, it led to other films like Samurai exploitation. Remember American Ninja? Remember the whole ninja film thing that, that came out in the mid-eighties?

• 40:37Speaker 02

  Uh-huh.

• 40:37Josh Clark?

  That's from Bruce Lee's, um, that's Bruce Lee's doing.

• 40:40Speaker 02

  Well, yeah, and you go to these, at the time, when I was first going to New York many years ago, there would be, uh, you know, you go to Times Square, and this was still when Times Square was kind of gross, and there would be just the, the martial arts movie store, where it was all that stuff, man, like thousands of movies about ninjas and samurais and martial artists, and, uh, very big.

• 40:59Josh Clark?

  Yeah. I was inspired by American Ninja to become a ninja. Remember, I entered ninja training with Tommy Roper. Who had like more throwing stars than any kid I've ever known.

• 41:09Speaker 02

  What, did you have like one throwing star?

• 41:10Josh Clark?

  I borrowed his.

• 41:11Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 41:12Josh Clark?

  I was not allowed to have throwing stars of my own.

• 41:15Speaker 02

  Oh, I wasn't either.

• 41:16Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 41:16Speaker 02

  Baptist, no.

• 41:17Josh Clark?

  No.

• 41:18Speaker 02

  That was very violent. No nunchucks, nothing like that.

• 41:21Josh Clark?

  That transcends like religious background. It's like if you're a good parent, you shouldn't let your kid have throwing stars.

• 41:26Speaker 02

  That's a good point. And as you point out in the article, this actually led to another subgenre, which was Bruce Lee look-alike movies.

• 41:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah, so he made five movies.

• 41:36Speaker 02

  Die young.

• 41:36Josh Clark?

  And then died at age 32.

• 41:37Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 41:38Josh Clark?

  In 1973. So Big Boss released in 1971. He dies two years later. Everybody's like, "Nooo." So let's find some guys that look like him. Which is really kind of stereotypical and racist for the West.

• 41:53Speaker 02

  What's the name of Bruce Lee? L-I? So the L-E-E?

• 41:56Josh Clark?

  Or L-E.

• 41:57Speaker 02

  Or just L-E?

• 41:58Josh Clark?

  Well, Bruce L-I or Bruce L-E.

• 42:00Speaker 02

  Right.

• 42:01Josh Clark?

  I don't think there was ever like Bruce L-E-I-G-H. I don't think it ever got that far. But I mean, they released dozens of Bruce Lee, and I just made air quote, films.

• 42:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:12Josh Clark?

  So Bruce Lee created the martial arts exploitation genre and subgenre. And he inadvertently created the Bruce Lee exploitation subgenre of the martial arts exploitation subgenre.

• 42:24Speaker 02

  By dying young.

• 42:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 42:26Speaker 02

  And being very popular.

• 42:27Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 42:28Speaker 02

  And which one was the one he had Kareem Abdul-Jabbar in? Was that Enter the Dragon?

• 42:32Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 42:33Speaker 02

  If you've never seen a like seven foot plus guy do martial arts, you should check that out.

• 42:37Josh Clark?

  And if you can't get enough Bruce Lee and you have a good sense of humor, check out Kentucky Fried Movie.

• 42:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 42:44Josh Clark?

  Made by one Jerry Zucker.

• 42:46Speaker 02

  The great Jerry Zucker.

• 42:46Josh Clark?

  Who we met in Los Angeles recently.

• 42:50Speaker 02

  You guys are fantastic.

• 42:51Josh Clark?

  And who used an expletive to me.

• 42:52Speaker 02

  He did.

• 42:52Josh Clark?

  It was one of the high points of my life.

• 42:54Speaker 02

  It is.

• 42:55Josh Clark?

  But yeah, Kentucky Fried Movie, awesome.

• 42:57Speaker 02

  Actually, when we met Jerry Zucker, we told him that our little speech we were given that night was one of the highlights of our career thus far. And he says, "Well, that doesn't say much about your career, does it?" Like the first thing the dude does is say something funny.

• 43:08Josh Clark?

  And we just like kind of fawned over him after that.

• 43:11Speaker 02

  We should mention briefly, and it's in the article, but just as a teaser. The late 70s, we got Nazi exploitation movies.

• 43:18Josh Clark?

  Nazi exploitation.

• 43:19Speaker 02

  As a subgenre.

• 43:20Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 43:21Speaker 02

  And one of the major players there movie-wise was Ilsa She-Wolf of the SS.

• 43:25Josh Clark?

  Yeah, which led to Ilsa Siberian Tigress and Ilsa Harem Keeper of the Oil Sheiks.

• 43:32Speaker 02

  Really?

• 43:33Josh Clark?

  There's a whole sex violence franchise, dominatrix franchise, that was based out of the Nazi exploitation film.

• 43:39Speaker 02

  You know, one could argue that QT, Mr. Tarantino, has made nothing but exploitation films.

• 43:45Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 43:45Speaker 02

  Since Pulp Fiction. Cause the Kill Bills were definitely martial arts exploitation.

• 43:52Josh Clark?

  Definitely.

• 43:53Speaker 02

  The Jackie Brown was a riff on, on.

• 43:57Josh Clark?

  Black exploitation?

• 43:58Speaker 02

  Sure. Death Proof, obviously. That was what they were trying to do there.

• 44:02Josh Clark?

  Death Proof is carsploitation, which follows in the tradition of Vanishing Point.

• 44:06Speaker 02

  Right.

• 44:07Josh Clark?

  Which was released the same year as basically its rival to the, the founder, the founding movie of carsploitation, Two Lane Blacktop.

• 44:15Speaker 02

  Right. Great movie.

• 44:16Josh Clark?

  Yeah. If you want to start an argument with a, an exploitation film buff, tell them Vanishing Point was the, the beginning of carsploitation. They'll get mad at you.

• 44:25Speaker 02

  And then finally, Tarantino with The Inglourious Basterds, which was clearly a riff on the Nazi exploitation films.

• 44:31Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 44:32Speaker 02

  Beating Nazis to death with a baseball bat.

• 44:34Josh Clark?

  Yeah.

• 44:34Speaker 02

  About as over the top and lurid as it gets.

• 44:36Josh Clark?

  It's awesome. Yeah. So, and then Machete. I hated it, but Robert Rodriguez.

• 44:41Speaker 02

  I didn't see that.

• 44:42Josh Clark?

  It was terrible.

• 44:43Speaker 02

  And of course, he was the other half of the, Rodriguez was the other half with his Planet Terror of the Grindhouse double feature.

• 44:48Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Okay.

• 44:49Speaker 02

  And Machete was born from one of the little fake trailers they made in that movie.

• 44:52Josh Clark?

  Oh, is that right?

• 44:53Speaker 02

  Yeah, it was one of the, the fake movie previews.

• 44:56Josh Clark?

  It is, even as far as like a purposefully B movie.

• 44:59Speaker 02

  Not good.

• 45:00Josh Clark?

  No.

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Well, Death Proof was okay, but I didn't like Planet Terror that much.

• 45:03Josh Clark?

  Yeah. And then Chuck, well, first of all, before we get to today, we also have to give a shout out to pornos. Porno came out of the exploitation film genre.

• 45:13Speaker 02

  And it arguably had a lot to do with killing the ex, or pushing it into the mainstream. Because once you had the movie Deep Throat and all of a sudden pornography was on the screen. It's like, you can't do an exploitation film about it anymore. If there's the real deal going on, it, it loses all its power.

• 45:31Josh Clark?

  Right.

• 45:31Speaker 02

  And then a little movie called Jaws came along. And all of a sudden, a quote unquote B movie style movie made gobs and gobs of money. And that put a little bit of mainstream respectability on the map all of a sudden. And so one might argue, Josh, that movies like Jaws and pornography kind of shoved exploitation films, even though they still exist, they're sort of mainstream movies now.

• 45:56Josh Clark?

  Yeah. Well, yeah, I guess another word for grindhouse these days is blockbuster. Jaws was the first blockbuster movie, summer blockbuster. And now you have to have summer blockbusters and they're always over the top.

• 46:08Speaker 02

  Right.

• 46:08Josh Clark?

  And exploitive of viewers' tastes.

• 46:11Speaker 02

  And not only Tarantino, there's other filmmakers out that are trying to capture that 70s vibe with overt exploitation films again. Shot that way, shot on 35, or I'm sorry, 16mm film, stuff like that.

• 46:24Josh Clark?

  Yeah. So Chuck, I say our message to everybody is, number one, go onto the site, read 10 noteworthy exploitation films.

• 46:37Josh Clark?

  Number two, if that interests you, like even the 10 noteworthy exploitation films I chose don't cover even, I think, a third of the exploitation subgenres. So there'll probably be another article forthcoming at some point, if there is, we'll let you know. And then go watch some exploitation movies and enjoy them.

• 46:55Speaker 02

  Yeah, watch the documentary American Grindhouse too, if you're into that.

• 46:58Josh Clark?

  Yeah, it's a great one. It's free on Hulu, actually. There's ads, but Hulu.com has American Grindhouse for free. It is not safe for work.

• 47:07Speaker 02

  No.

• 47:07Josh Clark?

  In no way, shape, or form. I was watching it at work and I was like, whoa, okay.

• 47:11Speaker 02

  Oh, really?

• 47:12Josh Clark?

  Yeah. If you are watching it at work, tab browsing is what you want to be doing.

• 47:16Speaker 02

  Right.

• 47:16Josh Clark?

  And keep your finger over the mouse and keep the cursor over the other tab.

• 47:21Speaker 02

  Right.

• 47:22Josh Clark?

  And stay sharp.

• 47:23Speaker 02

  Or in our case, you can just say, it's research. But you can't do that if you're an accountant at JP Morgan.

• 47:29Josh Clark?

  You're just a sicko, a weirdo.

• 47:31Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 47:31Josh Clark?

  That weird guy in accounting. So look up 10 noteworthy exploitation films. You can type that into the handy search bar at HowStuffWorks.com. And now, at long last, it's time for listener mail.

• 47:45Speaker 02

  Joshers, I'm gonna call this, it's a small world after all. Dear guys, I'm a longtime fan from Minnesota. And enjoy spreading stuff you should know, goodness wherever I go. My coworkers at a local coffee shop know me for the trivia and information I abound in. But after giving-

• 48:02Josh Clark?

  Wait, what?

• 48:03Speaker 02

  That he says he abounds in, I guess he's proficient in.

• 48:06Josh Clark?

  Okay.

• 48:06Speaker 02

  Did he misuse that?

• 48:09Speaker 02

  No?

• 48:09Josh Clark?

  I don't know. It sounds hilarious.

• 48:12Speaker 02

  It does. After giving credit where credit is due, which means us, several of them decided to subscribe to your podcast. Listening to the podcast has also given me an advantage at work for thinking of the coffee shop's daily trivia question, which saves people 10 cents on their drink if they know it.

• 48:28Josh Clark?

  Nice. That is awesome.

• 48:30Speaker 02

  After re-listening to How Legos Work, I set the trivia question for which company produces the most tires on a yearly basis? A. Bridgestone, B. Goodyear, C. Lego Bricks. You know the answer, Josh?

• 48:42Speaker 02

  Most people were surprised and pleased to find out it was Lego Bricks, reminding them about the little playsets that their kids enjoy. This is where it gets weird. One of the customers read the trivia question, looked at me, and said, "It's a Ponzi scheme."

• 48:56Josh Clark?

  Nice. That's awesome.

• 48:58Speaker 02

  In the best Italian accent he could muster. Everyone else gave him an odd look. I started laughing. He apologized, and then said he just heard it on a podcast. He had just listened to Legos followed by Ponzi schemes. Long story short, we were both pleased to find out that we were both fans. We are now on a first-name basis, eager to discuss the most recent episodes. So, these dudes in Minneapolis, Daniel.

• 49:20Josh Clark?

  That's awesome. Thanks, Daniel.

• 49:21Speaker 02

  And his friend. Now, his new friend.

• 49:24Josh Clark?

  His unnamed friend?

• 49:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, he didn't name him.

• 49:26Josh Clark?

  You wouldn't know him. You met him at camp.

• 49:28Speaker 02

  That's right, band camp.

• 49:30Josh Clark?

  Thanks, Daniel. That's really awesome. Wow, that's really cool. Let us know if you tweet those daily facts for your coffee house, because we will start following you.

• 49:42Speaker 02

  Indeed.

• 49:42Josh Clark?

  That'd be very cool. If you want to follow us, we have our own Twitter feed. Seriously, it's called SYSK Podcast. One word.

• 49:51Speaker 02

  10,000 strong, plus?

• 49:52Josh Clark?

  Yeah. We're on, no, we're up to like 11 and change.

• 49:56Speaker 02

  Hmm, that's plus 10.

• 49:57Josh Clark?

  That's true. We're also on Facebook, facebook.com/stuffyoushouldknow.

• 50:01Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 50:01Josh Clark?

  We have a Kiva team, right? We're trying to get to half a million dollars.

• 50:05Speaker 02

  That's right.

• 50:06Josh Clark?

  That's K-I-V-A dot org slash team slash stuff you should know. And then you can always send us a good old-fashioned email. We want to know what your favorite exploitation film of all time is. You can send that in an email to [email protected].

• 50:31Speaker 03

  For more on this and thousands of other topics, visit howstuffworks.com. To learn more about the podcast, click on the podcast icon in the upper right corner of our homepage. The How Stuff Works iPhone app has arrived. Download it today on iTunes.

• 50:47Josh Clark?

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• 51:32Josh Clark?

  that life is more than a moment, a condition, or a tough day. Living with a rare disease can be challenging, but it does not define the Voices of Vivgard. In these episodes, they share their stories, from diagnosis to working with their care team on their treatment plan. Listen to Voices of Vivgard on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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• 52:22Speaker 00

  This is an iHeart Podcast. Guaranteed Human.