Exploitation cinema has been around for ages. Made famous by of course one of its quintessential directors and propagators Roger Corman, around at the more famous part of the global film community – Hollywood. Sex, violence, and all that triggers those chills, thrills and spills within you, are showcased within the magnified boundaries of the silver screen. The most long lasting effect it entails is none other than the familiar questions surrounding its horrifying degraded qualities and its frightening usefulness to the film industry. If you agree that Easy Rider (Dennis Hopper, 1969) is a teenage – motorcycle – exploitation flick, than you could be well on your way to champion the effectiveness of such exploitation cinema while still having some ammunition for the case against the claims of horrifying degraded qualities secured within your limited armoury. The same could be said for Australia’s very own Mad Max (George Miller, 1979).
However, the quality of exploitation films do little to pose too much of a concern, because frankly speaking (and I’m sure the films speak for themselves) they more often than not have very little of it. What is more important is whether or not these films, which most of the time portray cinema in the darkest of lights, have benefited national cinema and the film industry as a whole. Take Mad Max for instance – A fearsome Mel Gibson, clad in vicious looking leather, bolting through the desert land in an equally daunting, menace of a car. Exploitation? Cars – Motorcycles – Gangs and Guns – Macho male and a whole load of ‘exotic’ outback sand – Yes! Good film? No doubt. But what is most important is its role in building the Australian film industry. Money? Made for only 400,000AUD and garnering an eventual 100million from worldwide sales, good old trusty Wikipedia tells us that: “it was a major financial success.” And: “the movie held a record in Guinness Book of Records as the highest profit-to-cost ratio of a motion picture, conceding the record only in 2009 to Paranormal Activity.” So what’s so bad about it all? Well sadly for films like Easy Rider and Mad Max, ‘exploitation cinema’ is usually synonymous with B – grade films that never really end up being as good as them, thrusting all those carrying forms of exploitation with them right through to the common negative stereotypes. But, again there are buckets load of cash to be gained from making these films, which could in turn help the industry. Only logic and reason would dictate that richer filmmakers and producers can afford the choice between quality and quantity, or even both. Plus with the figures in hand and shotgun – wielding – Max Rockatansky for backup, who are we to stand against them.
Talking Film - Tackling Celluloid 