Aug 13, 2012
Trailer 774 of 895
Combining electrifying cinema-verite documentary footage shot during actual events (including the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago) with a more conventional story featuring actors, director-cameraman Haskell Wexler tried to illuminate the splintering of the American psyche at the height of the war in Vietnam. The resultant film, incongruously distributed by Gulf + Western's Paramount Pictures, both exasperates and astonishes. Some felt it trivialized serious issues, others applauded its hand-held snapshot of a tumultuous time. Originally rated what Wexler labled a "political X" by the MPAA, later downgraded to an R.
There's a fascinating essay on the complexities of this film in The American Reader by Tony Tulathimutte which can be accessed here: http://theamericanreader. om/the-curses-the-fates-the-races-the-fakes-the-faces-the-names-of-the-game-of-death-or-the-game-of-death/
I first heard of this movie my first semester in college when my French instructor used her having seen it on TV the previous weekend to form an example sentence. I think I probably saw it on the same show a year or two later (although not uncut) and agreeing it was pretty good for an early '70s low-budget sci-fi movie, certainly a step above something like Track of the Moon Beast or The Blood Waters of Dr...
The link to the full film doesn't work. But this flick was recently on Netflix Instant, and may be...
I had the fortune of seeing Poison Ivy in the theatre (albeit a second-run dollar theatre) during its original release. I think I saw a trailer for it at a showing of Bill Duke's Deep Cover, and I think Poison Ivy only played for a week first-run...
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