American Grindhouse (2010)

Filmmaker Elijah Drenner brings us this documentary on the history of exploitation movies in the United States.  Starting from the beginning of movie industry thru today he takes a look at the history of the genre and how it connects with the goings on in the country.  The documentary is split into different sections covering topics like the Nudie Cuties, Blaxploitation, and Roughies to name just a few.  This is brought to us thru clips and interviews with the likes of John Landis, Joe Dante, and Jack Hill just to name a few.  The entire thing is narrated by the familiar voice of actor Robert Forster. 

So how do you review a movie like this?  Since American Grindhouse is a documentary it should be judged on how well it covers it’s subject.  But then again it is a movie so we also can ask if it was entertaining.  I suppose I will start with the latter and then talk about the content later on. 

This is the 2nd time that I’ve watched this movie and both times I’ve had some fun with it.  If you haven’t been paying attention to my reviews I’m a big fan of the exploitation genre.  These movies make up a huge part of my collection.  While I didn’t discover anything new watching American Grindhouse (there isn’t much that I haven’t seen at this point) it was sort of fun to hear the movies that I’ve grown up watching discussed.  Plus seeing the clips and bits of the trailers is always a good time.  Then again I have a blast watching those trailer collections.  My enjoyment of the movie is also helped by the short runtime of 80 minutes. 

Now why is the short run time a benefit?  This is where I’d like to talk about how well the documentary covers it’s topic.  As I’ve already stated I’m a big fan of these kinds of movies.  So when I sit down to watch a documentary on the subject I have some expectations that perhaps not everyone has.  To be honest I found American Grindhouse to be a bit lite on material.  The largest amount of commentary comes from Landis, Dante, and someone named Kim Morgan (who seems to be a film critic of some sort).  Sure Landis and Dante have some credibility, especially Dante who cut his teeth working with Corman, but I wanted more from this movie.  No disrespect to those that I’ve mentioned but why should I care to listen to them talk about the flicks?  This is especially true of Landis who right off the bat lets us know he dislikes H.G. Lewis movies and that most of the exploitation movies are “shit” (the actual word he uses). 

Now to be fair Drenner does give us some brief interviews with the likes of David Hess, Fred Williamson, Ted V. Mikels, Don Edmonds, and Herschell Gordon Lewis.  But I don’t understand why we got so much from Landis and Dante when these guys would have been much more interesting to hear from.  Oh and he also has William Lustig on to talk some exploitation, but doesn’t once mention Maniac!  Really I just don’t understand what the filmmaker here was thinking. 

I don’t’ think that a documentary filmmaker should have to be in love with his subject, but he should at least have a basic understanding of it.  Let me sum this up with this thought.  We have a documentary on exploitation movies that talks about Thomas Edison a bit while never once mentioning the Italian Cannibal films.  How can you discuss the history of exploitation movies without once talking about Cannibal Holocaust? 

If you are new to exploitation cinema then American Grindhouse is a nice introduction.  But if like me you are a long time fan of these flicks this one will leave you a bit disappointed.  The lack of understanding and the failure to cover some pretty important content makes this at best a mediocre effort.

2 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer

© Copyright 2011 John Shatzer