The Toughest Movies Ever Made
Prime Cut (1972)
Simple. Gene Hackman runs hookers out of a meatpacking plant and Lee Marvin (in a suit) chases him through a field with a machine gun. Not only is this the toughest movie ever made, that was the toughest sentence ever written.
Death Hunt (1981)
Again, this is very simple. Charles Bronson, Lee Marvin, Carl Weathers, and Ed Lauter run around in the middle of a Canadian nowhere and a lot of blood flows. A lot of blood…in a Peckinpah way. A man gets his arm caught in a bear trap, and in lieu of getting morphine or any sort of treatment, he gets PUNCHED OUT. Lee Marvin repeatedly kicks the dead body of a comrade, yelling, “You dumb son of a bitch!!!”
The French Connection (1971)
There’s really only one scene in The French Connection: When Popeye Doyle (a 41-year-old Gene Hackman) leaves a bar at dawn, trashed, and manages to pick up a beautiful girl riding her bike around his crappy neighborhood. This scene is tough…tough to believe.
Love Liza (2002)
Tough. Tough to sit through.
Cannonball (1976)
Paul Bartel’s unfunny account of the elicit coast-to-coast race was the first movie that disturbed me with violence. A good example of how PG-rated violence in the 70’s would be R-rated violence today. Cars crush people, and they bleed from the mouth. Drivers are head-shot by snipers, and it contains a Carradine.
Isn't it "Death Race 2000", not "Cannonball"?
Posted by: pleasant_fiend | June 13, 2005 at 01:04 PM
Tis "Death Race 2000":
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0072856/
Posted by: Krys O. | June 13, 2005 at 02:01 PM
He meant Cannonball as in http://imdb.com/title/tt0074279/, not Cannonball Run or Deathrace 2000. It has two Carradine's and Mary Woronov, but the race goes from Cali to NYC, not the other way.
Posted by: Sam C | June 13, 2005 at 06:32 PM
It's Cannonball.
Posted by: Andrew Earles | June 13, 2005 at 10:36 PM
The original Michael Caine "Get Carter" really needs to be on this list.
Posted by: Uptown Topranking | June 14, 2005 at 11:54 AM
The opening sequence to Prime Cut is a serious thing of beauty.
Posted by: No Big Thing | June 18, 2005 at 08:39 PM
Just watched CANNONBALL aka CARQUAKE on super 8 (!) projected on a screen in a parking lot two weeks ago. some great cameos including Scorcesse and Joe Dante. And I always wondered how PRIME CUT fared as a "date" movie when first released...
Posted by: listener colin in Toronto | July 26, 2006 at 11:58 AM