ROADRACERS

'''Roadracers''' is a 1994 made-for-television film directed by Robert Rodriguez, his second feature film following the success of his 1992 debut, ''El Mariachi''. The film originally aired on Showtime Network as part of their ''Rebel Highway'' series that took the titles of 1950s-era B-movies and applied them to original films starring up-and-coming actors of the 1990s (including the likes of Alicia Silverstone and Shannen Doherty) and directed by established directors such as William Friedkin, Joe Dante, and Ralph Bakshi. Rodriguez was the only young director to participate in the series.^[1] The series was produced by the son and daughter of Samuel Z. Arkoff, the co-founder and producer of American International Pictures (AIP), the distributor of the films this series takes its titles from.
Robert Rodriguez's take concerned a rebel named Dude (David Arquette) who dreams of leaving his dead end small town and becoming a rockabilly star but gets caught up in a nasty feud with the town's local sheriff (William Sadler) and his son (Jason Wiles). Salma Hayek plays the Dude's girlfriend.

Contents

Soundtrack Album

Trivia

DVD

References

Soundtrack Album

Although a soundtrack album is listed in the ending credits of the film as being available on A&M Records, the album was never released. Some songs are original rockabilly tunes from the 1950s, and others are remakes. While it is unknown exactly which tracks were to be included on the album, these are listed in the credits.

★ “Flying Saucer Baby” (Robert Rodriguez, Tommy Nix, Paul Boll and Johnny Reno), performed by Johnny and the Brain Eaters

★ “My Mistake” (Jamie James), performed by Johnny Reno

★ “Race with the Devil” (Gene Vincent and William Davis), performed by Charlie Sexton

★ “Ace of Spades” (F.L. Wray Sr. and M. Cooper), performed by Vernon Wray

★ “Rumble” (F.L. Wray Sr. and M. Cooper), performed by Link Wray and His Raymen

★ “The Shadow Knows” (F.L. Wray Sr.), performed by Link Wray

★ “Genocide” (F.L. Wray Sr.), performed by Link Wray

★ “No More Hot Dogs” (Hasil Adkins), performed by Hasil Adkins

★ “One Cup of Coffee” (Glen Troutman), performed by Glen Glenn

★ “Scream” (Ralph Nielsen), performed by Ralph Nielsen and the Chancellors

★ “Stutterin' Cindy” (Charlie Feathers), performed by Charlie Feathers

★ “Race With the Devil” (Gene Vincent and William Davis), performed by Johnny Reno

★ “Rehearsal Riff” (Johnny Reno and Paul Boll), performed by Johnny Reno and Paul Boll

★ “Don't Let Go” (Jesse Stone), performed by Johnny Reno

Trivia

★ Salma Hayek made her United States film debut with ''Roadracers''.

★ The film was shot in 13 days.

★ Rodriguez was used to shooting films very fast and ran into resistance with his Hollywood crew (most notably the director of photography). He discusses these conflicts in the now out-of-print book, ''Roadracers: the Making of a Degenerate Hot Rod Flick''.

DVD

A Special Edition DVD release was scheduled for December 13th, 2005 but for some unknown reason never happened. Rodriguez said in an online chat what the specs were for it: "It has a ten minute film school on it, commentary and a new digital color correction i worked on for a quite a long while... it looks really good, and i remixed the sound in 5.1 and beefed up the sound on it. One of my favorite movies. I shot it in 13 days, and the making of shows how to make a feature in 13 days..."

References

1. I Was a Teenage Teenager