Pure Sweet Hell

Product Description

Pleasure and pain, glory and defeat, mud and...more mud, PURESWEETHELL tells the story of cyclocross, a sport that has emerged as bike racings punk rock cousin. Told from an insiders perspective, the filmmakers traveled to cross competitions throughout north America, dug up vintage photos and film footage, and followed cross luminaries Justin Robinson, Gina Hall, Barry Wicks and Rick Hunter. Shot entirely on Super 8 and supported by experimental rock music, PURESWEETHELL surfaces both the strong community behind the solitary sport and the grace that arises amidst all of its grit.

Customer Reviews:

PURESWEETAWESOME.......2007-09-07

This is the best thing to watch when you're gearing up for cross season or to get your friends into cross. It's beautifully shot, has a great soundtrack and makes you want to go for a ride. I loaned it to my neighbor and he watched it when he was riding the rollers last winter. Just a great film!

Average customer rating:

Not your father's women-in-prison flick
Bound Heat Films has plenty more and all worth checking
Chained Heat III Hell mountain or Bound Heat Caged Rage
Certainly had potential --- but failed to deliver
You'd have o be chained to the couch to watch this movie!

Chained Heat 3: Hell Mountain
Starring: Nicole Nieth , Bentley Mitchum , Sarah Douglas , Jack Scalia , and Andrew McIlroy
Director: Mike Rohl
Manufacturer: Mti Home Video
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B00004WIEO
Release Date: 2000-10-03

Customer Reviews:

Not your father's women-in-prison flick.......2007-08-03

In some indefinite future scenario, society is divided into two groups: an evil, tech-savvy, militaristic elite and the remainder, who look and act like Eastern Europeans from the 19th century. The story is told mainly from the point of view of two young village women, Shira (Nicole Nieth) and pickpocket Ariel (Kate Rodger), who, along with other women, are forced into slave labor in the dreaded Hell Mountain mines. (The fact that they do not recruit big husky men to do the job is somewhat explained by the fact that there is a weight restriction on who gets drafted).
Shira's boyfriend attempts to spring her from the mountain prison by enlisting the help of the last of the 'teachers', apparently the only non-elite holdout left who is acquainted with the fine arts of shooting guns, blowing things up, and using high-tech equipment.
However, the flick works best when the women are on the screen. Like most WIP films, this one features lesbianism, a sadistic female overseer (who takes a whip to Ariel), the mandatory 'hose-down', and a snarly queen bee (portrayed in over-the-top fashion by Sarah Douglas, in the kind of role she was born to play). But these gals don't just loll around in their make-up and Frederick's of Hollywood outfits--they've got work to do. The film presents gritty images of every detail of the women's arduous manual labor (although why such a high-tech society can't use more sophisticated mining methods is never explained). Oh well, all the better to catch liberal glimpses of female flesh through the holey, ragged work clothes they are issued.
Unfortunately, the movie falls short when it comes to the breakout attempt. The ending seems rushed and cheap, as if the production crew started to run out of money and time near the end of filming. So viewers don't get the big emotional payoff we've been waiting for.
The settings also seems oddly out of joint. 'Hell Mountain', when seen at a distance, resembles the opening credits background painting for Paramount Pictures (can they get sued for that?). Close up, the outside of the mountain looks like a cheesy school science project.
Still, the inside of the mine is appropriately cramped, and makes a sharp contrast to the cavernous passages of the evil overlords. The lead actresses are appealing (especially Kate Rodger), and I give the flick credit for being different. Just don't mistake it for a Pam Grier epic.

Bound Heat Films has plenty more and all worth checking.......2006-02-22

I agree with the other reviewer, this is a good film and dealing with a sensitive subject of white slavery which is now politically incorrect in entertainment, but nonetheless has a huge following as one of those guilty pleasures.
For those who are tired of having to stay within politically correct barriers and enjoy this genre and high level of production quality and good acting, check out www.boundheat.com website that carries plenty more of these from the same production group.

Chained Heat III Hell mountain or Bound Heat Caged Rage.......2006-02-16

Chained Heat III Hell Mountain is about a man who wants to free his lover from Hell Mountain. Which is quite well and is fast going. So you do not get a total inside look at Hell Mountain. Just a person trying to save his girlfriend.

I picked up Bound Heat Caged Rage by the same film studio. They used a lot of the scenes. More background into the story. And, was much better. Where everyone thrieves for power except for a thief which wants one thing freedom. It had more of an inside look at what was going on in Hell Mountain. And, they left the ending out of Hell Mountain out of this and ended with a cliffhanger. Those who like Chained Heat III a must to have from the Bound Het Series, Caged Rage.

But, by no means is Hell Mountain in the Chained Heat Series. I wonder if it was to please the US Fan Base to name it into the Chained Heat Series. For those who love Chained Heat.

And, there are not a lot of post apoloyptic prison films. But, Chained Heat III Hell Mountain and with it's best inside version Bound Heat Caged Rage. This prison film shows with no doubt a very sensitive subject which most film industries try to avoid and that is white slavery.

For those buying this film I suggest you to find Bound Heat Caged Rage then you will have a much more appreciation of this film.

Certainly had potential --- but failed to deliver.......2001-08-01

I generally love women-in-prison films because I really enjoy that whole genre of vulnerable young imprisoned girls being preyed upon by bad-girl-cellmates, evil lesbian guards, and that always lustful female warden. This one DOES have the lustful female warden (but not enough of her), and there is one guard who just might be a lesbian, but the rest of it is disappointing and falls flat. For one thing, there are WAY too many guys in this film! Big mistake!

Basically, in the future women will be enslaved to work the salt mines, but one girl in particular has a boyfriend on the outside who wants to break her out. And, of course, he does. The best scenes (in my opinion) involve the beautiful, older female warden and the two young, blonde female sex-slaves she keeps for her private pleasures. I really liked it whenever those three were on the screen. Unfortunately, that was only twice, and too briefly at that. Of course, there's also an obligatory shower scene, but the women all kept their clothes on!?! What fun is that? Granted, their outfits were skimpy... but really! I liked the scene, but like the film itself it COULD have been a LOT better!

You'd have o be chained to the couch to watch this movie!.......2000-09-17

Undeservedly overlooked at this year's Oscars, this is actually a retitling of a film called 'Hell Mountain', and has all the hallmarks of a tedious cash-in. You'd be half right; while nothing to do with the 1983 classic, as post-apocalyptic soft-porn B-movies go, it's not at all bad. And, believe me, I've seen enough to know how bad it *can* get. Fortunately, CH3 is set in a future where fertiliser and guns are in short-supply, but civilization still has an abundant supply of thongs and hair-stylists. The plot/excuse has a village exchanging their nubile young girls with an evil (and disfigured, natch) man who runs the fertiliser mine. This peeves one of the boyfriends, who looks like Kyle McLachlan, but sadly possesses none of the quirky wit. Oh, and all teachers bar one have been exterminated.

Average customer rating:

A thrilling mountain climbing adventure
Spectacular Mountain Scenery against a backdrop of Tragedy
A true glacial epic!
A highlight of the "mountain film" genre
Not What I Expected.

The White Hell of Pitz Palu
Starring: Gustav Diessl , Leni Riefenstahl , Ernst Petersen , Ernst Udet , and Mizzi Götzel
Director: Georg Wilhelm Pabst , and Arnold Fanck
Manufacturer: Kino Video
ProductGroup: DVD
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ASIN: B000B837X8
Release Date: 2005-11-08

Customer Reviews:

A thrilling mountain climbing adventure.......2007-06-04

Arnold Fanck's spellbinding THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU is a 1929 German silent with English intertitles and a powerful orchestra score. The notorious Leni Riefenstahl stars along with two German actors I have never heard of, Gustav Diessl and Ernst Peterson. Pitz Palu is a dangerously steep Swiss mountain that a young mountain climbing couple and another man decide to ascend. But once they get to the top, how do they get back down without freezing to death?! Fanck loved making adventure films like this one, on actual locations, long before the current era of computer graphics and matte paintings. He directed the mountain climbing sequences, and the renowned G. W. Pabst directed the first half of the movie back in a Swiss town. Fanck edited the movie and collaborated on the screenplay with Ladislaus Vajda. The fearless and beautiful photography is by Sepp Allgeier, Richard Angst, and Hans Schneeberger. The stunning music score was recorded by Ashley Irwin in 1998. THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PALU is a marvelous adventure film, a long 133 minutes, when you want something unusual. The Kino Video print source is an uncut nitrate print that is in beautiful condition, or at least has been restored by European film archives to look beautiful.

Also included on the Kino DVD is a 59 minute documentary chat from 2002 by Sandra Maischberger with a 100 year old Leni Riefenstahl, who is just in from filming a scuba diving movie! She shows Maischberger various scrapbooks and autobiographies, plus stills from her oceanography movies. We also see scenes of her infamous TRIUMPH OF THE WILL (1934) and epic OLYMPIA (1937). Leni is a fascinating paradox, and this conversation (in German with English subtitles) makes me want to see the 190 minute 1993 documentary on her.

There are also a photo gallery for PITZ PALU and an excerpt from a 1935 sound reissue.

Spectacular Mountain Scenery against a backdrop of Tragedy.......2007-03-10

Although originally a silent release (German) - this is one of my all time favorite films. I sincerely hope that Ray Harryhausen and Legend films will be able to colorize this film sometime in the near future - because it's spectacular mountain (Pitz Palu) scenery truly lends itself to the colorization process. Mountain climbing film - staring a young Leni Riefenstahl - against a backdrop of the tragedy - (of a doctor having lost his young bride ten years earlier on this very same mountain) - as portrayed magnificently by Gustav Diessl.

A true glacial epic!.......2006-01-06

Unlike Pabst, Arnold Franck has been a figure unexplainably forgotten at the moment of naming the great German filmmakers in this diamantine period, where the flame of the creativeness was directly proportional to the anguish and fears in the rest of the German citizenship.

Strongly influenced by the adventure novels of the Swiss Gustav Renker, who seemed to be possessed by the eternal conflict between the man and the nature, under the perspective of domain and constant struggle. The location photography was achieved on the snow-covered slopes of 12.000 foot high Piz Palü in the Bernina Alps of Switzerland.

The undeniable artistic and financial triumph and universal acclamation was instantaneous, specially in a historic transition where the epic seemed to be absolutely absent from all the imaginable stages; because while Brecht and Kurt Weil appealed to the cynicism and decadence state; Shostakovich and Prokoviev depicted the somber nightmare around the fist iron man and Picasso gave us his Guernica; the loyal Surrealism and Dadaism Cerberus such Chirico, Dali, Ernst and the Great Depression in North America are evident and notorious evidences the world certainly was not the best of the possible worlds.

It is easily evident the underground voltage tension and anticipation premonitory for the cloudy times to come through the avalanches, precipices and high risks to climb and conquer: As you may realize the metaphor could not be more obvious.

Go for this flawless film.

A highlight of the "mountain film" genre.......2005-11-13

This late German silent is very much an action and mountain-climbing disaster film, of which genre "The Holy Mountain" is probably the best remembered, and in comparison "The White Hell of Pitz Palu" probably falls short in a few areas. Firstly, there is not much of a story or plot as it revolves around three main characters who have a climbing accident, get stuck and inevitably need to be rescued. Without a doubt the action and disaster scenes (climbing walls of ice, falls and avalanches) are expertly done, and the cinematography is close to breathtaking. In fact, watching many of the scenes - beautiful melting and dripping icicles, moody clouds, glistening walls of ice and simply the rugged snow-capped mountains made me wish it could be in colour in order to be absolutely perfect. From a visual viewpoint, "The White Hell of Pitz Palu" can't be flawed, and I'm sure that anyone interested in mountaineering (or even photography of such mountains) will find this film exciting and interesting. But I'm not a mountain nor snow and ice person, and I usually prefer a good, more complex story and interesting characters, and for such viewers this film might feel rather slow and too much of the same thing. Although the orchestral musical score is new and suited to the scenes, it might not be to everyone's taste and I found it rather heavy at times - but perhaps that was the intention after all, since ominous big mountains do create that kind of mood! Nevertheless, I can see plenty of merit in other aspects of this film such as the impressive visual, photographic qualities (the picture quality is very good, by the way) and also a glimpse into the lives of the characters such as Dr Krafft who lost his wife in an earlier mountain climbing adventure, and who thereafter `haunted' the mountain, roaming around alone - until he meets a young honeymoon couple who change everything for him. The emphasis and focus in this film are not on the story or people, but rather on the physical mountain itself and above all, the forces of nature: wind, ice, storms and mere mortals staying alive in the ruthless elements. For more story and character angles with the same star (Leni Riefenstahl) and also directed by Arnold Franck, "The Holy Mountain" might still be the best of this `mountain film' genre for the general viewer.

Not What I Expected........2005-11-12

Having seen and enjoyed THE HOLY MOUNTAIN some time back, I was really looking forward to seeing this film which is considered by many to be the summit of the mountain film genre. Much has been made of the fact that the renowned director G.W. Pabst (PANDORA'S BOX, DIARY OF A LOST GIRL) was brought in to co-direct along with Arnold Fanck who created the genre. It's been said that this was done at Leni Riefenstahl's insistence to try and give the film and its characters more depth. Whoever was responsible for it made a big mistake. What emerges in WHITE HELL OF PITZ PAULU is a film with an agonizingly slow first half that stops dead in its tracks whenever it tries to focus on the three principal players, a mountain guide who has lost his wife and a young couple there for a holiday. The dramatic scenes directed by Pabst are totally out of sync with the Fanck's outdoor scenes giving the impression that you're watching two different movies. The mountain footage is breathtaking as usual with the seemingly impossible camerawork bolstered by a number of airplane shots. Some of the scenes such as the recovery of bodies in an ice grotto and the rescue of the couple from a frozen ledge linger in the memory long afterwards and in fact have shown up in a number of documentaries from time to time. The rest of the film however is a real mess and is not at all what I expected. The performances by Riefenstahl and Ernst Petersen as the young couple are suprisingly flat which I attribute to Pabst's direction as they were much more full of life in HOLY MOUNTAIN. Gustav Diesel as the mountain climber gives the type of performance that the film needs but it isn't enough. Another big problem with this version of PITZ PALU which was restored in 1998 is the score provided for it by Ashley Irwin. A lot of it sounds like bad Soviet military music that just doesn't complement the action at all like Aljoscha Zimmerman's score did for HOLY MOUNTAIN. Silent movies were never silent and the musical accompaniment can really make or break the film and this time around unfortunately it's the latter. I don't think a good score could have saved this movie but it certainly would have helped it. THE WHITE HELL OF PITZ PAULU is worth seeing especially if you are interested in Leni Riefenstahl or the mountain film in general but of those available on DVD HOLY MOUNTAIN is definitely the one to see. Hopefully Riefenstahl's 1932 opus THE BLUE LIGHT will come out soon in a restored version for that is where the mountain film truly reached its peak.

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