Also released as
- Getting Even
- Held Hostage
- Staying Alive
- Blood Bath at 1313 Fury Road
- The Hostage's Bloody Revenge
Filed under
Fight for Your Life
Fight for Your Life is a 1977 American rape-revenge film directed by Robert A. Endelson. It is one of the 72 films on the Director of Public Prosecutions' video nasties list, and it was successfully prosecuted for obscenity.
A home invasion built entirely on racial abuse. Genuinely hard to watch and not for craft reasons.
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A home invasion built almost entirely on racial abuse, and it is difficult to sit through for reasons that have nothing to do with gore.
Three escaped convicts take a Black minister's family hostage in their own house. The lead, played by William Sanderson, spends the film delivering a continuous stream of slurs at them.
The structure is a revenge film and the last act delivers exactly what the setup promises. The question the film raises, and does not really answer, is whether an hour of that abuse is a critique of it or a delivery mechanism for it. Contemporary reports describe audiences in some American cinemas reacting to the finale with jubilation.
It was pulled from release in several US cities after disturbances.
Successfully prosecuted. Still not passed in the UK in any form.
Banned, seized, prosecuted
DPP 72 · successfully prosecuted
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Trailer
The sleeves
The same film, sold as a different film in each territory. Click any of them.
Where to watch
Canada
USA
Legal sources only. Availability data from JustWatch via TMDB.
Checked 9 Aug 2026
Written about
- Video nasties still banned or cut in Britain
The video nasties still banned in Britain, the ones that remain cut, and the two laws that decide which of them can be sold on disc here.
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