Born to Raise Hell, directed by Roger Earl and produced by Terry LeGrand, is the standard, the ultimate classic gay hardcore BDSM/leather movie that all others are judged by round the world! The most acclaimed gay S/M flick ever made, this film is an unrelentingly hard experience and a deep dive into true S/M practices, depicted with both realism and creative stylization/fantasy through its strong photography and inventive editing. It has long been considered an influential piece of hardcore filmmaking and is in the collecton of New York's Museum of Modern Art.
Sidney Charles of the leather magazine Drummer wrote, "What can you say about a movie that's so hot it needs to be handled with asbestos gloves... Born to Raise Hell is the movie to see with someone you love to beat, or be beaten by."
Legendary filmmaker Fred Halsted (maker of '70s experimental S/M classics L.A. Plays Itself and Sextool) called this movie, "The best S/M film I've ever seen".
Earl and LeGrand discovered and cast macho, bearded lead Val Martin, bringing him to international prominence in gay leather communities around the world. In 1980, Val was 2nd runner up in the International Mr. Leather contest.
In 2009, the Gay Adult Film Industry presented Roger Earl, who went on (in collaboration with LeGrand) to make other important gay porn features and S/M videos, with the Lifetime Achievement award at the Gay VN awards show in San Franciso.
The S/M in this film is authentic: whipping, pissing, beating, shaving, bondage, groveling, flogging, fisting, liking verbal language, defiled asses. These were the days before the bywords "safe, sane, and consensual" came to define BDSM play, and the content of this film still feels shockingly heavy and intense. The men engaging in it are very masculine, very real. Yes, there are hard-ons and some oral action and fucking, but as S/M devotes will attest, it's the scene, not the sex, that counts.
