Friday, March 24, 2006
EVERYTHING
Today's Best 1176 Film (NYTimes version) is a coming of age, father-son, redneck to riches, stock car racing flick that spares nothing. It's a true story about Junior Jackson's start as a professional driver.
The acting is superb and the cinematograhpy is the kind of in-your-face, fast cut work that captures the energy and force of the action at hand.
That action is all human, incidentally. The racing is secondary. There is a point in a race where they just go to montage shots to get the feeling. Very effective.
The young Jeff Bridges stars. It has Gary Busey (yes!), Art Lund, Geraldine Page, Valerie Perrine, Ned Beatty and a bunch of real honest to goodness rednecks; my people.
Even the theme song is wonderful. I did not know that Jim Croce wrote 'Movin' on Down the Highway' for this film.
Well, no one did.
It is basically a B picture that ended up big and wonderful but did not get much notice except from the NYTimes. There are only three reviews at IMDb.
Warning: this one is an eye wetter. All the way through.
I will give it a 5 out of Netflix5.
You must see it.
Oh. And when you do the wide screen version is on the 'blank' side. Put the disc in red on top.
