I doubt anyone has made such a magnificent movie about the drivers... I was surprised at how many wives, fiances, and girlfriends were interviewed. It's so remarkable that such an effort was made to recall what they felt, the people surrounding the drivers, and so many decades later.
True, perhaps some books are this good at setting the time and place they are covering, and this is based on the book by Chris Nixon, Mon Ami Mate, but a documentary some 60 years later? Amazing. Truly amazing.
And though often overlooked, commendable sound editting. The musical score is evenly adjusted to not overwhelm your ears while you take in the cars speeding through the curves, and their engines can clearly be heard going past, even as the rousing violins bring up the dramatic score.
The videos, the tv news camera coverage, the home video 16 and 8 mm camera coverage, and so much of it in color, not just of the drivers, but the races, the tracks, and the events as a whole, are in warm colors and focus, while the people that new the drivers best, be it well know celeb drivers like Phil Hill and Sterling Moss, or old interview selections of Enzo answering a reporters questions...
It's a significant historical movie, I hope you see it, and soak it in.
thanks to AJ Feueman for letting me review this film, how in the world she ever heard about my blog is a mystery to me
Ferrari: Race to Immortality is now available on VOD as of July 24.
You're going to love this little movie. It's got Herbie, it's got a restoration ongoing through the movie, and it's got celebs.
It's the Bug from the origin and design in Germany, to it's promo in the antarctic, to the advertising genius of the simple magazine ads, to the recent VW diesel scandal.
Very thorough, very warm, and tying together some of the enthusiasts, collectors, drivers, journalists, and restorers who all value a bug for the tangible and emotional reasons that it's one of the most adored cars ever. Hey, I bet you have ridden in one, and been related to someone who owned one.
I don't think I've ever heard about the seat cushions being made of Coconut shavings, or horsehair... so i tried looking it up, and according to some guys on the Samba, it was called horse hair, as a customary thing going back to when that actually was a material that expensive cars seats were made of, but instead they used coconut fibers, or banana leaf fibers. http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4307559
Damn good movie. Funny throughout by demonstrating the social media/Twitter effects and results.
Jon Favreau repeats his earlier genius of making a terrific movie, good story, and great cast gathering.
The movie is a great guy movie, hating your job, boss, and having a life not going according to plan... divorce, child custody on weekends, etc... and then when you hit bottom scraping yourself off the sidewalk and going the distance to get it back on track.
Story overtones of dad -son reconnection, falliong back in love with your ex wife, loyalty to and from your best friend.
John Leguizamo finally returns to the screen as the connected at the hip sou chef to Jon Favreau's chef with talent but a crummy boss/restaurant partner Dustin Hoffman.
Sofia Vergara is eye candy throughout the movie, the kid is just perfect as a typical 10-11 yr old with parents that aren't living together, Scarlett Johansson is a hostess at Dustin Hoffan's restaurant where the Chef is unappreciated and bossed about, Bobby Cannavale is a line chef and buddy of the chef and sou chef, and gets the "great friends on the job camaraderie" dynamic going, Oliver Platt is the food critic/blogger, and Robert Downey is Sofia's first ex husband that only has a cameo part that is unremarkable. Well, it gets me wanting to see a Robert Downey movie where I can enjoy a couple hours of wit and quips and action...
Anyway, excellently written, road trip of a gourmet food van from Miami to LA, and a celeb cast. Celebrates hard work, camaraderie, and friendship. Go see it, enjoy!
Trivia, Jon did his own cooking and trained with a food van chef.
Don’t let the badge mislead you. The Jeep Commander commands its brand only in name. It is among the youngest nameplates in the Jeep lineup, and its sales figures command little more than an exasperated groan.
Like the disaster that beset another beleaguered commander, General George Custer, at Little Big Horn, what happened to the Jeep’s sales is well chronicled: The price of gas bloated, killing demand for SUVs; and then the value of everything else imploded, killing demand for cars of all types.
(There is a V-6, but just because you have a rope and are near train tracks doesn’t mean you have to tie yourself to them and wait for the 10:15.)
Passing power in this Jeep is the stuff of dreams, as in, “keep dreaming.” With all the aerodynamic grace of a billboard in a tornado, the Commander needs the driver to leg in for a transmission kickdown just to overcome the drag of its upright windshield and grille at highway speeds.
Kyle has over 1500 video reviews, makes over 6 figures with this part time hobby that he did for stress relief from college studies of pharmacy, and his non-auto industry subsidized videos have been seen over 120 million times in the past 5 years
Kyle has a good bio and story about how he made it at http://www.saabkyle04.com/about.html but in short, he got his doctorate, got married, and still makes video reviews for fun, and was featured in Car and Driver in 2011, and then on NBC's Today shop (above video)
It gives me hope that my ol blog here that you are looking at might one day get me a job that pays well. Kyle was smart, took a chance with youtube, and scored when his in depth and unbiased reviews became the go to on youtube and they made hima channel and charged for advertising.
I start with Jimmy Stewart and Ruth Buzzy. If you've seen Ruth at work, you'll know why, if you haven't you are in for a great experience.... Ruth was one of the funniest in comedy in my opinion, her jokes were the best, and her shtick was funny too
I've always loved the Honeymooners, because the interactive humor between Art and Jackie was so superb
Evel Knievel, a Bronco, and a tractor too? Yup, among the incredible list of Hollywood legendary stars he had Evel on a panel, and the below clip from his (Dean's) show
Now, Don Rickles plays a big part in every roast, and that incredible "drunk" performer Foster Brooks did a great job every time. Some of the legends that are featured are Johnny Carson, John Wayne, Sammy Davis Jr, George Burns and Bob Hope are in several, Jack Benny and Milton Berle are in several as well, Jimmy Stewart surprised me that he is in so many.
Disc One: Bob Hope and Johnny Carson
Disc Two: Jimmy Stewart and Sammy Davis Jr.
Disc Three: Jack Benny and Lucille Ball
Disc Four: Dean Martin and Kirk Douglas
Disc Five: Michael Landon and Jackie Gleason
Disc Six: Don Rickles and Joan Collins
There are several extras, featurettes and interviews also.
If you've followed lists of racing movies, you know, things like Gran Prix, Le Mans, etc... then you'll like this.
If you've enjoyed movies like Cannonball Run, you'll love it!
A documentary made out of friendship, loyalty, and respect... 32:07 eclipses the "documentary" style film making (dull, poor editing lousy music) and catches the excitement and passion of the drivers of the real Cannonball Runs of the 1970's, and the US Express of the 80's, and adds the logistics and planning of a New York to LA run, but also includes the film making from inside the car.
image above is so you can see where to begin, the red bar below the word "Weekdays" will appear once you've clicked on the "Rude Awakening Show 02/11/13" and then advance it to where I've got it, 90% of the way to the right
The first half of the movie is very cool, leading up to the reason for the film maker - Cory Welles - had for giving the history of the runs in the recent past (the 100 year ago reasons of vehicle proving endurance exploits are long gone) and Cory nails it.
Why did the Cannnonball Run drivers risk jail, tickets, car accidents, and everything that can go wrong for 2700 miles? This movie fills you in, and resets your memory of what the 70's loose free life was for endurance thrills like driving from the East coast tot he West coast. We Americans used to have fun doing things like that, and that is at the core of the name "Cannonball Run" because it was named for Cannonball Baker who would try to set new records for getting his motorcycle from coast to coast in the 1930's.
Cory has also set her movie pacing in more than just documenting the event she participates in as a filmmaker, she knows what she is doing... she hooks your interest, fills your resulting curiosity about if the 32 hour and 7 minute record that was set in 1983 can be broken, and provoked me to think about the many facets of accomplishing such a bucket list life event.
How was it that the 1971 and 70's Cannonballers were able to pull off the race in basically the times as todays cars, without the onboard computers, without the GPS point by point mapping, without the radar detectors/jammers and without mobile internet, updated weather reports, traffic reports, construction calendars, without modern high perf radial / all weather / rain handling tires, without the fuel injected modern engines and all wheel Brembo braked traction assisted suspension?
Dan Gurney (you know, expert race car driver) was on the Cannonball winning team of 1971, and made it in 365 hours. Only 4 hours more than the 1983 winners. The 1983 winners are of course not in Dan's level of virtuoso high speed driving and racing decision making abilities, so how did they not get farther ahead of his time with all the advantages of 12 years of car technology?
This movie got me thinking about it, and you will likely be as engrossed in the questions I raised as much as I am.
They get answered while watching. Yes. You'll have to work out some, but this movie is the key to delving into the roughly 32 hours on the freeways coping techniques that all the drivers and teams have had to figure out. Vans, Rvs, race cars, sports cars, bikes, and trucks have all made the trek, but 32:07 was the record that stood from 1983, and when the interviewed teams and drivers tell you that it wasn't possible (it was, it did happen, that is a fact - not a result of a cheat) and some are positively hating the driving team that did it in a 308 Ferrari for never wavering from the story of how they did it.
See, you have to average about 90 miles an hour, for about 32 hours, no matter what happens. Fuel stops, food, bathroom breaks, police, toll booth stops, tires, construction, snow or rain on the roads... all of the obstacles and delays that happen can't change that to make the run in 32 hours, you've got to go much faster than 90 miles an hour to offset the stops, delays, and slow driving that will occur.
So when Cory made it her mission to prove that a family friend did the record with integrity, she went all the way to making a run happen.
You've maybe heard about Alex Roy, The "Wired" magazine article link here http://www.wired.com/cars/coolwheels/magazine/15-11/ff_cannonballrun?currentPage=all and how he outfitted a BMW M5 for Gumball Rally racing, both in America and Europe, it was all over the news about 5 or 6 years ago. Night vison, radar detectors, police scanners, radar jammers, and all the rest.
Well, when he got involved with the movie, as an investor, he became curious, and one thing led to another, and then Cory realized that her movie, his experience, and together they could accomplish the monumental task of proving the 32:07 wasn't less than, but damn near a perfect run, and finally have evidence to squash all the detractors, haters, and naysayers.
In conclusion, best movie about racing you'll see this year, or next. Senna was good, but that was last year (for me anyway)
If you have a movie shelf in the garage for racing movies, 32:07 has earned a place beside the best. Not a Hollywood production, no stars, no movie studio pulling the strings and censoring the rare occasional swear (I like that bit of realism), and no execs to steer it to one thing or another. Like "Boys of Bonneville" and "Vintage Racing Today" this is a terrific racing movie, and similarly it exposes a perspective of the car enthusiast that other movies haven't.
Fathers day is coming up, so are birthdays, and lucky for us Cory made a great movie to make gift giving a snap.
This movie was made over 18 months at over a dozen East coast race tracks events and show a great variety of racing cars, from extremely expensive to very affordable (less than 10 thousand dollars) and is arranged in chapters that cover the race tracks, getting into racing, growing up in racing families, and the overall story line is that the movie maker went along with the Zapata racing team to these various tracks.
this Bugatti was imported into the US when new, and stayed int he US racing ever since. Not restored, just raced. 1930 something type 37
a lot of humor is covered by the movie, the various off track moments,
the three wheel around corners traction ability of several cars
Even on two wheels around a corner... without lifting off the accelerator.. wow.
the feeling of being on the track, the thrill of racing, and the real emotional reaction to the cars getting in the way of the car that the camera in mounted to... "Get out of the WAY!"
I yelled at my screen.
I did.
Slow drivers upset me.
Great rare expensive cars
even the ones that are racing against Pintos! Dan Gurney drove this Denzel in 1959
these are Denzel 1500 International Sports cars
I was surprised to learn that some of the race track events include the towns they are at with parades and race cars driving through or stopping in for lunch so the locals can check out the cars. Good free advertising to get people interested in the racing and buy tickets to the tracks. You'll add Elkhart Lake, Road America, Sebring and Watkins Glen to your life list / Bucket list if you are anything like me, once you've seen this movie. Yeah, you've been warned you'll like it that much
the above nun is "Partial to Porches" when interviewed on camera
from the chapter on growing up in a racing family
from the chapter on racing as a lifetime hobby
damn, Corvairs can look really cool in full racing battle gear
a bit of a look around in the pits shows innovation like the above engine hoist
and the only Shelby signature I've seen on a hood (wow cool)
and there is a chapter on how to get into racing cars, advice on buying cars like where.. . Bring a Trailer and Wirewheels dot coms, Vintage Motorsports and Grassroots Motorsports magazines, and looking around at the racetrack in the paddocks and clubhouse
the racing sanctioning bodies that operate the race tracks
the wonderful sponsors that helped the filmmakers get this movie produced, filmed, etc!
the hobby of vintage racing, focuses on the Zapata Racing Team. Director Ben Cissell follows the team to 17 events in the span of 18 months, capturing the excitement and sense of community that has hooked thousands of drivers and spectators to this riveting sport. Rather than put their race cars behind museum velvet ropes, these car owners have opted to race their historic cars the way they were designed and purposed...at over 100 mph around world- famous race tracks. Vintage racing is a unique and captivating sport, one that gets in your blood and carries a life-long love. http://www.vintageracingtoday.com/pages/the-film
In review, the music is mellow, well editted, and perfectly timed to the action, the movie editing is great, the action is damn good, and plenty of it with a good variety of the trackside culture like parts helping, a bit of wrenching, some camaraderie, and after watching the movie lock up your checkbook... the desire to get a Formula V is overwhelming. The need to go to your local track and get involved is huge. Damn good movie.
