Well…at least it was better than the ESPN movie on Pete Rose. You guys seem to like it better than I did. But from my years in college studying television production, I can’t help but find all kinds of stuff wrong with this one.
It wasn’t the worse movie I’ve seen – I mean, I didn’t sit through the whole thing while shouting “this sucks”. I thought Barry Pepper was decent (better than the guy who played Darrell Waltrip – yikes!). And some of the racing scenes were cool. I especially liked when they used actually racing footage from particular events.
And of course the guy in the stands with 3 shaved in his back hair. That was tremendous. Funniest part by far.
But there were some things I thought could have been done so much better. So look out ESPN and feel the wrath of Sid …
According to this movie, Ralph Earnhardt drove a white and red #8, and later Dale Earnhardt Jr. drove a red and white #8 and not once during the movie is any tradition or remembrance related to Dale Jr’s Cup ride and his grandfather’s dirt track sportsman. You may say the movie wasn’t about Dale Jr, but there was a lot of father-son racing tradition moments in the movie and I was surprised they didn’t touch on this, especially after a scene when Dale Sr and Dale Jr talk about Ralph years after he’s passed.
They portray Earnhardt as a hard-ass , never showing any emotion. In fact, the only time he does in the movie is when Neil Bonnet dies, yet Bonnet just popped in and out of the movie. You don’t even know Bonnet made it out of the short tracks into a Cup ride until they show Dale asking “How’s Neil” during caution laps after a Cup race wreck. They were just hunting buddies who met racing at a hometown small track so the movie told us til that crash. (For the record I knew who Neil Bonnet was and remember the day I heard he died, but to the casual fan it’s a little quick from one point to the other) But it was hard to feel how bad he felt the loss of a character we see randomly and years apart.
They show Dale Sr pointing out Richard Petty to Dale Jr as a kid, but only passively mention he tied his record for most NASCAR titles with 7. He goes from 1 title to 7 with only a few DW-Intimidator fueds on the track in between.
There was no mention of the tremendous impact Dale had on NASCAR’s rise to enormous popularity during the 80’s and 90’s, or his brilliant merchandising of his race team. The man trademarked his signature for cryin’ out loud.
To me, when Dale finally won the Daytona 500 and all the pit crews came onto pit road to shake his hand is one of those timeless sports moments. Like Tony Gwynn helping a fragile Ted Williams throw out the All-Star Game first pitch at Fenway Park or Muhammad Ali lighting the Olympic torch during the opening ceremonies. Since they were using actual footage throughout the movie, how about letting 15-20 seconds of that moment run instead of the reenactment from inside his car. (Side Note – props for using Blues Traveler’s “Carolina Blues” during the scene. But although he’s from North Carolina, the blues I’m sure is NOT what he was feeling after finally winning the NASCAR Crown Jewel race – yeah, I know, that was a little nit-picky – but by this point in the movie I had my mind made up it wasn’t that good)
Now I don’t know about you, but to me Dale Earnhardt’s death is one of the most unbelievably ironic tragedies is American sports. And since this movie didn’t go there, let me break it down for ya. – Dale Earnhardt “The Intimidator” – who, this movie repeatedly reminded us, would do what ever it took to win. No matter what. But for some reason, in February of 2001, running 3rd in a pack of cars including the leaders in the final laps of the Daytona 500, Dale Earnhardt didn’t do whatever it took to win, instead, he blocked. He did whatever it took for some one else to win. Maybe his son, who was running second, or maybe winless-in-more-starts-than-other-driver-at-the-time (400+ was it?) Michael Waltrip could maintain the point to the checker – both driving cars he owned. But the #3 protected the rest of the field from coming through. And as he was late to get in front of one relentless pursuer, they eventually touch, and Dale goes into the wall – on the last lap.
This movie didn’t touch on the irony that one driver was his son and both were driving for his DEI race team. (In fact, DEI isn’t mentioned either (like Jen pointed out) – or why he still drove for Childress while owning other cars) And what about the irony in that, according to this movie, Dale’s former arch-rival Darrell Waltrip was Michael’s brother, OR that he was the TV announcer in the booth calling the race. The scene of Dale Sr shaking Dale Jr’s hand, kissing his wife and starting his engine before the race was longer than the time spent on the race itself. In fact, Neil Bonnet’s death had more time on screen than Dale’s.
ESPN missed the boat. This movie didn’t give me much more than I already knew and what I didn’t know wasn’t that interesting and what I wanted to know they had nothing for me. Aah well, TV movies usually aren’t that great anyway. And hey, if they didn’t make this god-awful thing, what would we have to gripe about this time of year?
Happy Holidays
Sid