The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper tier NASCAR race. This is the true story of Wendell Scott, America's first African American NASCAR driver, once he returns from WWII to find his hometown the way he left it. With seed money for a taxicab business, he learns all the county roads. With his new knowledge an opportunity presents itself with some steep consequences. After an invitation to the local race track, a race car driver is born. The ethnic boundaries are a part of everyday life in 1950's Amercan life. You become part of his fight for equality, fairness and the American dream. The true autobiographical story of Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor), the first African-American race car driver in the 1960s, struggles through with a strange production that just never really feels right for some reason. This is meant to be a drama and Pryor just does not feel right playing an important part like this. Pryor's rival/friend Beau Bridges and Pryor's wife Pam Grier also seem out-of-place in this strained picture that seems to be suffering an identity crisis. A lot of rough drama mixes with ho-hum race sequences and waning attempts at romance and comedy that end up being more detrimental than beneficial to the overall cohesiveness and effectiveness of the film. Fair, but really no flair. 2.5 out of 5 stars. Richard Pryor shows his versatility, in this story of a black moonshine runner who forces his way into the white-dominated professional racing circuit. I'm not sure how historically accurate it is, but the film drew me into the story, right off the bat. When they establish Pryor's character as a WWII veteran, that automatically buys some sympathy, and it's not hard to guess how hard it would have been for a black man to make his mark in the white-dominated south, let alone the white-ultra-dominated auto racing field. This particular aspect of racing, I think, still shows today in the incredibly-low percentage of black drivers in the major leagues of auto racing. I know it's not because African-Americans can't build or drive cars - I believe it's still because of the redneck image of pro stock-car racing.<br/><br/>Anyway, off my soapbox. This is a great movie. Pryor is very believable and turns in a fine performance as the protagonist. It's also great to see how the small local drivers started to build up the sport into the massive, ugly organization that is is, today. The film also kept my interest by showing the NASCAR races, year after year, showing their evolution and devolution.<br/><br/>I thoroughly enjoyed this film, front to back - of course, I'm kind of tilted towards car films. But the way the actors played out their characters in this film made them very human. I recommend this to any open-minded NASCAR fan. This'll show you where it came from.
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293 weeks ago