The Wild Racers

This story about former NASCAR driver Joe Joe Quilico and his quest of making it big in European Grand Prix and Le Mans racing, and pursue a love life at the same time ought to evoke comparisons to two epic racing movies, Grand Prix and Le Mans. One good thing is the footage of exciting racing, which ought to please many fans of that era's Formula One and sports car prototype racing. It's interesting that we have a NASCAR driver making the switch to F1 (nowadays, it's the other way around-- Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Speed come to mind), and Fabian does a great job in his role as an American racer adjusting to life on the European racing circuit.

Now for the dislike. The editing! The Wild Racers makes use of too many quick cuts and the film's flow is generally "jerky" and the scenes cut too quickly into the next; it is not smooth at all, making it hard to follow the story at times. Compared to its contemporaries, Le Mans and Grand Prix-- the editing in those movies was much more tastefully done and served better in conveying a sense of emotion, or action, where it was needed. I never felt that I lost the storyline in those movies.

I agree with the other review that this story written by Max House is excellent. The storyline is great, no doubt-- but the execution simply didn't convey that, in my opinion. I still enjoyed the racing sequences, though. The Wild Racers could, and should, have been up there as one of the great racing movies of all time.

Roger Corman has one of the most unbelievable records when it comes to filmmaking. While he's directed over 500 movies, he only reportedly lost money on one of them! Now I am not saying all his movies worked well at the box office because they were great films or artistic triumphs. No, instead Corman knows how to make very, very cheap films that the public accepts and goes to see. Such is the case with "The Wild Racers"...a film which, technically, is very bad...but the overall movie is still worth seeing despite its many shortcomings.

The movie is about a racecar driver named Jojo (Fabian). Jojo has apparently worn out his welcome driving in the States and has now moved on to Europe to Formula One racing. While he is doing well, he insists he must always win...and is ruthless in pursuing victories. Along the way, he treats people like dirt...particularly his girlfriends.

The first portion of the movie is a mess. Instead of SHOWING any of Jojo's races or even showing Jojo, the film shows various clips of NASCAR style racing...with voiceovers from various drivers who hate his guts. It's sloppy. Later, the film switches to the story and you see and hear Jojo. However, this is also a problem because of the many, many rapid edits...really, really sloppy looking ones at that. It's supposed to be stylish, perhaps, but looks amateurish...as well as the extensive use of stock footage.

So why did I still give the film a 5 even if the film is technically bad? Well, the portrait of a high functioning sociopath IS interesting. You can't help but watch...much like you would if you saw a trainwreck...you can't help yourself from getting pulled up into it. Still, the film is clearly one which could have been better and I am sure may will dislike the vague sort of ending to the story.

I had to look up the dates on Wild Racers and LeMans. For the first hour of the movie it felt like the director was telling Fabian, " Do everything the way McQueen did it in LeMans". He even drives the same car. Remarkably, LeMans was made 2 years later. While I'll never put the two movies (or Fabian & McQueen) on the same level, they both had that same "Groovy" sixties vibe. That's what I love about sixties racing movies, they're like a time capsule of culture & style. The hair, the clothes, the way they talk...it's quite entertaining. Probably because racing is perceived as a young man's game. Living on the "Edge" as it were. I don't think if they made a period movie about the sixties, they could make it as convincing as the real thing.

Which leads me to the racing. While the racing footage in "Wild Racers" was excellent, it wasn't real. "LeMans" was real racing, real racers and real tension. Fabian, as good looking as he is, is no match for the hard intensity of McQueen. And McQueen was a bonified race car driver. An enthusiast of motor sports in general. Having driven and rode in competition, he had a leg up on Fabian.

It would be easy to pass Wild Racers off as a vehicle to launch the heart throb, crooner, a'La Elvis Presley, but that would be doing the actual film making a disservice. It's a very hip, inventive movie that takes some cinematic chances for the era it was made. Shaky cam, interesting camera angles, and lighting,very artsy when compared to the contrived schlock of a typical Elvis movie.

Perhaps, not a break out role for Mimsy Farmer, (did she ever have one?) she is breathtakingly, beautiful here. Like a vulnerable Amy Adams. I'd watch it again just for her.

All in all, a pretty decent, lazy Sunday afternoon, flick. If your asking, "Should I ?" I'm saying, "Yeah, why not"

'The Wild Racers' as movie is as shallow as its main character Jo Jo Quillico (played by pop singer Fabian) a race car driver living on the edge. Winning a race is his only intention and everything else comes second. Traveling from circuit to circuit, from country to country he conquers the women like racetracks. Until he finds a girlfriend (Mimsy Farmer) who sticks besides him, until she sees she can't get enough love from him.

The story is well written, but the most interesting part of the film is it's style - tilted camera angels and quick cuts - there are barely any shots that last more than 20 seconds, and scenes drive into scenes (we can barely set down at the dinner table when we are already back on racing track). The dialogue is minimal, but use of voice over is rather interesting - two characters are having conversation, then there is the change of the shot and conversation has turned into narration. I guess it has to do something the guerrilla style filmmaking as the crew didn't have permission to shoot on location (everything had to be canned on rush) and mixing it all real racing footage that some was colored from black and white.

Despite pseudo art house style the film carries the mood and atmosphere of '60s Grand Prix racing very well. Not stylistically as pure as lets say 'Le Mans' with Steve McQueen 'The Wild Racers' is still interesting film that any fans of the genre and racing should check out when the chance.

Voice of Fabian was dubbed by Dick Miller who also has brief cameo as pit mechanic, blink an eye and you miss him.

P.S. Although the film is about Formula 1, the cars shown in the movie are actually Formula 2 machinery.

The movie opens with a mish mash of stock car crashes, on asphalt, on dirt, at demolition derbies, etc., with a voiceover of how bad Fabian's character is as a driver and he's been banned from racing NASCAR. So now he goes slumming in Europe, racing Formula One. Yeah, sure. The most sophisticated level of motorsports happily welcomes a reject from a 3rd rate Americn series.

The racing scenes are ok, but poorly edited with no continuity. One second you're at Brands Hatch, the next you're at Zandvoort, then suddenly it's the Nurburgring. Fabian can''t act, he can just be Fabian.