Fast Company

The famous drag racer Lonnie 'Lucky Man' Johnson (William Smith) is the star of the Fast Company, managed by the corrupt Phil Adamson (John Saxon) Lonnie is the mentor of the promising funny car racer Billy 'The Kid' Brocker (Nicholas Campbell). When Adamson makes a deal with Lonnie's competitor Gary 'The Blacksmith' Black (Cedric Smith), he takes the funny car from Lonnie and Billy. But they decide to steal the car and run independently in the next race. But Adamson intends to use any means to stop Loonie.

"Fast Company" is an incredibly dull film by David Cronenberg. The film is indicated only for fans of this great director that want to know his complete filmography and fans of drag racing. This film is the last one for the gorgeous Claudia Jennings that ironically died in a car accident in the same year. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): "Escuderia do Poder" ("Motor-Racing Team of the Power")

William Smith plays Lonnie Johnson, an aging race car driver, who's sponsor, FastCo Motor Treatment, represented by John Saxon, is about to can him due their quest for a youthful and cheaper image. Claudia Jennings is his long-distance girlfriend in a not wholly original, but fascinating look at the traveling race-car circuit and it's casualties.

This may be the ultimate drive-in feature; part-documentary, part-exploitation puncuated by moments of eerie silence that proves Cronenberg can do anything he wants with any type of material and make it interesting. Strange, lingering scenes of mechanics maintaining vehicles with up-close clinical precision (as well as surreal inside-the-car camerawork) will satisfy Cronenberg's most hardcore fans, as well as the sense of desolation and alienation amongst the highways, broken-down racetracks, and most importantly, the fans and drivers of the Pacific Northwest. This may be Cronenberg's most interesting film, since it's material you would never expect him to tackle, and because it's the least-seen movie in his catalogue. Highly recommended and worth tracking down by any means necessary.

Lonnie "Lucky Man" Johnson is an veteran drag racer and head honcho of his race team that's sponsored by FastCo Oil. Their business man Phil Adamson thinks only of the sponsorships than winning and when Lonnie's hotrod explodes Phil isn't too happy. Seeing that Lonnie is the one who draws the crowds, Phil gets Lonnie to take over Bill "The Kid" Broker's car, which doesn't go down to well with Bill. Their rival team led by Gary " The Blacksmith" Black would like the chance to beat Lonnie and things do heat up when Adamson decides he wants to make some changes.

When you think of the name David Cronenberg, does drag racing come straight to mind? Most definitely not, but on this occasion he has churned out a rather normal, exploitation flick on the sport. You don't always associated the word normal to his name, but even though its an entertaining piece, it's really nothing much out of the ordinary. That's probably the best reason why it flies under radar, well it won't escape the fans' of the director's work, though. Cronenberg's excursion into "Fast Company" is pretty much a low-budgeted film that's marketed for a more mainstream audience. I didn't really know about this film that pretty much came out of the blue when I found out it was directed by Cronenberg. So I've been itching to get my hands on it and I gladly came across the 2 disc special edition release at my local library. I'm no revhead fan, but I couldn't help but get drawn into the thick of the action thanks largely to Mark Irwin's cinematography. I actually didn't mind this little picture, but you still call it a rather a hot and cold detour. The film looked great with it's semi-documentary style, where there were a lot of creative angel shots that caught the action superbly and the beautiful Canadian landscape that fills the frame also leaves a mark in your mind. Cronenberg manages to stage the set-pieces involving the dragsters quite well, as you watch some burning rubber along with the crowd. It's just like the real deal! But when it wasn't focusing on the racing it becomes the usual the good guys v bad guys theme, where it becomes morally hounded and predictable. You feel the tension between the teams and the plot shows the manipulative nature of sponsorship deals taking over the show. But the drama element runs low on fuel. It just feels leaden with a simple script that doesn't really seem to go anywhere with some underwritten plot details, but still there's a nice amount of sharp humour evident. The film's conclusion might be exciting, but still it's rather illogical you could say. The howling rock soundtrack that surrounds the film felt overly tacky and got a bit repetitious. The performances from the main two leads lifts most of the acting out of the standard mould. William Smith and John Saxon make the most out of their character's material. Saxon is a great character actor and he steals the film as the slimly sponsor adviser Phil Adamson. Smith adds a steady head to the veteran driver Lonnie Johnson. Also in the supporting roles is the gorgeous Claudia Jennings as Lonnie's love interest Sammy, Nicholas Campbell plays the up and coming youngster Bill Broker and Cedric Smith plays the competition Gary 'The Blacksmith' Black. There's definitely a lot of stunning gals in this picture. Well, cars and girls go down rather nicely don't they.

Rather a middling affair that has it's perks. When it's close to the action that's when it hits it's strides by making you feel like you're there. It's nothing overly showy, but it's a mildly entertaining romp for the undemanding.

Fast Company (1979) is an interesting film by David Cronenberg. He took a departure from his clinical horror films and made a quasi mainstream film dealing with hot rods and the sleazy sideshow aspect of them. Unlike most films of this genre, Cronenberg takes a look at the shady business that the promoters of the drivers do to try a make a buck whenever they can. Most times at the expense of the driver's safety and welfare. I wasn't expecting much from this movie but I was quite surprised at the results. All-American tough guy William Smith plays the lead whilst John Saxon co-stars as his shady promoter/ manager.

In the hands of any other director, this movie wouldn't have been that watchable. But Cronenberg works with what he has and creates a visually appealing movie. The inside shots of the driver was very well done. In some scenes the driver looks as if he's part of the machine! The camera catches the action and you can feel yourself being dragged along at 200 plus miles an hour. The film follows these drivers as the go from one small town to another performing in front of small crowds. This movie neither glamorizes or denegrate the "sport". It just documents it.

Like I said in the beginning, I wasn't expecting much (maybe because this movie wasn't widely released if at all in the U.S.A.) but I was surprisingly pleased with the end results. I would have to recommend this film for Cronenberg and William Smith fans.

B+

Okay it's not the world's greatest movie, or even the greatest movie ever made about drag racing (that would probably be 'Heart Like A Wheel') but it does have its moments and there was a lot of effort put in to ensure the technical side of things was correct. Filmed entirely in Canada around Canadian dragstrips there is a sense of what life on the road is really like. Yes the characters are rather one dimensional - good guys wear white, bad guys wear black and snarl a lot, and the stunts do look like the camera was over-cranked but any true car fan will find it holds their interest, the first time anyway. Especially if you think of it more as a documentary than a movie. Plus the cars and female leads look great. I agree the ending is lousy though.