chrislawuk

Its not the 1st race car documentary that pulls on the heart strings.

It is as much about the personality, psychology and inter-personal relationships of the drivers, as it is about car racing.

Any extreme sport is fundamentally about a passion you put before your own life and health.

Motor sports are big money, and the fanbase and industry behind it may be unparalleled in other extreme sport. For these reasons you really feel the pull of these type of sports in its purist form.

Its a nominative determinism-that he earned money the hard way, with a lot of heart.

It is also a story of succession which really sets it apart from just a plain old sports movie. It really does play out like a Hollywood movie, as his son has to rise in the ranks like a member of Royalty in the aftermath of losing his father. The pressure and expectations must have been almost unbearable. It really is a real world example of the allegorical story of "The sword of Damocles".

Its a very exciting, enthralling and emotional ride.

Back in the early 90s, as I teen, I ust to read Darkside Magazine, and Jesus Franco always took up a portion of it.

These movies were generally not in the public gallery, and to me they looked more like soft porn than horror. I would usually skip this section, but with birth of the internet I finally got around to watching them.

I can see why the British horror magazines gave Jesus Franco attention. For sure 50 percent is misogynistic porn. Cant even say soft porn, as there are real sexual acts on camera. Probably why hey never took off in UK at the time, as they would have been banned.

It is seldom taken from a female perspective, and indulges in male dark fantasies. Female on female intercourse, and close ups of hairy vaginas take up a good part of the running time of the movie. There is also sexual violence, but it presented in a erotic sexy sort of way. It is perverse, but in horror movie perspective rather tame. Sado masochistic would be best description, a theme that always seems to crop up in his movies.

What I like about these movies most is locations, architecture, mise en scène, dress wear etc. In these areas Jesus Franco is genius.

Better than hammer horror, or anything we were producing in UK in aesthetic sense, or at least on par with the very best.

His camera explores Spanish locations, not unlike he explores the female body with a passion, and the architecture and locations used are 2nd to none. Makes some interesting use of the wide angle lens in interior shots too.

I see influence movies like this may have had on Tim Burton/ David Lynch etc. From jutting volcanic rock faces, from islands emerging from the sea, to architectural marvels, his cinematography creates a kind of ethereal flow for the most part, which makes his movies easily watchable.

If sexual content is something that particularly offends you, then you wont like this movie. It could be easily accused of not taking sexual violence seriously, or eroticising it: but from a movie fans perspective, these movies are far from a dead loss.

It could easily upset feminists for example. Others may just find it slow paced and boring, with an over preoccupation with sex scenes. These criticisms would be certainly not be unfounded either lol.

This film was interestingly enough released the same year as Franco the dictators rule ended in 1975. This movie is in French but the location is the seaside town of Alicante according to IMDB. I been there and thought it was an awful place personally, but Jesus makes it look good some how. We are on an island or at sea for the most part, which probably helped.

With the camera hes almost a Kubrick. "The Most Dangerous Game (1932)", which this movie is said to be based on, is also one of my favourite early horror movies.

Its a very standard formula. Certainly wasn't the first of its kind, and definitely not the last. It's a less well known, but more critically acclaimed high school sports movie of the 80s.

Having Gene Hackman and Dennis Hopper in the cast, we might have hoped for something more original.

Had I seen it at the time, I may have had a more positive view-but in light of the many other high school sports movies, that had the same formulae, and were in my opinion much more fun-I found this film a bit boring.

Its that sentimental cliched 80 flick genre, that's very predictable. I watched a much lesser known and less critically acclaimed 80s sports movie lately called Personal Best, and couldn't stop myself from comparing the two. Thought it was a way better movie albeit aimed at a different audience.

Part of the predictability of these movies was they were made as family entertainment, and studio tailored to fit in that box.

Over sentimental and feel good, but also follow the same story line over & over again.

Its not that it's a bad movie, it's just that in 2025 I don't feel like I've gained anything through sitting through its 2 hr duration.