Il diavolo del volante

Elroy Jackson Junior (Jeff Bridges) drives fast along the back roads of North Carolina delivering moonshine whiskey for his father (Art Lund). Their still explodes and father is sent to jail. Junior starts racing dirt tracks and demolition derby for small time operator Hackel (Ned Beatty) to raise money for his father's legal defense. He builds his own cars. His brother Wayne (Gary Busey) tries to get him a garage mechanic job and his mother is worried about safety. He meets sweet Georgia peach Marge (Valerie Perrine) working one of the races. The races get bigger and bigger.

This has a great sense of the backwoods world of racing. Bridges is terrific as a man waiting to explode. It's got good car sequences. It also has the great Jim Croce song "I Got a Name". The story needs a bit more drama. Junior needs to overcome something insurmountable. It all feels rather predetermined but it's compelling nevertheless.

Why is it that the only people commenting on "Last American Hero" do not live in America? Even when the film was first released in 1973, the panoramic view of Jeff Bridges' fast moving car swirling up the autumn leaves of the American wooded hills accented by Jim Croce's engrossing song of "I've Got a Name" gave "Last American Hero" an overwhelming nostalgic and "American" feel, at least to those of us who saw it in theaters overseas. And for both sheer physical appearance and charisma of the human personification of "American", nothing could beat Jeff Bridges and Valerie Perrine, especially when they stood out against the secondary American characters played by Gary Busey, Ned Beatty, and William Smith. For me one of the most inspiring piece of movie banter of all time is presented in the film when Jeff Bridges as Elroy meets his father in jail and in reference to Elroy's somewhat whiny note of "What are we going to do now?", the father angrily yells at him, "What's your name?!" "Elroy Jackson Junior!" Jeff Bridges yells back. "You'll find a way," the father responds in a confident, reassuring, American tone.

Jeff Bridges did a great job as Jr. Jackson(Johnson). It was after reading an old interview with Jr. Johnson and him referencing the movie that I sought it out to see. And I was not disappointed. Gary Busey also did a great job. From the moonshine runs, to the demolition derbies there was a lot of truth. To those who've never experienced the deep south and some of it's uniqueness, especially for the era, this was dead on. Here it is more than 30 years later and Nascar hasn't changed all that much. The grooming of drivers has, so movies like "The Last American Hero", help with the preservation of a simpler time and people. Yet the altruism in the seeking to gain another dollar still reigns today, some thirty years later. There aren't many movies you can say that about.

I watched this movie today on AMC and loved it. I don't know how well the film was received upon release, but in light of the current Hollywood narrative for action movies, Last American Hero deserves appreciation. It should definitely be considered an American classic.

The movie is a docu-drama based on the few years in the life of Junior Johnson, a famous stock car racer. A young Jeff Bridges brings the main character to life with a great performance, inspired and entertaining. The supporting cast is also excellent with Gary Busey as the brother and Valerie Perrine as the love interest.

All the elements of a great movie that time forgot: thrilling racing scenes, three-dimensional characters, humor, a complicated plot, and so on.. It's a shame that action movies today don't sacrifice some of the explosions, blood, and high-tech props for the type of entertainment and engrossment that Last American Hero delivers.

Very good acting performance by Jeff Bridges. He hit just the right note as the naive, in-over-his-head, but determined and aggressive stock car driver, Junior Jackson.

His performance as a young country kid, trying to break into the big time, with small-time resources, is memorable.

Valerie Perrine is equally good as Marge, the man-starved woman who takes a liking to Junior. She senses he's someone who may be on the way up, while her current beau, successful driver Kyle Kingman, is probably on the way down. To hedge her bets, she makes sure to warm both their beds, to ensure she will be with the guy in the winners circle.

The movie looks, feels and sounds woefully dated, and the production and direction leave something to be desired. There are decent stars in this movie, but it looks like it was made on a shoe-string budget.

Bridges, Perrine, William Smith (as Kingman) and Ed Lauter (as Burton Colt, Junior's car owner) make this work with excellent performances.

A simply made movie, with outstanding characters.