Dragster

This is one of those rare performances in which you fall in love with the actress. Bonnie Bedelia was apparently nominated for a Golden Globe as Best Actress for her performance as Shirley Muldowney - she should have won an Oscar.

Whether or not you care anything about drag racing - I don't - this is just as much a movie about an unusual, sweet but driven, woman through two decades. It's really tops.

The only criticism I have is that the movie lets the character off rather lightly for abandoning her husband and child after a fight over whether she should be gone from home throughout the year. The truth is that it must be terribly difficult for someone not in the industry to keep a marriage going - including parenthood of a 12 year old - with someone who wants to be gone throughout the year and throughout the country. At one point, Beau Bridges accuses her of abandoning her husband due to ambition - and I suspect there may be more in the accusation than the movie allows the viewer to believe (since Beau Bridges at that point is behaving pretty awfully).

Still, Bonnie Bedelia is so charming, sweet, pretty, winning in every way - that the viewer does nothing but cheer her success.

This is very enjoyable.

This film is a great representation of the true story of Shirley Cha Cha Muldowney. Drag racing enthusiasts will love it for the cars and it's true story and general film lovers will like it for it's story about the first female racer to break into this male dominated sport. Not only did she do that but she dominated it in the late seventies and early eighties. I first saw this film at the age of 11 at a custom car show in Leeds, England and it was a real eye opener to the sport.

This a pretty interesting based-on-a-true life-story of hot-rod racer Shirley Muldowney. Bonnie Bedalia plays the woman who was a pioneer of her sorts, becoming the first female star in the sport. Whether her life was one big soap opera, I don't know, but the movie concentrates on that sort of thing....with a feminist bias, of course.

I didn't mid the latter because she had to fight a lot of obstacles to become the first female star of drag racing. However, the constant arguments with her husband (a very profane Leo Rossi) and then with crew chief-former lover Connie Kallitta (Beau Bridges) wore thin after awhile. This was just before the PG-13 rating was put into effect, so it's rated PG which is ludicrous with all the profanity.

One very, very memorable scene in here: Muldowney on fire, stumbling down the racetrack after her car caught on fire. That was horrifying and a scene I've never forgotten, and I first saw this almost 20 years ago. Other that that, it's a so-so story and better than so-so if you don't let the language bother you.

A gem. Pretty much ignored when it came out, because the industry tried to push it as a "hot rod movie" which it is not. Bonnie Bedelia gives a brilliant performance (apparently race folks who knew Muldowney believed she appeared as herself in a couple of scenes!). Film and TV seldom succeed in portraying auto racing; but that doesn't matter here because it doesn't pretend to. The movie has the same spirit as BEND IT LIKE BECKHAM; a young woman facing down family and society in order to fight and win in her chosen field. At the end, you will want to pump your fist and cheer, the way I saw a cinema audience do for the recent Beckham piece. Also, some quite heart-piercing moments when Muldowney's ambition and drive and hard shell fall apart from love and betrayal. Beau Bridges loves his role as a boozy cynical scoundrel, and what fun singer Hoyt Axton must have had doing his thing. 1960 out on the Depot Road near Schenectady --- that's what it was like!

I have been a Shirley Muldowney fan forever and this is a wonderful movie. It is very accurate and the actor's portrayals are great. If you have ever been around the races and pits, you will realize that it is right on. I have forced many of my non-racing fan and non-Shirley fan friends to watch this movie and the majority of them all thought that it was a great movie and most say they would watch again.

For those of you that don't like racing, or have never heard of Shirley Muldowney, it is a great movie to show the struggle that women had/have fitting in to the so called "man's world." The fact that it is set in an overwhelmingly male field makes it even more interesting. As stated above, I have been a fan of Shirley's for years, and I have always stated that she is my idol. Everyone laughs when I say this, but I have always come away with - if Shirley managed to make it in drag racing, I can make it in (fill in the blank). Great movie.