3: The Dale Earnhardt Story

"3: The Dale Earnhardt Story" isn't going to win a lot of non-Nascar fans over to the sport, but as a biography, it is well-made, offers some believable insights on what made Earnhardt the often enigmatic person he was, and, in Barry Pepper, provides an eerily close approximation to the 'look' and 'feel' of the racing legend. Pepper will certainly receive an Emmy nomination for the role, and delivers such a powerful portrayal that you nearly forget how good the rest of the cast is.

While Elizabeth Mitchell is more glamorous than the real Teresa Earnhardt, she is quite solid and believable in the role; to truly appreciate how important Teresa's intelligence and business acumen were to Dale, it would have required a much longer movie, and might have seriously tilted the story away from Dale's other relationships, and the balance that Pepper and director Russell Mulcahy achieved.

Dale's early years come off best in the film, with a wonderful performance by J.K. Simmons as the inspirational Ralph Earnhardt. The grittiness and 'backwoods blue-collar' feel of Earnhardt's upbringing is well-conveyed, and reminiscent of "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "The River". The film loses a bit of steam when Dale begins racing, and as he achieves success, a lot of memorable moments had to be edited out, or telescoped down, which has disappointed some Earnhardt fans. Considering the time and budget constraints, however, I found the story to be remarkably accurate.

The young actors who portrayed Dale's children as adults should be singled out for recognition; race car driver/first-time actor Chad Mcumbee, while low-key, is pretty impressive as Dale Jr., conveying both a pride in his father, and frustration in being 'held back' so he could complete his education before being permitted to race; Corri English, while too cute, has an infectious smile and manner, and exhibits the Earnhardt joy of fast cars; best of all is newcomer Frank Glidden as oldest son Kerry, who, in a few brief scenes, offers a balanced, sensitive interpretation of the son Dale abandoned, finally winning his father's attention and respect, even as he sees Dale Jr. outshining him on the track. I look forward to seeing more of Glidden's work in future!

While there will certainly be a more detailed and polished feature film about Earnhardt in the future, this ESPN production is not without it's own merits, and provides an entertaining, dramatic overview of the racing legend's life.

To those of you complaining that this picture isn't this or it doesn't do that ... IT'S JUST A MOVIE.

I am a NASCAR fan, though not an Earnhardt fan. I enjoyed the movie and thought it offered a little insight into what made Dale Earnhardt tick - from his relationship with his father and failed loves to the relationship with his own children.

Barry Pepper did an admirable job portraying Earnhardt. Kudos to him.

The film gave you the basic story andn did as well as it could in two hours. Hey, that's a lot of ground to cover!

As far as footage not being shot at every track, again - it's a movie!

There are far worse things on TV today, like Survivor and all that reality dreck. This was entertaining.

I would have liked more of a look at the behind-the-scenes stuff at the tracks, such as how The Intimidator interacted with other drivers.

How about 3 II!

This movie will likely get good viewership because it was heavily marketed, but it made too many assumptions about Dale's life. They did not do enough research prior to releasing this movie. Many, many important parts are left out, and it felt extremely disjointed and rushed. Often, I was saying, "oh, I guess they are moving on to the next thing." The ending was terrible and did not delve into an important part about how he became who he is today. Trust me, many non-Nascar folks realized a lot after his death. I am a racing fan, and I think many who love Dale Earnhardt will be afraid to admit that this movie was terrible. I hope some are not afraid. I do not think Formula One would ever allow such a poor movie about their superstar such as a Senna or a Schumacher. I give this 1.5 out of 5 stars. A big shame.

Being a die-hard NASCAR fan you have to look at this movie with a different eye than the general public. For example, the movie should have been longer. With "3" being only 90 minutes long they skipped some very critical points in Dale Earnhardt's life. Such as the creation of his company/team DEI, Dale Earnhardt Inc. Or the refusal to go to Adam Petty's funeral when he was killed in a stock car during a practice run. Adam was one of his son's best friends and because Dale Sr. did not attend, Dale Jr. did not go. How about his rival with Jeff Gordon? Or even his son's first Winston Cup win at Texas or his son winning 2 back-to-back Busch Championships. When Dale Jr. set history and won the Winston in his Rookie year as the first Rookie to win. That was an important day for the Earnhardt family. Not to take away from the movie but I do believe that Barry Pepper did a great job at Dale Earnhardt. The story was good and it showed some of the hard times he went through to get to the Winston Cup. For that reason I give this Film a rating of 8/10.

Several years ago ESPN made a decision that they were going to expand their vision and focus to include original entertainment programming. This has led to a slew of made-for-TV films, dramatic mini-series, and specials about fictional or historical sports personalities and events. Although the acronym ESPN has always stood for Entertainment Sports Programming Network, ESPN never had the desire, budget, or ability to produce this type of original entertainment. Just like MTV has become less about music videos and more about reality TV, dramas, soap operas, and animated series, ESPN seems to be headed down the same wrong path. That's why when I saw the trailers for '3' the last couple weeks, I figured it would be poorly done and over-dramatized just like every other original project ESPN has touched. Surprisingly, that wasn't the case. Barry Pepper, who has been good in everything else I've seen him in, puts on a good performance this time too. I've never been a fan of auto sports, or Dale Earnhardt for that matter, but I was entertained by this movie every bit of the way.