King_Tut
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 422
Location: Auckland - NZ
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 Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 3:52 am Post subject: First and Second Generation Car Flicks |
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| Quote: | Watching the automotive classic "Le Mans" on a weekday night of relaxation a strange fact dawned on me, I had been watching the dvd for over half an hour and none of the main actors had uttered so much as a line.
The funny thing was that I didn't care and it really didnt effect the flow of the movie at all. I was still as into the movie as any other I have ever watched.
There are clearly two generations of car movies, both with the same general concept, but with completely different approaches. The theme is the same, cars racing around with their fashionable stud drivers and hott girlfriends flocking amongst the two of them together. But the crazy thing about it that the target audience really hasnt changed, yes they are a generation apart, with different engines and even different ways of modifying those engines, but we are still the ethanol breathing sex driven fools that our fathers and grandfathers, and undoubtedly our sons will be. We like going fast, we like how we achieve this speed, we love the sounds that the machines make in getting this speed, and most of all we love going faster then the guy next to us.
The dumb thing is that car flicks should by all means be better now then they were in that first generation. I mean visually the newer Star Wars kicks the ass off the old Star Wars, but what made the original so damn good was that the story was so solid and related to guys worldwide. The newer ones are so succesfull because they combined the old story of the first movies with the new graphics of today to make quite a viewing specatacle. The new generations of car movies are so damn focused on exploiting these new found "toys" in th form of trick technology, even more expensive cameras, and the ability to capture shots that their ancestors would have killed for, that they forget completely that the car movies were so damn good back in the day because of the fact that they were real, real in teh way you could feel cars rumbling by, the engines deep throatiness piercing the silence of a dark room, the surrealness of a car ripping down the straight of any of the worlds most spectactular roads and racing courses.
Lets for example compare the begining of the First Fast and the Furious with the begining scene of Le Mans. Not only was the first scene in Le Mans just excellent sound and no on screen confusion, but it was real, real cars, real mean, real speed. In heavy contrast to TFATF which shows poster boy Paul "I talk like a complete and utter fag" Walker in a drag race pitted against more experienced racers in your everyday illegal street drag race. Thing is, the "drag" lasts about three minutes( at by which time even grandmas civic can hit 130mph ) and the cars somehow hit 160mph with the use of nitrous while consequently falling apart in a matter that even an idiot could tell wasn't accurate. The scene has potential but has not even the slightest sense of reality to it at all. For those of you who haven't seen TFATF, save yourself the money or the bandwidth to get it and save an hour and a half of your life by forgetting it actually exists. As the rest of the movie is pretty much downhill from there, the plot thickens to water, the acting is horrible and the cars looks like something off pimp my ride, with the "cherry on top" ending where a "tricked out" supra somehow keeps up with a Dodge Charger that was clearly built for high 7 second passes, and for some reason has nitrous.
The first generation car movies are really legends in their own rights respectively, each one encapsulating a different aspect of the essence of a solid car flick. The list includes the original Italian Job, Bullitt, Gran Prix, Le Mans and many many others. They lacked fancy acting, fancy cameras, and artsy camera angles but their directors and producers were not confused about the projection of reality. The contrast between the two generations is startling, with the real only movie of the second generation to pay true respect to their forefathers being the second installment of Gone In 60 Seconds. Although even then the big wigs behind the movie decided to make the film fall short at the end with a ridiculous use of CGI to outdo the original movies "jump scene"(they probably could have fieldbing a better scene by giving a small toddler multiple hot wheels cars and called out "Action!") and in turn loses any and all reality and integrity the movie had held through the first hour and a half of the movie. Jerry Bruckheimer was close to recapturing the past glory of the Automotive genre of film but but he too eventually fell into the same trap as every other fellow heads of movie making during this era of the "Second generation" of car movies, the use of fancy technology. Real men don't want to see a car miraculously jumping over a line of 30+ cars and about 150 feet to then land equally as miraculously and carry on driving with not the slightest hint of a chassis no longer resembling the namesake and the suspension struts flying through the sheetmetal of the shaker hood. Theyd rather see some trick stunt driving, the car getting nailed, and in turn limping off and REALISTICALLY barely making it to its final destination.
1st gen:
2nd gen:
So overall we come to the conclusion that the fault of every car flick made in the new generation has a glaring flaw in their false realities and really all anyone wants to see is the new more powerfull cars being driven by more talented drives in a manner that us normal guys could only dream to emulate with our cars on local tracks and canyon roads. The key is reality, car movies need to live and die by the car itself, not the computer that animates the car and makes it look like something off of a video game. So please, OH DEAR GOD please, save the shitty ass TFATF's and Italian Job's of the future in the now ever expanding collection of ideas shot down never to heard from again, where they deserve to be, and bring us back the glory days of yesteryear and make a movie that both generations of men can watch. |
I am clearly just pointing out the obvious and it needs an edit/shortening, but ya.... |
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Porsche
Joined: 01 Feb 2006
Posts: 636
Location: Vancouver , BC
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| Posted: Tue Jul 11, 2006 4:20 am Post subject: |
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Agreed.
It seems as though what car movies have lsot in relaism, they've tried to gain in 'coolness' factor. Basically, they've made things looks less realistic, more garrish and technological rather than just plain real. They've tried to make it seem as though driving a certain car demands a certian persona. I'd much rather see a Le Mans style film where all the emphasis is placed on the fact that you're strapped in a fire-breathing monster weighing less than a rice cake inches from your rival for hours on end with safety as a 5th priority. Not driving a Best Buy's on wheels down some LA street at night to impress your hispanic girlfriend.
Times have changed, fast is still fast, skill is an arcane artform and cool has been eclipsed by shades and subs.
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