I grew up with a father who couldn’t be pried from the TV every Sunday, sometimes Saturdays for the Busch races, too. So, naturally, I hated NASCAR. Everything about it. The kneejerk taunts of redneck ridicule were easy for me to saddle up to as well.
But really, the older I got the more boring anti-NASCAR sentiment became. Generally it’s ignorant prejudice, if we’re being honest, and even though I probably haven’t watched a race beginning to end since the one I attended at Bristol in the late-1980s, I every now and then get the urge to stick up for what is nevertheless one of the most popular sports in the world.
With that in mind, I sort of delighted in reading Jenna Fryer’s AP story on the 20th anniversary of Tony Scott’s “Days of Thunder,” a film I must confess to loving. Robert Duvall’s minute or two soliloquy to a parked car is, seriously, top notch stuff in my book. Fryer makes early points about how the film reflected a number of real events but later explains an exaggeration of bump and grind on the track turned off a great many.
I particularly liked this quote from writer Robert Towne, who took to the North Carolina Piedmont with Tom Cruise to learn everything they could about the sport while developing the project:
The drivers were more fun than any group of people I had met before…The thing about it is they are the greatest storytellers in the world. I think I had arguably as good a time as I’ve ever had on a movie. It was just endless fun.
I guess when you grow up with Charlotte as your stomping grounds, this kind of thing seeps into you somehow. Maybe that explains my defensiveness and genuine love of Scott’s film. But whatever the case, the film is 20 years old tomorrow. Huzzah.
So…who feels old?
And while I couldn’t find the Duvall scene I mentioned in English, here’s an awesome Italian dub:
Comments
5 responses to “7,300 ‘Days of Thunder’ later”
Good post, Kris. Coming from Appalachia myself, I can pretty much echo your sentiments. I wonder if I’ll be the only one of your readers to know what a Busch race is.
BTW, Jenna Fryer is a great journalist and her piece on this was fantastic.
Its interesting. I’m from Jersey, a very nice area at that, yet growing up I’ve had this thing with Nascar that I probably got from my motorhead dad. Not the greatest sport, but fun to watch, especially when you know the drivers.
i agree, poor southern white people are constantly ridiculed, mostly by liberal whites who feel proud of their “enlightenment” or whatever. i watch golf a lot and its the same kinda republican types that inhabit that world and if u ignore politics, they some of the nicest and most respectful people u ever gonna come across, but dont tell ya liberal city friends that.
and yeah that film rocked when i was a kid. havent seen it in a while though.
I don’t like NASCAR but enjoy the films. Odd.
@ Ben – You’re not alone. My first race was the Busch race in NH the day after Adam Petty died. Went to Pocono Cup, NHIS Cup and Miami Busch and Cup races that year as well (it was a big year for me). I’ve been going to the NH Sept. race since. So, I love movies and racin’. (And I still call them Busch races even though they’re Nationwide now.)
As for feeling old, that feeling struck this morning when it was repeatedly mentioned on the Today Show that Taylor Lautner is 18. I’m no Twilight fan, but really, I’m old enough to be his mom? Wha??