The lives and passions of a stock car team are revealed against the turbulent backdrop of the professional racing world.
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Reviews
Simply A Masterpiece
Absolutely brilliant
A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.
The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.
Just like any "gear head" film, the humans are always supporting cast. The real stars are the cars. Within the first 21 minutes, you will see plenty of classic race tracks, cars, motorcycles, trucks, socket wrenches, loud pipes, race posters, cool sunglasses, beautiful girls, and everything else that excites the average auto buff. Yes, the acting isn't great, but do you really care about Caan's love life more than that beautiful split-window '63? Of course not. This movie was made in the heart of the 1960s, the genesis of true sports cars. There are other gear films out there that are better, but 7000 is worthwhile.
As a die-hard racing fan and a lover of the sport's history, not to mention early-mid 1960s vintage, I thoroughly looked forward to watching this film. And it first, it was quite good. The opening scenes at the Daytona International Speedway, highlighted by the kind of horrific, fiery accident that was all-too-commonplace during that era are well done. So are the rest of the racing scenes, save for one rather ridiculous bit of action at Daytona later in the film.Unfortunately, once the characters get away from the track, the movie starts to go downhill. The dialogue is uncomfortable and often downright bad, and the whole soap opera plays out rather disappointingly. Like most racing films, it shows great promise, but winds up well off the pace. I rate it 4 out of 10 thanks to the great racing scenes and the performance of James Caan. The rest, unfortunately, is all very forgettable.
I saw this film several years ago. The racing footage is great. It starts out with the 1964 Daytona 500 and it was so neat to see the cars on the pace lap before starting the race, which in real life was rather dull unless you're a Richard Petty fan... The only problem is that the racing footage is far and away the strength. Most of the rest of it is garbage! The best part of the non-racing football is a young lady in a club singing a song about a racing driver, complete with the sound of a racing car at the beginning. To me, this movie was dull (between shots of the racing footage). One part I remember is one of the women, on top of a guy in bed saying "Tell me what a sexy woman is!" I find it rather odd that she doesn't know what one is... Like I said, the racing footage is good, but you can get films of races for that. Don't waste your time on this turkey. You have better things to do!
I have to agree with the comment about Ms Hire being a junior grade Paula Prentiss. I logged on to my account to write that Gail Hire (Holly) came across like Paula Prentiss, but it had already been noted. But, I also noticed that Marianna Hill (Gabby) seem like she was a substitute for Brigitte Bardot and Laura Devon (Julie) as Nancy Sinatra.I like the movie, even though it was full of clichés and all too typical of most racing movies. I like looking at the race footage. I remember many of the races and knew the full background of the races and accidents shown in the movie. I like the movie because it showed real production based race cars racing. The same makes and models my neighbors owned. If you like NASCAR this is a movie worth seeing. If you are looking for AFI top 100 films, this is not the movie for you.