Days of Thunder

Zerkfitting said:
I consider Gran Prix one of the best racing movies. The sound is from the real cars on the real tracks of the day. When the movie came out is was shown in a special theater with three screens, the movie was produced for that format (that was back in the 1960s way before Imax). James Garner went to the Bondurant race school to train for the movie, Bondurant said he could be a driver if he wanted to.
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Garner was a driver..had his own race team for awhile later in his life. He and Mcqueen used to hang out and race motorcycles under assumed names.
 
StandOnIt said:
I kinda feel sorry for those who thought Days of Thunder with "Top Gun" Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman was going to be a serious movie about racing. If a person wants to see a serious racing move that hollywood didn't get their hands on, watch LeMans. That was Steve Mcqueen's labor of love filmed in the golden era of racing. He even laid on the inside of a corner with a camera to catch a Porsche 917 cornering at speed and could have easily been killed if something had gone wrong. Easily one of the top five racing films. The plot pretty much sucks, but the racing scenes can't be beat. It is a film for the hard core racing film fan IMO.
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The camera car for the movie was the race car MaQueen had co-driven to 2nd place in the 12 hours of Sebring, at LeMans it completed 282 laps (2300 miles) and finished in 9th place but it wasn't classified because it didn't complete the minimum distance because they had to stop to change film reels.
 
Another move I liked was the first CARS movie. Somebody did their research. They featured the Hudson that back in the day for a short time was the car to have in Nascar because of it's lower center of gravity. The V8's came along and out powered it. The movie had something for the old school fan with the old racetrack scene, and sponsor names, a bit of romance, and had many stars of Nascar involved in the picture and of course plenty for the kids to enjoy. Tractor tipping, that was funny.
 
Zerkfitting said:
The camera car for the movie was the race car MaQueen had co-driven to 2nd place in the 12 hours of Sebring, at LeMans it completed 282 laps (2300 miles) and finished in 9th place but it wasn't classified because it didn't complete the minimum distance because they had to stop to change film reels.
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Newman another star who was a heck of a driver did "winning" and Hollywood destroyed it, almost nothing but romance drama and the racing was a distant second. The did have a bit of car porn, done back in the same era of the golden age of unlimited racing.
 
I forgot all about Days of Thunder...might have to watch that with my 3 boys tonight. LOL....they will love it.
 
McQueen did a good motorcycle move in the early 70's called "On Any Sunday" lots of era bikes of the day in a documentary style.
 
Funny enough, I want to say that DOT is what got into NASCAR or it came out just after I started getting into NASCAR when I was kid, anyways, one of may favorite movies , even if its not 100% accurate.
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
"Wheeler knocked me into Gant! Gant spun out!” Green car is Gant, then Brett Bodine, then Gant, then Bodine...
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One of the best quotes in the whole movie (can be used to explain any wreck irl or online).
 
Dr_B_UNC said:
I could ignore the “Hollywood” nature of Days of Thunder if it were well put together, but the continuity and editing were so atrocious. Cars changed in shot to shot within 30 second spans. That and the dirty faces and constant shifting gears...

“Wheeler knocked me into Gant! Gant spun out!” Green car is Gant, then Brett Bodine, then Gant, then Bodine...
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Funny, I noticed that also when I watched it last week. Had to go back and replay that scene to verify what I thought I saw. Guess that does qualify as poor editing.
 
DIDIT said:
Geesh...you probably didn't like Six Pack either...:D

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Six Pack wasn't a great movie, but it never made any pretenses to be one either. It was basically a vehicle to cash in on the star power of Kenny Rogers at the time,( The kiddies probably don't understand just how big of star he was in the late 70's and early 80's.) and honestly the racing action isn't any worse than DoT. As I have said, my gripe about Days, is that it really COULD have been great, and they just blew it. Big name production team, big name star. tons of money spent, got the right people involved, went to a LOT of trouble to do it, and then laid an egg like that. If Bruckheimer would have had any sense, he would have found SOMEBODY involved in NASCAR to give him an HONEST assessment of the scrip, and then the product as the filming unfolded, not just blow smoke up his ass. Days is a classic example of what an outsider IMAGINES NASCAR to be, not what it is, and the idea that over the top action trumps substance.in ALL cases. AND, the continuity sucks. The on track stuff is really no better done than Stroker Ace was, ANOTHER movie that could have been pretty good with a little tighter scrip and better casting instead of "Let's hire all of Burt's pals, and then let's hire Loni Anderson to be a total airhead". I mean, how can you take Jim Neighbors seriously as a NASCAR crew chief?
 
Formerjackman said:
Six Pack wasn't a great movie, but it never made any pretenses to be one either. It was basically a vehicle to cash in on the star power of Kenny Rogers at the time,( The kiddies probably don't understand just how big of star he was in the late 70's and early 80's.) and honestly the racing action isn't any worse than DoT. As I have said, my gripe about Days, is that it really COULD have been great, and they just blew it. Big name production team, big name star. tons of money spent, got the right people involved, went to a LOT of trouble to do it, and then laid an egg like that. If Bruckheimer would have had any sense, he would have found SOMEBODY involved in NASCAR to give him an HONEST assessment of the scrip, and then the product as the filming unfolded, not just blow smoke up his ass. Days is a classic example of what an outsider IMAGINES NASCAR to be, not what it is, and the idea that over the top action trumps substance.in ALL cases. AND, the continuity sucks. The on track stuff is really no better done than Stroker Ace was, ANOTHER movie that could have been pretty good with a little tighter scrip and better casting instead of "Let's hire all of Burt's pals, and then let's hire Loni Anderson to be a total airhead". I mean, how can you take Jim Neighbors seriously as a NASCAR crew chief?
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waiting for you to tell us how Smokey and the Bandit blew it.
 
StandOnIt said:
waiting for you to tell us how Smokey and the Bandit blew it.
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Smokey and the Bandit is the greatest movie of that genre ever done. Smokey knows what it is and what it isn't and pulls it off beautifully. It's everything the second movie wasn't. After Smokey I, it seems to me that both Burt and Hal decided that film making was just about goofing off in front of the cameras with your pals, and the hell with what the final product actually looked like. Everything Needham did after Smokey was pretty much a dumpster fire,and it took Burt YEARS to regain some respect in Hollywood. I believe he even said once that Stroker Ace killed his career. It took doing Evening Shade and Boogie Nights of all things before people would take him halfway seriously again.
 
I have always liked DOT - despite the goofy racing stuff (like down-shifting to pass at Daytona).

There are some classic lines in that movie that I still say today.
 
Formerjackman said:
Six Pack wasn't a great movie, but it never made any pretenses to be one either. It was basically a vehicle to cash in on the star power of Kenny Rogers at the time,( The kiddies probably don't understand just how big of star he was in the late 70's and early 80's.) and honestly the racing action isn't any worse than DoT. As I have said, my gripe about Days, is that it really COULD have been great, and they just blew it. Big name production team, big name star. tons of money spent, got the right people involved, went to a LOT of trouble to do it, and then laid an egg like that. If Bruckheimer would have had any sense, he would have found SOMEBODY involved in NASCAR to give him an HONEST assessment of the scrip, and then the product as the filming unfolded, not just blow smoke up his ass. Days is a classic example of what an outsider IMAGINES NASCAR to be, not what it is, and the idea that over the top action trumps substance.in ALL cases. AND, the continuity sucks. The on track stuff is really no better done than Stroker Ace was, ANOTHER movie that could have been pretty good with a little tighter scrip and better casting instead of "Let's hire all of Burt's pals, and then let's hire Loni Anderson to be a total airhead". I mean, how can you take Jim Neighbors seriously as a NASCAR crew chief?
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You really expected to take Stroker Ace seriously? Its a comedy and it was very funny.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I consider Gran Prix one of the best racing movies. The sound is from the real cars on the real tracks of the day. When the movie came out is was shown in a special theater with three screens, the movie was produced for that format (that was back in the 1960s way before Imax). James Garner went to the Bondurant race school to train for the movie, Bondurant said he could be a driver if he wanted to.
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Grand Prix is my favorite racing movie, even if it is a bit long. I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched the opening sequence of that movie.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
They're all fun for what they were..... movies simply to entertain the masses. Not documentaries. They all seemed to do their job for one person or another. Heck, even Talladega Night's had an audience.
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That movie is hilarious!
 
Spotter22 said:
You really expected to take Stroker Ace seriously? Its a comedy and it was very funny.
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Just because a movie is a comedy doesn't mean it can't be well done and cast properly. If they had waited until Jerry reed was available (He was making the dumpster fire known as Smokey and The Bandit III) it would have been a LOT better, And if they had let Loni be a little more Jennifer Marlowe and a lot less Pembrook Feeney, they could have had something. The concept of the movie wasn't bad, just the execution.
 
Formerjackman said:
Just because a movie is a comedy doesn't mean it can't be well done and cast properly. If they had waited until Jerry reed was available (He was making the dumpster fire known as Smokey and The Bandit III) it would have been a LOT better, And if they had let Loni be a little more Jennifer Marlowe and a lot less Pembrook Feeney, they could have had something. The concept of the movie wasn't bad, just the execution.
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Yes sir Mr Cody
 
Formerjackman said:
If they had waited until Jerry reed was available (He was making the dumpster fire known as Smokey and The Bandit III)
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LOL, that damn movie. What an embarrassment.

I love the first one. LOVE it. The second one is kind of weak, yet tolerable. But the third one, man, it's AWFUL. And that's being nice. As much as I loved Jerry Reed, he couldn't make that movie watchable. Nobody could.
 
2 Sweet said:
LOL, that damn movie. What an embarrassment.

I love the first one. LOVE it. The second one is kind of weak, yet tolerable. But the third one, man, it's AWFUL. And that's being nice. As much as I loved Jerry Reed, he couldn't make that movie watchable. Nobody could.
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The cargo went from 400 cases of Coors to an elephant to a plastic fish, that pretty much sums up the decline of the Smokey and the Bandit franchise.
 
StandOnIt said:
I kinda feel sorry for those who thought Days of Thunder with "Top Gun" Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman was going to be a serious movie about racing. If a person wants to see a serious racing move that hollywood didn't get their hands on, watch LeMans. That was Steve Mcqueen's labor of love filmed in the golden era of racing. He even laid on the inside of a corner with a camera to catch a Porsche 917 cornering at speed and could have easily been killed if something had gone wrong. Easily one of the top five racing films. The plot pretty much sucks, but the racing scenes can't be beat. It is a film for the hard core racing film fan IMO.

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great post.
 
superchuck500 said:
I have always liked DOT - despite the goofy racing stuff (like down-shifting to pass at Daytona).

There are some classic lines in that movie that I still say today.
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downshifting to pass at 'tona. YUP. thats pretty holly-wooded up.
 
"Days of Thunder" was a mash-up of popular myths and stories about racers, mostly NASCAR but not all. Of course Hollywood used its poetic license on those stories... some of them a lot. Rick Hendrick supplied the cars so that's why he is (sort-of) profiled as the hero car owner and City Chevrolet is the sponsor for some races.

They filmed most of those scenes that include real Cup cars with their actual drivers at slow speeds and of course they were choreographed. They did try to inject some real racing - they actually legitimately qualified cars in three races, driven by Greg Sacks and Bobby Hamilton. Hamilton drove well in a movie car at Phoenix - qualified 5th and lead some laps, but his engine blew. They mounted cannons over the left rear tires of some cars in order to get them to flip for the cameras... some of those cars with cannons were not used so they still exist - Mark Martin had one in his Corvette museum that he used to have in Daytona.

Days of Thunder has some scenes that are kind-of embarrassing when people who don't know racing see the movie and think they're true. But overall it is entertaining and did generate some interest in NASCAR among people who hadn't paid attention to it before. The movie "Six Pack" was more embarrassing... I had some guys in my neighborhood ask me which Winston Cup car I drove (which of course I didn't) because they saw me with my rag-tag team of neighborhood kids that I was letting race my karts at the time.
 
"I'm dropping the hammer!" (shifts into 4th gear and floors it). Were you going 130MPH in 3rd gear around Charlotte? Any schmoe from the Richard Petty Experience can go faster.

These are the types of commentary me and my boys provide when watching Days of Thunder. We love this movie but it has nothing to do with NASCAR.

Watch one of the motors going in or out on an engine lift in this movie and you'll notice it's an Automatic.

I need to watch it again tonight, I'm in the mood.
 
It's been on at least one of the Showtime channels every night this week
 
I don't think you can complete a pass on the outside when scrapping the wall - Carl Edwards tried that once.
 
Okay, I confess. I've never seen this movie. I've seen about 60 to 90 seconds in clips over the years, but that's about it.

There. I feel better now that I have that off my chest. Maybe in 2020 I can find the courage to confess I've never seen 'Talladega Nights' either.
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Okay, I confess. I've never seen this movie. I've seen about 60 to 90 seconds in clips over the years, but that's about it.

There. I feel better now that I have that off my chest. Maybe in 2020 I can find the courage to confess I've never seen 'Talladega Nights' either.
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I actually saw the final two thirds of Talladega Nights for the first time a few months ago. Pretty much as laugh free as I had imagined it would be.
 
I was at the Talledega race when the DOT started shotgun on the field, don’t recall it being a factor that day.
 
Formerjackman said:
I actually saw the final two thirds of Talladega Nights for the first time a few months ago. Pretty much as laugh free as I had imagined it would be.
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It doesn't help that I'm not a fan of

a) Will Ferrell
b) movies rooted in the toleration of complete idiot characters

which are pretty much the same thing, I guess.
 
Zerkfitting said:
I was checking the Roku channel last night and came across Days of thunder and decided to watch it.

When I saw Days of Thunder in a theater and I didn't like it, it exploited the worst examples of race car driving I had ever seen. It occurred to me later that I had seen most of the scenes in the movie over my years watching NASCAR, I just wasn’t used to seeing them all in 100 minutes. One of the scenes I hadn’t seen before was Trickle wrecking the race winner but I think the Kenseth/Lagano incident qualifies. One of my favorite scenes was the Ford-Chevy rental car episode.

It was fun seeing the cars from that era again. I remember watching the races they were filming, the announcers explained there were movie cars running in the race. I assume they had to be illegal cars to ensure they were able to run up front. It was a good story. I also had to remind myself that it isn’t a documentary. Many elements were based on real world occurrences (or stories).

Check out the real world homage section in Wikipeadia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_Thunder
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Your opening paragraph is why I cant stand the movie

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
 
Zerkfitting said:
I was checking the Roku channel last night and came across Days of thunder and decided to watch it.

When I saw Days of Thunder in a theater and I didn't like it, it exploited the worst examples of race car driving I had ever seen. It occurred to me later that I had seen most of the scenes in the movie over my years watching NASCAR, I just wasn’t used to seeing them all in 100 minutes. One of the scenes I hadn’t seen before was Trickle wrecking the race winner but I think the Kenseth/Lagano incident qualifies. One of my favorite scenes was the Ford-Chevy rental car episode.

It was fun seeing the cars from that era again. I remember watching the races they were filming, the announcers explained there were movie cars running in the race. I assume they had to be illegal cars to ensure they were able to run up front. It was a good story.
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They did that again at a later point in time. It was a TV movie for Fox I think called Chariots of Fire which was a much much worse movie than Days of Thunder. The two movie cars were Lake Speed in the Melling #9 sponsored by ACE, and Greg Sacks in the Hardee's #20. I think it was both drivers' last full-time ride.

I do like the real life homage in the movie. It always struck me as neat too that Bobby Hamilton was out there making races actually with what was a movie car. It captured racing better than the other modern-day example that made it to the big screen and tried to be serious: Driven. Admittedly not saying much. Talladega Nights is more Stroker Ace of course.
 
StandOnIt said:
I kinda feel sorry for those who thought Days of Thunder with "Top Gun" Tom Cruise and Nichole Kidman was going to be a serious movie about racing. If a person wants to see a serious racing move that hollywood didn't get their hands on, watch LeMans. That was Steve Mcqueen's labor of love filmed in the golden era of racing. He even laid on the inside of a corner with a camera to catch a Porsche 917 cornering at speed and could have easily been killed if something had gone wrong. Easily one of the top five racing films. The plot pretty much sucks, but the racing scenes can't be beat. It is a film for the hard core racing film fan IMO.

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Used to have Le Mans on DVD until I got robbed some years ago, but it's like you said a labor of love of McQueen's. However, the movie loses some from being viewed today versus being viewed back in the '70s. Back in the '70s, there was no in-car cameras, so the cinematography was out of this world awesome. There's views in that movie that we see a dozen times per race now and we lose the wow factor that audiences back then had. Grand Prix and Winning are on my to-watch list.
 
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