646f9e108c The true life story of Wendell Scott, the first black stock car racing driver to win an upper tier NASCAR race. This is the true story of Wendell Scott, America&#39;s first African American NASCAR driver, once he returns from WWII to find his hometown the way he left it. With seed money for a taxicab business, he learns all the county roads. With his new knowledge an opportunity presents itself with some steep consequences. After an invitation to the local race track, a race car driver is born. The ethnic boundaries are a part of everyday life in 1950&#39;s Amercan life. You become part of his fight for equality, fairness and the American dream. I knew nothing about the real life race car driver Wendell Scott before watching this film, so I was really interested to see what this movie would teach me about him. After watching it, I have to say the movie is very uneven. On the positive side, the movie does give the audience a good taste of the various struggles Scott must have gone through with his ambition to be the first black race car driver - we see racism both casual and more intense. As Scott, Richard Pryor does at first seem a little uneasy in a role that&#39;s more serious and less comic than usual, but he eventually finds his groove and for the rest of the movie delivers a pretty good performance, from showing joy to showing frustration. <br/><br/>On the other hand, the movie sometimes seems aimed at a more yahoo crowd than one that would more appreciate a dead serious examination of the legend, suchthe treatment of Scott&#39;s time in the moonshine trade (plenty of yuk yuk comedy and car chases.) The screenplay also awkwardly and suddenly jumps ahead in time a number of years a few times, which leads to some unanswered questions. Supporting characters, suchthose played by Pam Grier and Beau Bridges, don&#39;t get that much to do.<br/><br/>Despite flaws suchthose, the movie is worth a look. While uneven, it&#39;s never a slog to sit through. And though you can tell Scott&#39;s real story was in many ways a lot different than what this movie claims,I said it does give you a good taste of some of what Scott went through. This movie showed the life of one mans adversity in a sport that he loved but not always loved him back. I had the great pleasure of meeting Wendell Scott at a car show in the 80&#39;s. He was a very kind hearted man that loved to meet and greet people. I have this movie on tape so that I can show my son when he grows up. It is a great story that every man of any race should see.
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