In my part of Virginia NASCAR is as common as Peanut Butter in a grocery store. Everywhere you go, you are going to see it. It is either on cars, on shirts, on billboards, or anywhere else that your eyes may wonder. Most of the material still pays respect to the number "3" and the driver that will forever be missed. It pulls people to the track to see that number and thankfully everyone can profit off the commercial success of this driver's death. Sadly, ESPN also did this and the result was the ill-fated made-for-TV-movie, 3: The Dale Earnhardt Story starring the "I need work bad" actor, Berry Pepper. Literally racing through the life of this legend, this film boasts a simple 88 minutes and vaguely covers whatever it can to give rabid fans just a taste of this man's life. Instead of giving him the proper respect, ESPN uses clichés and over-bearing family moments that just scream "made-for-TV". With Pepper's accent fading in and out within races, you cannot help but laugh at this cheaply designed model created by director Russell Mulcahy.
So, what went wrong with this film? Since the word "everything" will not cover all of it, I will attempt to explain in some detail. I cannot stress this fact enough that if an actor looks like the person that you are trying to portray, it does not mean that he or she will do a good job (see the Charlize Theron theory). This goes for Barry Pepper, who just never really gave Earnhardt any personality. I felt like I was watching the story of one of those paper cutout dolls. Sure, his costumes and appearance would change, but nothing else would. His motions and emotions were forced and never really felt like I was watching the life of NASCAR's greatest, but instead seeing an actor do an impersonation of someone that he admires. Pepper would not have Executive Produced this film if he wasn't already an Earnhardt fan (or at least could see the $$ made from the death of a human). The same could be said about the rest of the actors in this film. The children felt and sounded like paper mache, never quite seeming that comfortable in front of the camera especially Dale Jr. I felt as if a gust of wind could have made him cry. In fact, all the performances in this film coupled with a gust of wind made me cry.
As I mentioned earlier, the timing on this film seemed very off. How can you successfully measure the power of a man in a short span of 88 minutes? There is just no way that you are going to be able to cover the depth and emotional excitement in this short time. So, the creative team behind this film chose to ignore these moments and extend the racing scenes. The outcome was literally horrible. There was no balance, there was no craft, there was nothing actually paying respect to this man. The story is where I could see the minds of the cash hungry people just getting bigger and bigger because they were going to do a story about a man life that millions would want to see. They would want to see it not because it was good, but because the Earnhardt name was solely attached to it. For a non-NASCAR fan like myself, this was kind of sad. How can you have the life of Howard Hughes pushing three hours, and NASCAR powerhouse Dale Earnhardt just 88 minutes? I guess you can over compensate by giving the viewers some extra features to the DVD, but for me that just didn't work. The story was sloppy and completely disgraced Earnhardt's name.
Overall, this proved to me that if you give a bunch of rednecks a camera, this is the quality of work that they will produce. This was one of the worst autobiographical stories that I have seen in a very long time, even for the likes of "made for TV" it was horrible. There was nothing redeemable in this story that I could go back to friends or family and say, "Well, this part was kinda neat". There was nothing of the sort here. I walked away from the film with less of an understanding about Earnhardt and his NASCAR business. Even if you are a huge NASCAR fan, I do not think you will see the value in this film. I especially love reading other reviews that say that this was a great film, but lacked some major elements to Dale's life. Isn't that like a double negative? Good film, but somehow you forgot to mention this? I think some are just too generous with this story. I am sad that he died, but this is not the way to pay respect to the man's life.
Grade: * out of *****
So, what went wrong with this film? Since the word "everything" will not cover all of it, I will attempt to explain in some detail. I cannot stress this fact enough that if an actor looks like the person that you are trying to portray, it does not mean that he or she will do a good job (see the Charlize Theron theory). This goes for Barry Pepper, who just never really gave Earnhardt any personality. I felt like I was watching the story of one of those paper cutout dolls. Sure, his costumes and appearance would change, but nothing else would. His motions and emotions were forced and never really felt like I was watching the life of NASCAR's greatest, but instead seeing an actor do an impersonation of someone that he admires. Pepper would not have Executive Produced this film if he wasn't already an Earnhardt fan (or at least could see the $$ made from the death of a human). The same could be said about the rest of the actors in this film. The children felt and sounded like paper mache, never quite seeming that comfortable in front of the camera especially Dale Jr. I felt as if a gust of wind could have made him cry. In fact, all the performances in this film coupled with a gust of wind made me cry.
As I mentioned earlier, the timing on this film seemed very off. How can you successfully measure the power of a man in a short span of 88 minutes? There is just no way that you are going to be able to cover the depth and emotional excitement in this short time. So, the creative team behind this film chose to ignore these moments and extend the racing scenes. The outcome was literally horrible. There was no balance, there was no craft, there was nothing actually paying respect to this man. The story is where I could see the minds of the cash hungry people just getting bigger and bigger because they were going to do a story about a man life that millions would want to see. They would want to see it not because it was good, but because the Earnhardt name was solely attached to it. For a non-NASCAR fan like myself, this was kind of sad. How can you have the life of Howard Hughes pushing three hours, and NASCAR powerhouse Dale Earnhardt just 88 minutes? I guess you can over compensate by giving the viewers some extra features to the DVD, but for me that just didn't work. The story was sloppy and completely disgraced Earnhardt's name.
Overall, this proved to me that if you give a bunch of rednecks a camera, this is the quality of work that they will produce. This was one of the worst autobiographical stories that I have seen in a very long time, even for the likes of "made for TV" it was horrible. There was nothing redeemable in this story that I could go back to friends or family and say, "Well, this part was kinda neat". There was nothing of the sort here. I walked away from the film with less of an understanding about Earnhardt and his NASCAR business. Even if you are a huge NASCAR fan, I do not think you will see the value in this film. I especially love reading other reviews that say that this was a great film, but lacked some major elements to Dale's life. Isn't that like a double negative? Good film, but somehow you forgot to mention this? I think some are just too generous with this story. I am sad that he died, but this is not the way to pay respect to the man's life.
Grade: * out of *****