very weak, unfortunately

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

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'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. 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, such as the treatment of Scott'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, such as those played by Pam Grier and Beau Bridges, don't get that much to do.Despite flaws such as those, the movie is worth a look. While uneven, it's never a slog to sit through. And though you can tell Scott's real story was in many ways a lot different than what this movie claims, as I said it does give you a good taste of some of what Scott went through.

The true autobiographical story of Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor), the first African-American race car driver in the 1960s, struggles through with a strange production that just never really feels right for some reason. This is meant to be a drama and Pryor just does not feel right playing an important part like this. Pryor's rival/friend Beau Bridges and Pryor's wife Pam Grier also seem out-of-place in this strained picture that seems to be suffering an identity crisis. A lot of rough drama mixes with ho-hum race sequences and waning attempts at romance and comedy that end up being more detrimental than beneficial to the overall cohesiveness and effectiveness of the film. Fair, but really no flair. 2.5 out of 5 stars.

This one has been a favorite of mine ever since I first watched it on cable in the late 70's. Richard Pryor is just perfect as Wendell Scott, the first black stock-car racing champion. The rest of the cast is great as well, all perfect in their roles. This is definitely a perfectly cast film!The film itself is very decent but does have a few problems, most notably that once Wendell starts racing there seems to be too many large gaps in time, as if a lot of footage that has been left on the cutting room floor. But the script does move along well even with that problem.I would think Pryor fans especially would pick this up on DVD if it ever got a proper release, in widescreen, some commentary, and with those obviously deleted scenes left behind. Hopefully this will be on DVD before some Hollywood clown remakes this with tons of computer effects crap and ruins the whole thing.

A little different sort of comedy for Pryor; not as raucous and vulgar. In fact, the last half was more of a drama than a comedy. Pretty much run of the mill biography of some racer I've never heard of; lots of fun car racing scenes - many of them the real thing. When the film ended I had to wonder if every southern racecar driver is a redneck racist idiot or if the picture overdid it just a tad.