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This Month's Featured Equipment Reviews |
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Past DVD Hardware / Software News |
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3 - The Dale Earnhardt Story (2-Disc Collector's Edition) |
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DVD Sports
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Written by Mel Odom
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Tuesday, 14 December 2004 |
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title:
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3 - The Dale Earnhardt Story (2 Disc Collector's Edition) |
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studio:
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Buena Vista Home Entertainment |
| MPAA rating: |
TV-14 |
| starring: |
Barry Pepper, J. K. Simmons, Elizabeth Mitchell |
| theatrical
release year: |
n/a |
| DVD release year: |
2004 |
| film rating: |
Four Stars |
| sound/picture rating: |
Three Stars |
| reviewed by: |
Mel Odom |
Dale Earnhardt is an American hero. He was the racer who wouldn’t quit,
who wouldn’t accept losing and who intimidated every other driver on
the track. No matter what place he was in during a race, his sole
objective was to get in front of the guy ahead of him. In the ESPN
Original movie “3,” Earnhardt’s successes and failures – on the track
and off – are played out in homage to the man who became a legend.
Chapter 1 begins appropriately enough with the deep growling basso of
race car engines rounding a dirt track and the crowd cheering them on.
The surround sound system picks up the droning engines passing by from
left to right. The mix of car sounds as the camera view moves in and
out of the vehicles is awesome, really catching the feel of what it’s
like. In short order, viewers are introduced to young Dale Earnhardt’s
world as he watches his father Ralph rack up another win.
Ralph is presented very much as the typical family man of that era:
tough and quiet. Even though he just won $300, Ralph is still going to
be behind on his bills, and that scramble for money is a constant theme
that plays through Dale Earnhardt’s younger years. Another thing that
shows up in Chapter 1 is the presence of a great soundtrack. Country
music kicks in during the scene cuts and montages, and the surround
sound system really takes the experience up another notch.
Teenage Dale shows up in Chapter 2 and the effort he makes to win his
father’s approval comes forward. Saying that Ralph imparts to Dale crop
up all throughout the movie, first when Ralph tells them to Dale, then
when Dale tells them to other people and to Dale Jr. The relationship
between father and son is reflective of the time. But in these scenes,
the viewer understands the differences between Ralph and Dale, that the
father is a perfectionist with a plan, and the son is a dreamer with
burning desire.
Engine noises blast Chapter 3 into motion and we see Dale trading paint
with other racers on a dirt track. He makes the comment that the best
racers in the world are the moonshine runners in North Carolina. The
viewers are also treated to a view of what the cotton towel mill is
like, and why neither Ralph nor Dale wanted to work there.
Unfortunately, Dale can’t make enough money at the mill. Despite this,
he makes the decision to quit his job and race full time, which puts
enough pressure on his marriage to end it. Later, Dale also makes the
decision to let his ex-wife and her new husband adopt his son Kerry
because they can do more for the boy than he can.
Dale gets into a fight with his father over this decision and Ralph
gets totally frustrated. Dale tells him they’re going to be racing
against each other. During the race, Ralph pushes Dale into third place
to make sure he’s in the money, which ticks off other drivers. Then, at
the end of this chapter, Ralph dies, leaving Dale with no opportunity
to prove to his father that he has what it takes to be a race car
driver.
In Chapter 4, Dale has remarried and has two children by his second
wife. Unfortunately, he seems doomed to repeat the same mistakes. No
matter how hard things get financially, Dale won’t give up his dreams
of racing. He borrows money to race when his family is barely getting
by. He even works over Christmas instead of being with them to keep
them financially afloat. He promises his wife that he’ll place in every
race because third place will feed them and fourth place won’t. In a
tire-squealing, metal-ripping race, Dale comes in third, then gets
chased away by a gun-toting driver he forced off the track. After
running through the woods, Dale makes his way to the street and is
picked up by Neil Bonnet, who becomes Dale’s lifelong friend. Dale asks
Neil how he feels about the way Dale drives. Neil tells Dale that they
aren’t out there to make friends. The dialogue between the two men is
real and possesses real humor. Unfortunately, Dale’s win comes too late
and his second wife leaves him.
Chapter 5 opens with bumping and scraping impacts that echo through the
surround sound system and light up the subwoofer. Tire squeals shriek
through the system. Again in this chapter, the soundtrack cranks up a
notch, delivering vintage Lynyrd Skynyrd riffs that rock the house. The
story moves on through Dale Earnhardt’s life rapidly, showing how he
met his third wife Teresa and started stepping into bigger and bigger
successes, though not without paying his dues. It builds on the rivalry
between Earnhardt and Waldrip as well as the NASCAR mythos.
“3” is destined to become a cable phenomenon, a movie that seems to
constantly play somewhere, sometime, on some channel, although the
movie doesn’t pry deeply into Earnhardt’s life and doesn’t really go
beyond the image that the racing world already knows. The people that
really knew him probably have millions of stories to tell about things
that Earnhardt did, of experiences he told others about or that they
saw him go through.
The bonus materials really shine, though. The features and interviews
deliver a deeper, richer story than the movie provides. Or, perhaps,
after becoming familiar with the overall arcs of Earnhardt’s life,
revisiting the material with a biographer’s view somehow brings an
immediacy and poignancy. Barry Pepper does an excellent job portraying
Earnhardt, but listening to the real Earnhardt talk, even his spots on
the ESPN shows, makes the viewer realize that this man lived for
everything he did. It wasn’t just a fluke, and it wasn’t just because
he wasn’t talented it or skilled enough to do anything else. Dale
Earnhardt could have done something else, but at his essence he was a
race car driver.
“3” is a good evening’s investment for the racecar enthusiast, although
he or she won’t pick up anything really new from the movie. Still,
having a wealth of Earnhardt materials on hand in one convenient
two-disc package is well worth the cost. Furthermore, the movie is good
entertainment for someone who wants a quiet evening at home with a peek
inside the world of NASCAR and the men who drive it. Dale Earnhardt was
a hero to millions, a solid, driven man who laid it on the finish line
every time he climbed in his car to race. And he is going to be a
legend for generations to come.
| more details |
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sound format:
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Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound; French and Spanish Subtitles |
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aspect ratio(s):
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Widescreen 1.78:1 |
| special features: |
Exclusive
Interview With Dale Earnhardt; An Inside Look At The Legend;
Spectacular Racing Footage From Dale’s Best Races on ESPN; The Making
Of “3” Featurette; Documentary On The Life and Legacy Of Dale
Earnhardt; Extended Interviews With Dale Earnhardt And Others; Guest
Appearances in “ESPN’s Two-Minute Drill” and “ESPN Ultimate Outdoors
With Wayne Pearson”; Closed Captioned |
| comments: |
email us here... |
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| reference system |
| DVD player: |
Pioneer DV-C302D |
| receiver: |
RCA RT2280 |
| main speakers: |
RCA RT2280 |
| center speaker: |
RCA RT2280 |
| rear speakers: |
RCA RT2280 |
| subwoofer: |
RCA RT2280 |
| monitor: |
42-inch Toshiba |
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