Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story

As documentary film makers, Adam Carola and Nate Adams have hit all the marks to allow me to give them five stars out of five for their look at Willy T. Ribbs, the first black man to quality and race in the "greatest spectacle in racing", the Indianapolis 500. This is quality film making that tells the little known story of the Jackie Robinson of auto racing, Willy T. Ribbs. The high production values present some of the best film of car racing to go along with many interviews of the people involved in the sport, "Uppity..." is highly recommended for historians of both sport and car racing. Viewed and playing on Netflix.

Really enjoyed this Doc! If you like any form of racing you will love this. Never knew much about Willy T but glad I do now. Thank you Adam Carroll's for this!

Pretty good motor sport doco. I'm a NZer and don't know much about US motorsport, so it was interesting to see historical Nascar, Trans Am, Atlantic Championship, IMSA and Indie car racing and more.

All in all enjoyable, but you do start to get a strong sense that Willy T had a big ego and enjoyed boasting, something people rarely find endearing regardless of skin colour. While there was doubtless racism going on, you get the sense that the race card is being played too often to explain this or that problem. There's always two sides to the story and this, for better or worse, is definitely a one sided story by a proud racer. It would have been interesting to hear the full story from those that stood accused.

One thing that stood out is the supposed intentional crashing of Willy T by Pruett in IMSA. The footage looked like Pruett had the inside line and Willy T turned in on him. The camera angle didn't do Willy T any favours for his side of the story. To hear that Willy T then hit the guy while he sat inside a car next to a woman just wasn't cool, but Willy T is portrayed as the victim in all of it.

To recap, decently interesting for people into racing. However critical watchers will note that this is definitely a very one sided story.

This is Carolla's best documentary so far. Great pacing, suspense and a very charismatic protagonist. He was very pleased with this on his podcast, but rightly so.

Production: Very good production. Edited well for the amount of information it gives, at times too much information. Also, very smooth transitions, easy to follow story. 9/10.

On Screen: The passion and rawness of Willy T. Ribbs makes this documentary. Also, the other people, professional drivers and experts, give context to the story of Willy T. Ribbs. At times, some of the information given wasn't necessary to the main story. For example, it shows the articles and stories about Bill Cosby's criminal charges which is redundant and took away from Willy T Ribbs's story. Lastly if you don't know the language of auto racing or cars, then at times, you can get lost because of how technical they get. 8/10.

Content/Impact: Willy T Ribbs's story is a phenomenal story about the first black man to drive the Indianapolis 500. His resolve and the racism that he overcomes, is an inspiration for black people, and POC, who experience racism, that we can overcome and still be great. 10/10.

Overall: Excellent story about an extraordinary black man who excelled in his profession, faced adversity, and despite racism, succeeded. Stories like this needs to be told more often. Overall I'll give it a 9/10.