Love the Beast

Eric Bana grew up near the airport in Melbourne. He and his mates were nowhere near the beach and grew up with a love of the muscle car. They decide to build their car and enter The Targa Tasmania Rally.

This also has Jay Leno and Dr. Phil put in their two cents worth. I don't mind Jay because he has a connection with cars. I can do without Dr. Phil and his psycho babble. Bana may think that it is significant but it is not dramatic. The movie isn't particularly dramatic. There's no suspense in the racing or the need to race. Bana doesn't do it for the money or even the prize. So the result is unimportant and I don't really care about any psychological needs. Being a hobby also diminishes the tension. This is a professionally made home movie.

Love the Beast attempts to capture and represent the intense enthusiasm that Bana feels for the challenges and collective memory inculcated in his 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupe. One of the central metaphors is that of a campfire. The car functions as a 'campfire' around which Bana and his lifelong schoolyard mates congregate.

The film explores the complexities of the relationship between Bana and his car through the various forms of action punctuating their dual biography. To provide an insight into these complexities Bana attempts to stitch together the multi-dimensional relationships that have formed over the years. I can picture it in my head a little like a schematic for a fun park ride, an influence from here, a tension over there, and the ways the social and socio-technical challenges posed by the car mobilise the enthusiasm of Bana and his mates in differentially repeated ways.

Bana faces the challenges inculcated in the car differently as a young bloke growing up (modifying the car, attending car shows, hanging out with his mates, etc) compared to the challenges manifest when a movie star/adult (going racing, getting the car built, etc). I would've liked to have seen more of this, more of a focus on his younger days. He rebuilt the car three times, I think the second one was just before the car appeared in a magazine and Bana raced at Targa Tasmania for the first time. More about this era would've been fantastic.

The film is not a cynical attempt to capture the enthusiasm of car enthusiasts by interpolating it into box office takings ala the Fast and the Furious franchise. The only other film I am aware that comes close to what Bana is attempting here is The World's Fastest Indian. TWFI also attempts to directly represent an intense enthusiasm, but does so in more of a narrative-based way. Indeed, TWFI is a fictional account of an actual set of events. Bana's film is 'real life'; although framed in certain ways.

Bana lays out the multi-dimensional character of his enthusiasm by using traditional documentary techniques and almost unbelievably blessed with old video (and maybe even super-8) footage of when he was a kid, teenager and young man with his car. Although the film does follow a rough dramatic arc leading up to his race at the Targa Tasmania, this is used more as a kind of dramatic infrastructure around which to organise the micro-narratives provide by his somewhat charismatic ('knockabout') mates, his mother and father, other racers, and the celebrity interventions of the other above-title luminaries.

I was not really convinced how much the 'celebrities' add to the film, but I guess I would have seen this film without them; therefore, they are not for me. I attended a media screening of the film in Sydney and from what I could deduce I was the only gearhead there (I am a writer for Street Fords magazine in Australia). The bourgeois cinephile beside me snorted a suppressed giggle at whatever came out of Jeremy Clarkson's mouth; Clarkson is entertaining in a boorish sort of way. Dr Phil surprised me a little bit. I always dismissed him out of hand for being a popularist TV equivalent of a parlour trick. However, here Bana brings out his best, and Dr Phil almost (but not quite) comes across as compelling.

Similarly, Bana designed the film to be watched by an international audience and the opening scenes about "what most people around the world think of Australia" were interesting for locating Bana in the context of his background. The international audience will get such references as Mad Max, the celebrity talking heads, and so on.

The editing is mostly superb with a fine use of montage to play on the rhythm of expectation (everyone knows what is going to happen to Bana's car at the end), building up the tension and then relieving it. The camera work here is a cross between race car event coverage with documentary footage, with a few long, gliding shots of cars moving during the race; a bit like surfing cinematography or skateboarding in the way the camera attempts to implicate itself in the action.

Overall, the film is entertaining, intriguing and funny, and definitely a credit to Bana. Go see it.

As a petrol head or gear head myself, I find this movie extremely easy to relate to and understand. The dedication and connection he has with his car is understandable to me, and the dream he had since his childhood is one that most petrol heads can find common ground in. "Fate, luck and circumstance" took him away from his passion, but his passion for cars, specifically his Falcon are something so many can comprehend.

This movie shows the trials, tribulations, and hardships that come with having a car addiction. I've been brought to tears watching a car drive away and felt the emptiness when something happens to the car. Cars are an extension of our personalities, they're than an analog or digital machine, they become a part of us and a part of our lives.

This movie is one of the first that has shown the automotive scene in such a positive light through dedication. It allows people a glimpse at the choices and the desires we have as car nuts, and gives them a grasp for what makes our wheels turn.

This movie is a must-see for anyone that loves cars.

I just saw this today 1/3/10 and loved each and every second of it.

It seems that Mr. Bana and I have similar tastes in our love of cars. His a Falcon (what we in the U.S. looks to be a Ford Torino) and mine a Dodge Charger. We both love our cars in a way that is hard to understand by someone who is not a serious gear head.

The documentary shows a love of cars by Mr. Bana and his friends growing up that had the same appreciation of the automobile

Seeing this film makes me appreciate my love of muscle cars that much better.

The documentary contains an insightful cameo by TV host, Jay Leno. An annoying one by BBC Top Gear's Jeremy Clarkson and something in-between by Dr. Phil McGraw.

You Don't often see the word LOVE in the TITLE of a DOCUMENTARY! Well... The EXCEPTION PROVES THE RULE!!!

BUT FIRST... Let us FOCUS on the Title´s Content and Context:

My wife and I caught this at the 2008 Orlando Film Festival. Overall, I'm glad we did. GENRES Listed here for LOVE The BEAST are: Documentary; Sports Documentaries; Car Culture; Motorsports...among others! They should have added: Eric Bana!

The three major draws here are....

A) CAR Culture-If you're REALLY into cars, you'll probably LOVE it!

As one would tend to gather from the title, The BEAST is an extremely intense labor of love. When you come right down to it, this film is more love story than it is Documentary!.

B) RACING- Over half this "DOC" is full-bore, super-charged racing in the 5-day, grueling annual race in Tasmania!.

There are some excellent CRASH sequences, taken with on-board cameras; and, of course....

C) ERIC BANA--I think he is the primary reason my wife seemed to enjoy this a tad more than I did!

Despite the fact that neither of us have more than a tepid interest in any of the A) B) or C) options, we were surprised at how much we BOTH enjoyed The BEAST. Watching someone on-screen share a single-mindedness of purpose that is the result of a lifelong passion/obsession, is virally infectious! It is certainly something you almost never encounter in the workaday world!

So overwhelming and intimidating are Bana's energy, focus and "try, try, try again" determination, that it gives me pause to re-evaluate his movie acting career and queue more of the films in which he appears! Please note that Eric Bana also Directs and is listed as one of the Producers.

So, LOVE the BEAST is a classic example of putting your money where your MUFFLER is! Ooops! Wait a minute...600+ Horsepower Muscle Car Race Cars don't have mufflers, now do they?!?!

ENJOY! / DISFRUTELA!

My Rating: 6.5* My Wife's: 7*******

Any Comments, Questions or Observations... In ENGLISH... o en ESPAÑOL... are Most Welcome!!!