A film
review by Roger Ebert, June 27, 1990.
Days of Thunder is an entertaining example of what we
might as well call the Tom Cruise movie,
since it assembles most of the same elements that worked in Top Gun, The Color of Money and Cocktail and runs them through the
formula once again. Parts of the plot are beginning to wear out their welcome,
but the key ingredients are still effective. They include:
1. The Cruise Character, invariably a young
and naive but naturally talented kid who could be the best, if he could ever tame
his rambunctious spirit.
2. The Mentor, an older man who has done it
himself and has been there before and knows talent when he sees it, and who has
faith in the kid even when the kid screws up because his free spirit has gotten
the best of him.
3. The Superior Woman, usually older,
taller and more mature than the Cruise character, who functions as a Mentor for
his spirit, while the male Mentor supervises his craft.
4. The Craft, which the gifted young man must
master.
5. The Arena, in which the young man is
tested.
6. The Arcana, consisting of the
specialized knowledge and lore that the movie knows all about, and we get to
learn.
7. The Trail, a journey to visit the
principal places where the masters of the craft test one another.
8. The Proto-Enemy, the bad guy in the
opening reels of the movie, who provides the hero with an opponent to practice
on. At first the Cruise character and the Proto-Enemy dislike each other, but
eventually through a baptism of fire they learn to love one another.
9. The Eventual Enemy, a real bad guy who turns
up in the closing reels to provide the hero with a test of his skill, his
learning ability, his love, his craft and his knowledge of the Arena and the
Arcana.
The
archetypal Tom Cruise movie is Top Gun,
in which the young fighter pilot, a natural, was tutored by a once-great pilot
and emotionally nurtured by an older female flight instructor before testing
his wings against the hot dogs of his unit, in preparation for a final
showdown.
In The Color of Money, the young pool
player, a natural, was tutored by a once-great pool hustler and emotionally
nurtured by an older female who had been around the block a few times, in
preparation for a two-part showdown with (a) his hated opponent on the
professional pool circuit, and (b) his Mentor himself.
In Cocktail, the young bartender, a
natural, was tutored by an older bartender, before eventually meeting first an
older female who taught him a thing or two, and then a younger but still more mature
female who taught him how to forget them.
In Days of Thunder, all of these elements
are present in an entertainment of great skill but predictable construction.
The Craft is stock-car racing. The Mentor is played by Robert Duvall, as a veteran racing-team leader. The Superior Woman
is a physician (Nicole Kidman), who
is attracted to the raw energy of the hero but forces him to grow up by laying
down the line of responsible behavior. The Arena is the auto-racing track, and
the Arcana includes such lore as slipstreaming,
RPMs, tire temperature and whether to pass on the outside or the inside. The
Proto-Enemy is a driver named Rowdy (Michael
Rooker), who challenges the hero to racing duels, including one that winds
them both up in the hospital. The Eventual Enemy (Cary Elwes) is a driver named Wheeler who would like to run the
hero into the wall and kill him. And the Trail is the Southern stock-car
circuit, ending in the holy city of Daytona.
Days of Thunder was directed by Tony Scott, the same man who started this whole cycle by directing Top Gun, and the new movie shows the
same mastery of the photography of fast machines. The movie's handicap is that
auto racing is a boring sport visually unless you are standing close to the
cars or they are crashing into each other. The rest consists of long shots of
lots of anonymous cars dashing confusingly around the track, medium shots of
two cars trying to pass one another, and close-ups of drivers looking as if
they are experiencing a colonoscopy.
As Days of Thunder sees it, the principal
strategy in stock-car racing consists of trying to sideswipe your opponent and
push him into the wall, and Cruise's cars scrape the wall for easily half of
the time they are on the track. Most of this racing footage is loud and fast
enough to be exciting, however, and the off-track sequences are served by
Duvall's usual laconic, sensitive performance; Randy Quaid as a used-car dealer who has faith in the kid, and
Rooker as the perfect Proto-Enemy (he can look hateful and then turn it around
with a smile).
Kidman has
little to do as the love interest and doesn't make much of an impression. And
Cruise is so efficiently packaged in this product that he plays the same role
as a saint in a Mexican village's holy day procession: It's not what he does
that makes him so special; it's the way he manifests everybody's faith in him.
[Ebert’s rating: *** out of 4 stars]
Labels:
action, auto-racing, drama, Nicole Kidman, romance, sport
