The Fast and the Furious (2001)

Its Audience Will Get What It Wants

I'll tell you right now that I don't belong to the audience that this was meant for. Thus, for me to say that I had a fairly good time watching The Fast and the Furious could be considered a big compliment. I know little about the street-racing scene other than what my friend tells me about it. She belongs to this movie's audience. She saw the movie with me and thought it was great. So there you have it. Real praise from someone the movie was aiming for.

The action and the thrill of the street-racing scene is what this movie is all about. There is a Hollywood plot in there, though, about a gang of mysterious racers who hijack big rigs and their cargo as they drive their route on the southern California freeways. Paul Walker stars as Brian Spindler, a young man who wishes to get in on the racing scene and may end up finding out first-hand who is behind the crimes. He finds out that one of the kings of the well-organized and illegal racing circuits is Dominic "Dom" Toretto (Vin Diesel, buff, tough, and born for this role). Brian brings in his own souped-up vehicle to race Dom in order to gain what's most important to him: respect. Brian would also like to get to know Dom's sister, Mia (Jordana Brewster), a little better.

The film can be regarded from two angles: from the street-racing perspective and the plot perspective. Guess which one matters more? The plot, which involves cops and crime, is mainly there to give the main characters, Brian and Dom, some kind of conflict and fodder for their motives. It throws in the trust and loyalty issues for the usual bit of drama. The real meat of the movie, though, is in the racing scenes.

It's not only the racing itself, done with skillful camera work, that is impressive. It's also the atmosphere it re-creates. I can think of many movies that attempt to duplicate the world of legal racing (stock cars, formula, etc.), but I don't believe any recent movie in memory gives the current phenomenon of the illegal racing world a good look. For the most part, the scenes do that world justice. The cars look great. The crowds are huge. The girls are hot. And, perhaps most welcome, the ethnic diversity is gratifying. This is an underworld where everybody's children are susceptible to sneaking off and being a part of, whether they are black, white, Latino, or Asian. I really liked the look of the people used in the crowds for these particular scenes. I felt like saw a real view of southern California in those scenes, one that I was more familiar with, one which you could take a cross-section of and see every ethnicity under the moonlight. The racing itself was shot with care and the requisite magic-of-the-movies, with scenes that actually follow the fuel through the fuel-line (this reminded me of the "bone-crushing cam" in Romeo Must Die: effective for its context, yet kind of amusing). Speed, power, and danger are conveyed successfully in these sequences, and that's when the movie is at its best.

The movie really lives for its action sequences, which not only includes the races but also several adrenaline-filled car chases. These were effective and fun to get into. It's easier to have issues with certain story ingredients. There's the matter of the overly-slick machine-gun-toting Asian bad guys, led by Johnny Tran (Rick Yune). They're a bit over-the-top, and quite frankly I don't see why Asian goons always have to be depicted as motorcycle-riding bad-asses who otherwise come from rich families with nice homes. Oh well. I guess that stereotype can be thrown in with the others, including the already numerous unflattering depictions of black and Mexican "gangstas." I also personally didn't like how the movie's entire ending sequence was written. It seemed convenient yet sloppy, but is redeemed by one last great action scene in which the outcome is refreshingly unpredictable.

When all is said and done, though, what matters is that the ending does feature more car chasing (I hope nobody considers that a spoiler). Hot cars and the thrill of street-racing is what its audience came to see. The film does its job, providing excitement and atmosphere. It does what it sets out to do, and it's put together competently. Not a lecture or a commentary on the dangers of this activity, The Fast and the Furious comes from where its audience comes from, and its audience should be able to appreciate it fully.

Rating: 7/10

©Jeffrey Chen,

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