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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
After spending many a night/early morning in the shopping center parking lot on Brookhurst & Orangethorpe or down at Termainal Island all I can say is it should make for an interesting, action packed movie.
I remember one night when Bob Brandt (Don Prudhomme's crew chief in the '70's) came in with his blown chevy engined Datsun 240Z and........
You'll have to see the movie ;DThere are very few people in this world who's opinion I value, you are not one of them.
300 in 1999
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
I caught the last gasps of racing real cars down that way in the late 80's and early 90's. Sunday nights would see people getting together in North Orange County, around Beach/Imperial and often heading down to race in Buena Park near the old Nabisco building or farther down the 5 near Studebaker road.
I saw Big Willie a time or two when they briefly got the legalized action going at Terminal Island, but I remember the surface being horrible there. There was a street in Carson too on a certain night of the week, Apple Valley Airport, and of course Ontario on saturday nights, which was my main thing. It's been a long time.Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
It's about freakin' time!
Regardless of any controversy over the legitimacy of street racing, the story of Big Willie and the Brotherhood of Street Racers should be told.
It's more than just about a story about an organized group of racers (or as some of the law enforcement and NHRA bents might say, "criminals") attempting to create a modicum of order and relative safety out of chaos. It's also a story about how a big man and his group helped bridge the ethnic, cultural and social divides that were litterally ripping society apart in the late 1960s.
The journey from the Watts riots to Brotherhood's strip at Terminal Island and then (sadly) back to the streets is epic and profoundly American. In many ways, it parallels the rise and fall of the blue collar American muscle car and the muscle car culture. It also illustrates many of the headwinds that racers (both legal and illegal) have been battling from the inception of grassroots drag racing.
Although there's a risk that Hollywood could make this into another ridiculous cinematic abortion, such as the "Fast and Furious" series, I hold out hope that they will tell this as a genuine, true-to-life story, warts and all.
I just hope they resist the temptations to generate false spectacle, to excessively romanticize it, or to turn this story into some sort of morality play. But telling an honest and accurate racing story is hardly a Hollywood hallmark (see "Days of Thunder," "Heart Like a Wheel")Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
nothing good can come of this..
hollywood will kill it..Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
Maybe. But Hollywood didn't kill "Le Mans," "Apollo 13," or "The Right Stuff," so we can hold out a little hope, can't we?Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
I would much rather see a really well done hour long documentary than a well funded major studio film on the man and the topic of street racing. The suits won't try to re-invent the wheel with the documentary.Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
Maybe Ken Burns could do a documentary on the history of hot rod racing. (That's be a great use of the NHRA/SIM archives) Of course, that film would likely short Big Willie and the Brotherhood of Street Racers because they're only a smaller part of a larger So Cal cultural movement.
If I was doing the Big Willie film, I'd probably start in black and white or septia-tone with a Model T speedster street race from back when the Valley was just orange groves. I'd add a Martin Scorsese-style voice over talking about how street racing dates back to the earliest days of the auto, etc. Then I'd quickly montage through the early years of lakes/organized drag racing in order to set up Big Willie and the Brotherhood as a countercultural counterpoint to "organized" drag racing. Next, I'd cut to some early formative experience of Big Willie's (in color) that would be the "hook" from which his interest in hot rodding and "organized" street racing would flow.
Not exactly a documentary, but then "Goodfellas" was a great film even if it wasn't completely historical about the mafia.
Another way to go would be as in "Casino" -- pick out some dramatic, pivotal moment from the middle of Big Willie's life (hopefully one that involved a gritty racing scene as in the opening of "Two-Lane Blacktop" but which sets up the conflict between the establishment and the protagonist) and then shoot the rest of the film around that "hinge."
But what's likely to occur is a cheap, scholcky "Carsploitation" film, shot for big, mindless stunts, gratutious "T&A," and mind-numbingly made to the lowest common denominator. That's because few in the "business" probably believe that a "high concept" hot rod/racing movie would make enough money.
Okay, it's getting tougher to stay optimistic . . . .Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
I'm just praying it's something more than a cameo in Fast And Furious 5.BS'er formally known as Rebeldryver
Resident Instigator
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
did everyone know that Supercar Collectibles is making 3 of Big Willies Daytonas in 1:18 scale diecast? you can find them at www.supercar1.com. from what i've seen of the prepro samples they look great.Comment
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Re: Big Willie Robinson is coming to the Big Screen
wasnt there already a documentary made about this? called 1320: a west coast story or something liek that?Comment
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