TTAC At The Movies: "Six Pack"

Okay, I admit it: I got the idea to buy and watch the Kenny Rogers NASCAR classic “Six Pack” from reading Delicious Tacos. (Link, and site, NSFW.) But even if I hadn’t found out about the movie’s existence that way, at some point it would have come across my radar screen. This flick has everything: Kenny Rogers, Dale Earnhardt, Ricky Rudd, the squared-off ’81 Thunderbird, a sixteen-year-old Diane Lane. Did I mention Kenny Rogers?

The funny thing is this: it’s not a terrible movie at all.

To begin with, the Kenny Rogers we get in this movie is the most iconic Kenny Rogers of all: the early-forties, white-haired crooner who sang “The Gambler” and made country music acceptable for the East Coast easy-listening crowd. (The theme song, “Love Will Turn You Around”, is probably one of the finest examples of the cheerful-romance pop-country genre, ever.) He’s tough but lovable, equally at home throwing a fellow racer over the hood of a stock car or fighting back a yawn as he searches the streets for a runaway girl. You can argue that America in 1981 was almost equally divided between the people who saw Alan Alda as the perfect male role model and the people who saw Kenny Rogers as the perfect male role model. And if you want to have a solid understanding of how society has changed with regards to age and aging, consider this: Kenny Rogers in “Six Pack” was just three years old than Paul Walker in “Fast and Furious 6”.

By modern standards, this is also far from the kind of squeaky-clean, politically-correct film that most people would expect. There’s a disturbing amount of focus on Diane Lane’s sexuality, from the bouncing-breast shots in pit lane to a scene where she goes into another racer’s trailer to distract him so the “Six Pack” can steal some parts from his car. Another one of the kids is remarkably foul-mouthed, as seen in this tribute video below (language NSFW):

You really couldn’t get away with that now, but it’s interesting to note the difference between “Six Pack” and “Bad Words”, a Jason Bateman film that’s debuting in theaters. In the former, the kid swears and the adult corrects his behavior; in the latter, the adults swear mercilessly and the child is reduced to a sort of bewildered silence. We’re no longer a society where every adult feels some sort of responsibility for every child in the vicinity, nor are we a society where children can be trusted with random adults. There’s also the typical Seventies/Eighties distrust of authority in this film; the cops are the bad guys and the community of racers deliberately excludes law enforcement.

This notion — of racing as an insular world, a sort of traveling circus — is as old as Hollywood and as new as the aforementioned Fast&Furious films. Wherever the stock car racers go, there’s a party at the bar and the pretty girls all know who the drivers are. Even after two years spent retired from racing (we never find out why) the girls are still waiting with open arms for Kenny, er, Brewster. When Ford comes calling to take our hero to the big-time of Grand National racing, the other drivers come along as well somehow. It’s the promise of joining that world in one form or another, I think, that drives a lot of people into so-called “car culture”. Remember what Brian O’Connor’s boss tells him in the original F&F? There’s all kinds of family. This is, largely, a movie about a driver rejoining his true family even as he creates a new one away from the track.

Alright, that’s enough for the analysis; let’s talk cars. There’s plenty of actual circle-track and NASCAR racing in this film, with a thankfully minimal reliance on fake-looking in-car shots. Stock footage of a Winston Cup race is used, and the film clearly had plenty of help from Ford and NASCAR, right down to the appearance of the Petty #43 near our protagonist’s vehicle on the starting grid. Dale Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd feature prominently in the final race; some viewers will no doubt be confused to see Mr. Rudd in the “3 car”.

The small-oval and dirt-track footage was shot specifically for “Six Pack” and it’s just plain enjoyable to see the Late Models of the era go sideways to the checkered flag. There’s relatively little “movie racing”, in the sense that nobody ever goes worst-to-first or makes impossible moves. A subplot dealing with a cracked head is handled with reasonable accuracy. Last but certainly not least, there’s a rather amazing back-roads chase featuring a box truck and a motorhome dragging a race car. If you’ve ever wanted to see someone drift with a trailer attached, this is the movie for you.

As race movies go, this is considerably better than stuff like “Days Of Thunder” or “Driven”. It’s recommended for any fans of Kenny Rogers, oval racing, or Diane Lane. Two thumbs up. And remember: Love will turn you around.