Customer Reviews

3 - The Dale Earnhardt Story (2 Disc Collector's Edition)

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As a huge fan of "The Intimidator", I was very skeptical about how a TV movie would portray the greatest race car driver that ever lived. After viewing "3", I must say that I was impressed by the work. Being that this was a TV movie (And I'm not a big fan of TV movies.), it didn't surprise me that the director would tread very thin on the biographical history and not ruffle feathers any further about his love life, his relationship with his fellow drivers or other tracks. The portayal of Earnhardt by Barry Pepper was great. He captured his style and essence. However, I would have loved to see more about some of his rituals at the track. Maybe this is the first of many films that will try to give fans like myself and others who don't know him a feel of what he was like. This film has my blessing.

"3: The Dale Earnhardt Story" isn't going to win a lot of non-Nascar fans over to the sport, but as a biography, it is well-made, offers some believable insights on what made Earnhardt the often enigmatic person he was, and, in Barry Pepper, provides an eerily close approximation to the 'look' and 'feel' of the racing legend. Pepper will certainly receive an Emmy nomination for the role, and delivers such a powerful portrayal that you nearly forget how good the rest of the cast is.

While Elizabeth Mitchell is more glamorous than the real Teresa Earnhardt, she is quite solid and believable in the role; to truly appreciate how important Teresa's intelligence and business acumen were to Dale, it would have required a much longer movie, and might have seriously tilted the story away from Dale's other relationships, and the balance that Pepper and director Russell Mulcahy achieved.

Dale's early years come off best in the film, with a wonderful performance by J.K. Simmons as the inspirational Ralph Earnhardt. The grittiness and 'backwoods blue-collar' feel of Earnhardt's upbringing is well-conveyed, and reminiscent of "Coal Miner's Daughter" and "The River". The film loses a bit of steam when Dale begins racing, and as he achieves success, a lot of memorable moments had to be edited out, or telescoped down, which has disappointed some Earnhardt fans. Considering the time and budget constraints, however, I found the story to be remarkably accurate.

The young actors who portrayed Dale's children as adults should be singled out for recognition; race car driver/first-time actor Chad Mcumbee, while low-key, is pretty impressive as Dale Jr., conveying both a pride in his father, and frustration in being 'held back' so he could complete his education before being permitted to race; Corri English, while too cute, has an infectious smile and manner, and exhibits the Earnhardt joy of fast cars; best of all is newcomer Frank Glidden as oldest son Kerry, who, in a few brief scenes, offers a balanced, sensitive interpretation of the son Dale abandoned, finally winning his father's attention and respect, even as he sees Dale Jr. outshining him on the track. I look forward to seeing more of Glidden's work in future!

While there will certainly be a more detailed and polished feature film about Earnhardt in the future, this ESPN production is not without it's own merits, and provides an entertaining, dramatic overview of the racing legend's life.

I thought it was a great movie about Dale, have been a fan since the last year he won his 7th Championship. It touched a lot on what made Dale the man he really was, but the movie didn't show later racing footage until the last 1/2 hour to 3/4 of the show, a little disappointing. They could of made a 3-4 hour movie out of the life of Dale Earnhart, but none the less, it was a good movie. I will buy the movie to have but also am very interested in the 5 hours of interviews and racing footage.

The movie 3 was set up to be disappointing...A low budget ESPN film...A subject adored by millions....3 generations of memorable moments....and 92 minutes to tell the story. I wasn't an Earnhardt fan by any means, but you can't have heroes without villains. I AM however a lifelong NASCAR fan ( saw my first race in 1969) That being said, I wanted this movie to cover everything, I would've watched it if it was 4 hours long. The movie did open my eyes to alot of things. I never understood why Kerry Earnhardt seemed to be an outsider, now I know. The movie captures Dale Sr. adequately, but, Dale Earnhardt wasn't the "oh, he's okay" driver, you loved him or you hated him. period. And with ALL due respect, no film is ever going to satisfy ALL Earnhardt fans, he was a legend, a modern mythological figure, and given the circumstances, the producers did a good job. I wasn't an Earnhardt fan but, man do I miss him. If you loved the "Man In Black" it's no-brainer.....Get the DVD.

I just watched the movie on ESPN for the third time and I like it. What they (the writers, actors and director) got right they got exceptionally so. The accents for example, I'm a Southerner, Tennessee not North Carolina, but the accents are good. I especially thought that the actor playing Dale Junior did a great job capturing his speech patterns.

The racing was good, given the fact that it would have been prohibitively expensive to recreate ALL of it. The use of actual NASCAR/ESPN footage really added to it.

Now for what I didn't like. They made Earnhardt look sweaty and sickly for most of the movie, as though they were trying to suggest that death was haunting his every footstep. I didn't know Dale, I'm simply an ESPN-watching fan, but I never thought of him looking or BEING that way. He always looked like he'd live forever, like he knew something the rest of us didn't and that was his shield. In this movie he doesn't look that way.

Also I didn't like that Dale always seemed to be teaching his son a lesson, all the one-liners he heard from his dad. It got a bit predictable and limiting after the first couple.

What they did here, is to focus on the father and son relationships of all the Earnhardt men. That's what this movie is about, go into it knowing that and you won't be disappointed.

Go into it expecting to see EVERYTHING about Dale's life, the racing, the rivalries, the fame, the arrogant, cool, fun side of Dale, and you'll be disappointed.

I found myself thinking that this was pretty good for television but the full-length feature film that will be made some day will be better.

Will they ever MAKE a full length Hollywood movie about Dale? Who knows. Part of me wants them to and part of me doesn't. Not if they can't do any better than the God-awful "Days Of Thunder".

Leave it to a Jeff Gordon (or Tony Stewart) fan to write a sucky review without even seeing the movie this pertains to. He probably wouldn't understand it anyway. Hey idiot... stick to the Sesame Street coloring books and leave movies to the grown-ups.

I am not a big movie watcher but I was so thrilled when I heard a movie about Dale Sr was being made. I watched the movie today and loved it. What a fine job the actors did in portraying Dale Sr, Dale Jr. and Teresa. My favorite part was in the end when Teresa kissed him before the last race not knowing she would never kiss him again. I love the way they smiled at each other. They were so in love. Dale Sr. will always hold a very special place in my heart. I went to 4 stores and drove over 100 miles to buy the DVD and they were all sold out so I ordered my copy from target.com which is from amazon. I can not wait to watch the movie time and time again.

I thought the movie was great. I thought it really gave you an insight to Dale's passion for racing. No matter what it took, he was going to succeed and be the best race car driver. It really showed the relationship with his father and how it made him the man he was. Alot of people wondered why he had such a distant relationship with Kerry and the movie helped people to understand. Another review said it great, you can never truly be an intimidator if you dont know what that truly means. The movie showed you how Dale was intimidated by his father. I think it could have shown more of the personal side of Dale as far as the all the things he did for other people and the softer side. The movie did make him out to be a hard, kind of cold, person and to hear other people talk about him that really knew him, he was not that way. Overall I think a great effort by the entire cast. No movie will truly show us the real Dale, but I think it gave us a great insight to the man and the legend.

I watched the television debut on ESPN on 12-11-04. I just want to say what a tremendous job. They really pleased me with the ending...very tastful and tactful. Nascar fans know how Big E's life ended and I, for one, am glad they did not actually show it in the movie. Although it did seem to jump over some large time gaps but I guess it is hard to fit 50 years of life, 7 Winston Championships and the 1 Daytona 500 win into a 2 hour movie! All in all, I think Big E would be pleased. Barry Pepper had some "larger than life" shoes to fill and I think he did a very good job portraying the "Intimidator". We love you, Big E! My son was 6 at the time of his death and he just doesn't seem as into Nascar without the black #3 on the track and he really enjoyed the movie. We are Big E fans forever!

I was genuinely pleased with the quality and realism of the movie "3". Although a great man's life cannot be told in only a couple of hours, it can be well highlighted with good material and casting. Both Barry Pepper and the young man who played Dale Jr did a great job - time and again I could close my eyes and hear both Dale and Dale Jr. in their voices. I would recommend this film to anyone who wants to see, once more, a moment with The Intimidator.........