This film is said to be minor, but the opposite is true. It is absolutely masterly how Hawks tells his story and paints an archetypal portrait of the U.S.A. in the sixties. The racetracks with the cars circling in endless rounds symbolize the circle of life: the drivers who die in a car crash are replaced by new drivers who get also in accidents, the girlfriends of the drivers are left by them just to find a new driver to cling to. The drivers look alike, the girls are all alike, nobody is sticking out. Everything in this world is superficial and on the outside. The brands are everywhere in the movie: Ford, Pepsi, Holiday Inn. The dialogs get to the point fast, there is not a word too much. It is an extreme economy of storytelling. The camera by Milton Krasner is fantastic. Howard Hawks loved car races, he drove races himself, even constructed a car. He absolutely knew what he was talking about.
Review of Red Line 7000
