Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor) returns home from WWII. He marries Mary Jones (Pam Grier) and starts a taxi service. Eager for action, he joins Peewee (Cleavon Little) on moonshine runs with the excuse of needing money to buy a garage. They outwit and outpace the bumbling police under Sheriff Cotton (Vincent Gardenia). When he finally gets caught, the local race track owner forces him to race to get out of jail. He becomes popular with the black crowds as the first black racer. Hutch (Beau Bridges) is first a rival driver, then a friendly competitor, and finally his mechanic in NASCAR.

This is a biopic loosely based on his life. I remember something about the race he won but was denied at first. Otherwise, I have nothing to say about the accuracy. There are characters that feel a little stereotypical. Bridges is trying too hard. I like Pryor's performance for the most part but he can never be not Pryor. The racing action is fine but it's not the most thrilling. This is compelling history and it has a great actor stretching his skills.

I was going to rate this movie a 5/10 or lower based upon the start. It was so absurd.

Wendell Scott (Richard Pryor) was a moonshiner steadily running from the law. He was so good he would always get away from the local sheriff in Danville, Virginia. He was able to parlay his moonshining into NASCAR racing.

That's not the absurd part. What was absurd was that the police knew who he was, knew he was running liquor, yet, for whatever reason, they had to catch him in the act to arrest him. If they couldn't catch him in his car with the booze then they would have to let him go. It was like watching Dukes of Hazard.

But, because the way the movie wrapped up and, more importantly, because Wendell Scott was a real person--I couldn't give it a bad rating in good faith. Pryor, however ill-suited for the role, represented a real black man that really won in NASCAR in the 60's. That's powerful. So, even if the movie was overly dramatized, I have to respect them bringing Wendell Scott to the public.

I had never heard of Wendell Scott before I saw this film. This isn't surprising considering I am not a NASCAR fan nor was Scott all that successful a race car driver. But, he was the first black driver-- and he began racing in an era of extreme overt racism, and for that reason the film clearly deserved to be made...though it does seem to paint a false image of the man when it came to winning races. He was good but he just didn't win very often.

The casting in this movie is odd. After all, Richard Pryor plays Scott and this isn't a comedy. And, Pam Grier plays Scott's wife-- and this isn't an action or exploitation film. But regardless, the acting is fine, the story reasonably interesting and it's a nice little homage to the Jackie Robinson of NASCAR. Worth seeing but not the best or most exciting black American film of the era.

By the way, since the film was made in the 1970s and is about (mostly) the 1950s, you'll hear a ton of politically incorrect language. I appreciate that, as racism is ugly and I don't want to see it sanitized in the least!