The Fast and the Furious: A Eulogy
There was a brief period of time - between 2001 and 2006 - when car fans could turn to the silver screen and enjoy a fun, if hyperbolic, look at the culture that surrounded their beloved automobiles. The film 'The Fast and the Furious' kicked off a trilogy of flicks that centred themselves around street racing, import tuning, muscle machines, and even took us overseas to Tokyo where the sport compact scene began. Ridiculous dialogue and sketchy plots aside, there was no escaping the passion for cars that was at the core of each of the franchise's first three entries.
My, how that has hanged. 'Fast & Furious 6' debuted this past weekend, and while yes, there was plenty of exotic metal being piloted by beautiful people at speeds that would most likely overload any local yokel's radar gun, they were but window dressing on yet another heist film to compliment the two previous bullet-driven entries that preceded it. You see, somewhere around the end of the last decade the powers that be at Universal decided that car culture didn't sell movie tickets - it was explosions that put butts in the seats. As a result, the fourth, fifth, and sixth 'Fast and Furious' films became ultra-violent, almost-parodies of the 80's action flicks that defined the genre, with cars relegated to a secondary role and street racing making a brief cameo as a courtesy to the franchise's early faithful.
In some ways, Universal was right. The Fast and the Furious films have enjoyed much higher grosses since being homogenized for the action crowd. As absolutely ridiculous as the sixth instalment of the series might have been, with the suspension of disbelief required even to swallow star Paul Walker's attempts at emoting, it's also worth nothing that this is the only truly ethnically diverse blockbuster franchise in Hollywood, a fact supported by its strong international box office performance.
As a film about cars, however, and the people who love them? Not anymore, and not for a long time. 'Fast & Furious 6' is over-the-top bubble gum where cars are merely props for the next unbelievable action set piece. Leave your turbo Honda Civic and Yenko Camaro at home - those days are gone, and sorely missed.
