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From: emma@uw-june (Joe Pfeiffer)
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Heart Like a Wheel
Message-ID: <559@uw-june>
Date: Mon, 29-Aug-83 11:36:43 EDT
Article-I.D.: uw-june.559
Posted: Mon Aug 29 11:36:43 1983
Date-Received: Tue, 30-Aug-83 13:38:55 EDT
Organization: U. Washington, Computer Sci
Lines: 30

This is the biography of Shirley Muldowney, who is arguably the best top
fuel drag racer in the history of the sport.  The film is being given a
test release in the Seattle area, and may later be given national
release; I'm reviewing it so you can get it on your lists for when it
gets to you.

I was a bit nervous about seeing this one, having visions of "Norma Rae
Goes Racing" or something.  It is easy to see how a film like this can
become a Good Woman Overcomes Evil Stereotypes sort of film; I'm very
pleased to say this is not the case.  The film does a lot to explore a
person with a very single-minded pursuit of her goals -- a set of goals
that not many people in our society seem to understand.  Along the way,
she sacrifices her marriage and very nearly her life, but in view of
the character which has been established this is seen as inevitable.

Though very good, the film is not perfect.  It seems to emphasize her
success as a woman at the expense both of other women's success and her
success itself.  So far as you can tell from the film, she is the only
woman ever to drive a drag racer; people like Paula Murphy (who drove
for a Studebaker factory team in 1964 and was the first woman to hold
an NHRA top fule license) and Shirley Shahan (the Drag-On Lady, who was
the first woman to win a major NHRA elimination in 1965) were ignored.
About the only measure of Muldowney's success you get from the film is
that she has been Top Fuel points champion three times and is the only
person to get it more than once; you don't hear that she has made more
runs over 200 mph and more runs under 6 seconds than anyone in the
history of the sport.

I give it 4 stars out of 5.

-Joe P.