The
Fast and the Furious, directed by Rob Cohen, aspires
to be a cult film about drag racing. Dominic Toretto (played
by Vin Diesel), the top drag racer in Los Angeles, is suspected
of hijacking long-haul trucks. FBI officer Brian O’Connor
(played by Paul Walker) goes underground to infiltrate the
drag racing community. (Indeed, Walker clearly resembles the
young David Hasslehoff in the 1980s television series Knight
Rider.) He orders tuna sandwiches from Mia Toretto
(played by Jordana Brewster) at a hangout for drag racers,
hoping to meet Dom. One day, Vince (played by Matt Schulze)
starts a fistfight with Brian at the sandwich shop for invading
his home turf, but soon Dom, Mia’s big brother, intervenes
to stop the battle. Brian then challenges Dom for a midnight
street race; although Brian’s car conks out and he loses,
he has made a friend of Dom, and the two meet together regularly
in preparation for a forthcoming drag race at a raceway park,
with a $10,000 prize. Before the race, Dom again tries to
hijack a truck, but the driver is prepared with heavy-duty
firepower. Brian, who has befriended Dom’s girl Letty (played
by Michelle Rodriguez), learns from her about the attempted
hijacking, senses that the trucker will be armed and dangerous,
and rushes to the scene of the hijacking to rescue one of
Dom’s best friends. Brian then calls for an FBI helicopter
to rescue Dom’s friend in the nick of time, presumably a happy
ending. There are plenty of stunts to encourage a teenage
audience to repeat the feat on the streets of Los Angeles.
There is a lot of loud music, which sometimes drowns out the
inconsequential dialog. To idolize drag racing for teenagers,
attractive females adorn the screen whenever drag racing cars
line up for action. The multiethnic cast hints that anglos
prevail over nonanglos, though Hispanics are fully accepted
into the anglo-dominated drag racing community. An African
American drag racer is defeated in the first race of the film,
and blacks are less visible thereafter. Johnny Tran (played
by Rick Yune), the leader of a Vietnamese gang, engages in
excessive violence to settle scores but dies after showing
some muscle. In short, the film is racist and sexist while
glorifying lawbreaking and violence, a surefire formula to
cash in on the amorality of the X Generation. MH
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