Download Free Love The Beast

I saw an advance screening for this yesterday (8/3/09) and
surprisingly, I throughly enjoyed it. Eric Bana has constructed an
entertaining and enjoyable look at his personal love affair with his
first car (a 1974 Ford GT Falcon Coupe), the first car he ever bought
as a teenager. The documentary extends beyond just any old "Car Flick",
to focus on why we all have our obsessions and hobbies and the roles
they play in our lives. You don't have to be a rev head to enjoy this
and thats the point, as an interesting study of obsession and an
insight to the private life of one of Australias best loved actors,
this is definitely worth a look..

good one...keep the job up.

Love the Beast attempts to capture and represent the intense enthusiasm
that Bana feels for the challenges and collective memory inculcated in
his 1974 XB Ford Falcon coupe. One of the central metaphors is that of
a campfire. The car functions as a 'campfire' around which Bana and his
lifelong schoolyard mates congregate.

The film explores the complexities of the relationship between Bana and
his car through the various forms of action punctuating their dual
biography. To provide an insight into these complexities Bana attempts
to stitch together the multi-dimensional relationships that have formed
over the years. I can picture it in my head a little like a schematic
for a fun park ride, an influence from here, a tension over there, and
the ways the social and socio-technical challenges posed by the car
mobilise the enthusiasm of Bana and his mates in differentially
repeated ways.

Bana faces the challenges inculcated in the car differently as a young
bloke growing up (modifying the car, attending car shows, hanging out
with his mates, etc) compared to the challenges manifest when a movie
star/adult (going racing, getting the car built, etc). I would've liked
to have seen more of this, more of a focus on his younger days. He
rebuilt the car three times, I think the second one was just before the
car appeared in a magazine and Bana raced at Targa Tasmania for the
first time. More about this era would've been fantastic.

The film is not a cynical attempt to capture the enthusiasm of car
enthusiasts by interpolating it into box office takings ala the Fast
and the Furious franchise. The only other film I am aware that comes
close to what Bana is attempting here is The World's Fastest Indian.
TWFI also attempts to directly represent an intense enthusiasm, but
does so in more of a narrative-based way. Indeed, TWFI is a fictional
account of an actual set of events. Bana's film is 'real life';
although framed in certain ways.

Bana lays out the multi-dimensional character of his enthusiasm by
using traditional documentary techniques and almost unbelievably
blessed with old video (and maybe even super-8) footage of when he was
a kid, teenager and young man with his car. Although the film does
follow a rough dramatic arc leading up to his race at the Targa
Tasmania, this is used more as a kind of dramatic infrastructure around
which to organise the micro-narratives provide by his somewhat
charismatic ('knockabout') mates, his mother and father, other racers,
and the celebrity interventions of the other above-title luminaries.

I was not really convinced how much the 'celebrities' add to the film,
but I guess I would have seen this film without them; therefore, they
are not for me. I attended a media screening of the film in Sydney and
from what I could deduce I was the only gearhead there (I am a writer
for Street Fords magazine in Australia). The bourgeois cinephile beside
me snorted a suppressed giggle at whatever came out of Jeremy
Clarkson's mouth; Clarkson is entertaining in a boorish sort of way. Dr
Phil surprised me a little bit. I always dismissed him out of hand for
being a popularist TV equivalent of a parlour trick. However, here Bana
brings out his best, and Dr Phil almost (but not quite) comes across as
compelling.

Similarly, Bana designed the film to be watched by an international
audience and the opening scenes about "what most people around the
world think of Australia" were interesting for locating Bana in the
context of his background. The international audience will get such
references as Mad Max, the celebrity talking heads, and so on.

The editing is mostly superb with a fine use of montage to play on the
rhythm of expectation (everyone knows what is going to happen to Bana's
car at the end), building up the tension and then relieving it. The
camera work here is a cross between race car event coverage with
documentary footage, with a few long, gliding shots of cars moving
during the race; a bit like surfing cinematography or skateboarding in
the way the camera attempts to implicate itself in the action.

Overall, the film is entertaining, intriguing and funny, and definitely
a credit to Bana. Go see it..