{"id":69,"date":"2006-03-10T18:56:55","date_gmt":"2006-03-11T01:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69"},"modified":"2021-01-29T14:18:43","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T21:18:43","slug":"last-american-hero-thehard-driver-1973","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69","title":{"rendered":"Last American Hero, The \/ Hard Driver (1973)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>&#8220;Hey, the race you saw was one by a car that was bought, torn apart, re-built and driven by <em>me<\/em>!&#8221; <\/strong><\/p>\n<table>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Poster.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Poster-198x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"198\" height=\"300\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-22387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Poster-198x300.jpg 198w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Poster-84x128.jpg 84w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Poster.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 198px) 100vw, 198px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis:<\/strong><br \/>\nJunior Jackson (Jeff Bridges) learns how to ride fast and hard while delivering moonshine on southern backroads.  Soon he&#8217;s winning NASCAR races and rising to the top of his field.   <\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td>\n<p><strong>Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Biopics<\/li>\n<li>Car Racing<\/li>\n<li>Gary Busey Films<\/li>\n<li>Jeff Bridges Films<\/li>\n<li>Ned Beatty Films<\/li>\n<li>Sports<\/li>\n<li>Underdogs<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Response to Peary&#8217;s Review:<\/strong><br \/>\nAs Peary notes, this enjoyable little sleeper &#8212; based on a series of articles by Tom Wolfe &#8212; is a fairly standard (albeit factually inaccurate) biopic with an admirably &#8220;strong, natural performance&#8221; by Jeff Bridges. Director Lamont Johnson &#8220;has a feel for [the] racing milieu,&#8221; and there&#8217;s some genuinely exciting footage from actual NASCAR races which adds to the overall realism of the film. Unfortunately, however, &#8220;the material isn&#8217;t unusual enough to be really interesting.&#8221; <\/p>\n<p><strong>Redeeming Qualities:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Jeff Bridges as Junior Jackson<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-1024x507.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"317\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-47048\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-1024x507.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-300x148.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-128x63.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-768x380.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2-1536x760.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Bridges2.png 1699w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<li>Gary Busey as Jackson&#8217;s brother<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-1024x500.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"313\" class=\"alignnone size-large wp-image-47049\" srcset=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-1024x500.png 1024w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-300x146.png 300w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-128x62.png 128w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-768x375.png 768w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey-1536x750.png 1536w, https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/03\/Last-American-Hero-Busey.png 1707w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Must See?  <\/strong><br \/>\nNo, but it&#8217;s worth watching just to see Bridges&#8217; performance.  <\/p>\n<p><strong>Links:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/imdb.com\/title\/tt0070287\/\">IMDb entry<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.dvdtalk.com\/dvdsavant\/s1909last.html\">DVD Savant Review<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;Hey, the race you saw was one by a car that was bought, torn apart, re-built and driven by me!&#8221; Synopsis: Junior Jackson (Jeff Bridges) learns how to ride fast and hard while delivering moonshine on southern backroads. Soon he&#8217;s winning NASCAR races and rising to the top of his field. Genres, Themes, Actors, and Directors: Biopics Car Racing Gary Busey Films Jeff Bridges Films Ned Beatty Films Sports Underdogs Response to Peary&#8217;s Review: As Peary notes, this enjoyable little&#8230;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"><a class=\"btn btn-default\" href=\"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/?p=69\"> Read More<span class=\"screen-reader-text\">  Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-69","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-responses-to-peary"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":66791,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69\/revisions\/66791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/filmfanatic.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}