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Film Review - Running on Empty |
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Wednesday, 01 June 2005 |
Running On Empty
A Film Review by Hugh Savage
Running on Empty (1982)
Also known as: Wild Wheels (1982), Fast Lane Fever (1982) (USA Video title)
Director: John Clark (III)
Producer: Pom Oliver
Production Company: Film Corporation of Western Australia
Writer: Barry Tomblin
Genre: Drama / Action
Runtime: 7,744ft or 83 min
Country: Australia
Language: English
Format: 35mm / VHS Colour
Distributor: Tru Value Entertainment / Roadshow
Censorship: M
Cast (in credits order) Terry Serio .... Mike
Deborah Conway .... Julie
Max Cullen .... Rebel
Richard Moir .... Fox
Running On Empty, released in 1982, focuses on Mike who is a typical
young Aussie car nut of the 1980's. The young lady he lusts after,
unfortunately for him, is the girlfriend of Fox, the El-Supremo of the
illegal street-racing scene and because of this, Fox pressures Mike to
put up a large bet and race against him three times. Mike loses the
first race only to find out later that his dream girl, Julie, boasted
to Fox telling him Mike’s best standing quarter mile time. Low on cash,
Mike, Julie, who now has feelings only for Mike, and Mike's mechanic
mate Tony, take a road trip to the outback to raise stake money in
country street-racing matches. The money will get Mike’s car running
faster times so he can take out Fox in the next race. During their
country adventure they meet an old Rebel, the blind racer from the
1950's, who helps Mike and becomes his mentor.
The first race is won but the good old boys want their money back with
interest, bushwhacking the trio and wrecking the GT. Mike retaliates
and, with his Falcon doing a great Christine impression, makes the
local yokels regret their actions.
The star of the show doesn’t drive the best car, that is his obvious
mistake, and he chooses to defend his honour in Henry’s finest, a
Falcon GT. The bad guy has the Hero car, go figure? The hero car is a
Black 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T with a yellow lightning bolt emblazoned
on its shapely flanks.
One thing I need to say here is that the title, Running on Empty, must
be a reference to the story line, or perhaps the creativity and vision
of the writers, because Running on Empty has little going for it from a
plot or story standpoint. It does have some very cool cars and some
explosive, if a little amateurish, automotive action.
The characters are two dimensional; the plot is predictable and
disjointed. Often you don’t know what is happening in a scene until its
end.
Clearly, and happily, the prime objective of this flick is to drool
over muscle cars. Unfortunately, even if we class it as a 'rev-head'
film, it doesn't seem to quite make the grade. With only a handful of
cool cars featured and only three of them are on the screen for any
decent amount of time. Personally I thought the cinematography covering
the cars was fairly average but I guess that’s because of all the great
Hollywood big budget car movies of today. There seems, that in filming,
there was too much focus on close-ups of the crowds watching the race
rather than of the cars themselves.
When Mike's car is wrecked they walk around in the outback and find a
handful of car bodies almost the same model as his and most seem just
about rust free. A little unlikely but hey, it’s fiction.
You will notice that the 'bad guys', members of Fox’s gang, only ever
seem to be punished by members of their own gang. None of Mike's
friends ever gets to apply a little payback. One observation though,
that merits some depth from the film, is that while racing, when Mike
is losing, he puts on Rebels sunglasses and suddenly starts winning. I
guess attitude does make the difference.
The costumes, props and locations are very Australian and very
‘eighties’. Big hair-do, brightly coloured costumes and a lot of the
1950's influences present. Some of the old racers lines are reminiscent
of ‘Rebel without a Cause’ and one of the main cars featured is a 1957
Chevy, signifying the days when illegal street racing was at its peak.
Mike is supposed to be the rough steel worker. He dresses in black as a
symbol of his hard attitude and 'cool' appearance, however his
character is far too soft for the part. He is a little too
well-mannered and moral to carry this role off. You have to wonder how
much he really understands the street-racing scene. He didn’t even know
what a 'chicken run' was when it had to be explained to him by the old
Rebel.
Mikes tormentor Fox is a really bad character. He also dresses in black
and he never smiles. He doesn’t care about anyone else for a second. He
is a typical ring leader and pulls it off well. Love the overstated
1980's costuming and the synthesized 'evil' music in the background.
Julie is Mike's love interest; the voyeuristic female along for the
ride. The only time she seems to have any dimension as a credible
character is during an argument with him about just that; she is just
along to sleep with and look pretty. It is worth noting that their
entire reconciliation lasts just two lines. Mike acknowledges her black
eye saying - "did I do that?” Her response - "we did it". Then right
into hugging and romantic music, just the way it should be. Could this
have happened worse? Not likely, but this is a car film!
Tony is portrayed as the 'wog boy' with thick greasy black hair, strong
accent and pants with suspenders. Even with this stereotype Tony
probably has more to him than most of the other characters. He loves
cars from the start but later tells Mike he’s thinking of leaving the
car scene for good once the race with Fox is won.
There are two cops as comic relief in the film. They are slow in both
action and intelligence. The only clever thing they do, and the only
time you take them seriously, is when they hound Fox for answers so
they can get a lead on the final race.
The final race sees the reborn GT destroyed when it runs, at speed,
under a tractor trailer Big Rig. With Fox granting a days extension
Mike hitches back to Rebels and borrows the 57 Chevy. There are some
driving lessons with Rebel; guess Ford guys need lessons to handle a
General, and then it’s off to the city to race the beautiful black
beast.
Fox runs against the supercharged 57 Chevy and, after what is probably
the best race footage in this film, wins the day with Fox hitting the
wall at high speed destroying the RT in a blazing ball of fire.
A classic line "it's not the speed that hurts but the stop at the end."
sums up the films goals; "It's about hot cars, hot chicks and hot
times."
This film, because of car lovers in Australia, is becoming renowned as a classic example of the Australian Car / Road movie.
Hugh Savage
Authors Notes-: The pictures above are from a Web Link- http://www.chargerclubofwa.asn.au/Articles/runempt.htm
The following is copied from this link but I do not know if the information is correct or not-:
Pictures: Stewart Gray
Remember that classic Australian cult movie "Running On Empty" and that
awesome black Challenger that the villain ‘Fox’ drove. Well after all
these years of wondering what happened to it, it has finally surfaced
in Brisbane.
Stewart Gray was lucky enough to stumble upon this car and have his
digital camera at the ready, and sent us these great pictures of this
classic machine. He saw it at Harrington Automotive in Redcliffe having
some work done to it.
From these pictures it appears that the only thing that has changed since the movie is a smaller hood scoop.
The car was also seen for sale in the August 1999 issue of Unique Cars
where it was advertised as being a matching numbers 1970 Challenger R/T
with a 440 six pack and auto.
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