Gran Turismo (#458)


At two different times in my checkered career, I have been heavily involved with car racing. The first time was when I handled the Bahama account for a major public relations firm.  I inherited two weeks of sports car racing there, which featured legendary names like Sterling Moss, Phil Hill, Caroll Shelby and A.J. Foyt.  The second time was when I was vice president of corporate communications for STP and one of my responsibilities was their racing program.  They were sponsors of the leading driver on the NASCAR circuit, “King” Richard Petty, and on the Indy Car circuit, with driver Mario Andretti.  I was not and am not fond of car racing, but my experiences probably led me to see GRAN TURISMO.  It is the unlikely but purportedly true story of a young man in Wales who, despite his parents’ feelings spent his entire leisure time “playing” s video game simulating high speed auto racing.  An entrepreneur talks Toyota into sponsoring a worldwide contest involving the video game in which the ten highest scorers vie for the opportunity to drive real race cars, the winner of which will drive on the circuit for Toyota.  The car racing scenes are well done, the music and particularly the race sounds are loud and very realistic.  There are good characters and a little romance, and all in all it works.  It wasn’t my cup of tea, but folks in the theater applauded at appropriate moments.  63% of critics and 98% of audiences gave it a thumbs up, but they didn’t have to spend weekend after weekend trackside hearing those sounds and inhaling the fumes as I did.

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