At first glance, Fast Company seems like a predictable 1970s gearhead film of
no special merit, obviously a film which spent more time on drive-in screens than in indoor
theaters, but it has several interesting facets which merit some discussion.
First, it was directed by none other than the eccentric Canadian auteur David
Cronenberg, although you'd never know it. None of his usual bizarre obsessions make an appearance. It
is a straightforward movie about the drag racing circuit in Canada and the
Pacific Northwest. While it's not quite in Hal Needham's goofy good-ol'-boy
territory, it's so mainstream that if someone told you it was directed by a
young Ron Howard, you'd shrug your shoulders and accept that fact without
suspicion. Why did one of our weirdest sci-fi/horror directors make this
realistic, grounded film about such a pedestrian subject? Apparently Cronenberg
loves fast cars and considered this a labor of love. Rumor has it that he still
has a nostalgic fondness for this rarely-seen film.
Second, the film was the last ever made by the former Playboy Playmate of the
Year, Claudia Jennings, who was kind of a staple feature of drive-in flicks in
the seventies. Not long after making this film, she fell asleep at the wheel of
her VW convertible and died in a fatal car crash. That was a while back as I
write this in 2010. If she were still alive, she would now be 60, but she never
even saw the sun rise on her 30th birthday. Memento mori.
Third, there is some good old-fashioned seventies-style nudity, and the
quality of the Blu-Ray is excellent. The film was obviously shot well and the original print
was competently mastered. As I write this
many fine films have not yet come to Blu-Ray, but this obscure exploitation film
has. Heaven knows why that is true because there can't be that much demand for
it. Hell, most people don't even know it exists. Whatever the reason for the
disc's existence, it all worked out nicely for those of us interested in screen
nudity.
