User Reviews

This is the story (more or less) about the rise of Top Fuel drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney. It stars Bonnie Bedelia as Muldowney, who is trying to break into what was a man's sport. She encountered chauvinistic men who were either outright opposed to her racing or were condescending, many considering her nothing more than eye candy. One man, Connie Kalitta, played by Beau Bridges, believed she could make it against the men. He became her sponsor and lover. The relationship was a tempestuous one and it didn't last but it got her started. Once she began to beat the men, they began to respect her as a driver and a person. She went on to win many races and, eventually, 3 Top Fuel championships. She survived a horrible crash and fire but climbed right back into a car as soon as she could. Shirley has since mostly retired from racing and now runs only a few match races each year. But she left a legacy and inspiration for women drivers in various motorsports that endures today.

Shirley Muldowney is the First Lady of Drag Racing and the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association (NHRA) to drive a Top Fuel dragster. After getting over that obstacle, she won the NHRA Top Fuel championship in 1977, 1980 and 1982, becoming the first person to win two and three Top Fuel titles. She's ranked 21st on ESPN's list of the Top 25 Drivers of All Time and fifth on the National Hot Rod Association's 50th-Anniversary list of its Top 50 Drivers. A member of the International Motorsports Hall of Fame and Automotive Hall of Fame, she also had a song written about her by L7 and is one of the many women brought up by Le Tigre in the song "Hot Topic."

Back in 1956, Shirley Roque (Bedelia) married auto mechanic Jack Muldowney (Leo Rossi), despite her father Tex (Hoyt Axton) wanting her to rely on herself. By the time she's ready to race a decade later, with her husband as her mechanic, she has to get three signatures from other racers to even be considered.

She does, starting with "Big Daddy" Don Garlits (Bill McKinney) and Connie Kalitta (Beau Bridges), who has already fallen for her. The film is just about their relationship as it is the races, but it's still worth a watch.

Director Johnathan Kaplan mainly works in TV these days, but he had success with this film and The Accused. He also directed the Reform School Girl remake and Bad Girls, a female centric western. Before those films, he made some greats for Roger Corman, like Night Call Nurses and The Student Teachers before directing Truck Turner, White Line Fever and Mr. Billion, a bomb that tried to introduced Terrence Hill to American audiences.

Bonnie Bedelia delivers a fiery, roughly textured, outstanding performance in a rare substantial lead role as Shirley "Cha-Cha" Muldowney, the gutsy, sassy ("The only thing I do fast is drive"), willful, supremely determined and self-sufficient real-life pioneering feminist professional race car driver who had to overcome lots of doubt, discrimination and sexual prejudice during her arduous climb to bona fide race car champion status, winning the much-coveted NHRA Top Fuel World Championship an unprecedented three times in a row.

Directed with customary acuity and facility by Jonathan Kaplan, this sterling sports biopic stands out not so much for what it does but for what it doesn't do. For starters, the film never glorifies its very appealing, but still quite human and fallible heroine, offering instead an evenly balanced, fully rounded, warts-and-all portrait of Muldowney, whose remarkable success on the racetrack is countered by her often shaky and unfulfilling personal life. Shirley's victories come at the cost of her marriage to decent, but insecure automobile mechanic Jack (skillfully etched by Leo Rossi, who manages to create genuine sympathy for a potentially unlikeable character) and thrust her into a tumultuous romantic relationship with arrogant, sexist, philandering rival driver Connie Kalitta (an excellent Beau Bridges). Still, Ken Friedman's astute, daring and forthright script gives Shirley her just due for bravely breaking down restrictive sexual barriers, refusing to buckle under often intimidating odds, and triumphantly besting men in a largely male-dominated sport. Secondly, the film doesn't go overboard with either the racetrack action or evocation of previous decades (Shirley began her professional drag racing career back in the mid 60's and kept on racing into the early 80's), rightly emphasizing a most rewarding and uplifting tale of how sheer iron will and tenacity play a huge role in how successful one is in life.

While Bedelia surely dominates the film with her exceptional characterization, the rest of the cast definitely hold their own: Anthony Edwards as Shirley's proud, caring son, Hoyt Axton as Shirley's supportive country-and-western singer father, Bill McKinney as a cocky drag racing superstar, Dick Miller as an understanding family friend, Paul Bartel as a pompous French TV show chef, Michael Cavanaugh as a jerky NHRA boss, and Jonathan Haze as a smooth racetrack announcer are all uniformly fine. Tak Fujimoto's crisp, elegant, proficient cinematography and Laurence Rosenthal's jaunty score add authentic flavor to the movie's meticulous recreation of past eras and equally minutely detailed depiction of the vibrant, smoky, harshly competitive racetrack milieu. The racing scenes are vivid, thrilling and atmospheric; the wipe-out sequences are shockingly abrupt and harrowing. However, it's the tremendous accomplishments of the extraordinary Shirley Muldowney (she served as creative consultant on this movie) and Bonnie Bedelia's superlative portrayal which make this film a true winner all the way.

Bonny Bedelia is Shirley Muldowney, a woman from New York state who becomes an award-winning drag racer. I don't know what formula the cars belong to but it's easy to recognize the formula of the movie.

If there's a formulaic moment that isn't included, I must have blinked. Bedelia shows an early interest in getting into the seat of the queer-looking dragster her husband, Leo Rossi, has built as a kind of hobby. But she proves to be a pretty good driver and as she wins an increasing number of contests locally she begins to neglect what Rossi sees as her wifely duties.

All the men at the race track seem to make fun of her, as does the announcer over the PA system.

Meanwhile, there's another man, Beau Bridges, a fellow driver. He's a happy-go-lucky, affable fellow, and I thought at first that he would become one of those saviors who shows up from time to time to rescue the damsel from some crisis before disappearing again until the next crisis, but actually he plays a more important role as the lover she acquires after leaving her husband.

And, man, does Leo Rossi deserve leaving. The script turns him into a Formula I masculine villain. Jealous of his wife's success, jealous of her celebrity and talent, he begins to drink excessively and pretty soon we have the drunken, wife-abusing husband. So she leaves him and flees to the welcoming arms of the more understanding Bridges. When Bridges is suspended from driving, she makes him her crew chief.

Sadly, Bridges is already married but that doesn't stop Bedelia from falling in love with him. The fact that she's not the only "other woman" in his life does manage to shake her a bit, though it doesn't stop her from going on to the ultimate triumph.

The men in her life are all weaklings and brutes but she prevails through the strength of her will and her love of driving cars at high speed. Well, I suppose Bedelia's father is not a bad guy, but he's there chiefly to provide the funeral that interrupts her rise to fame. You never know. Tragedy may lie just around the corner.

The thought kept occurring to me: How easy it would be to turn Shirley "Cha Cha" Muldowney into an exploitative and self-indulgent witch. It would still be "based on a true story" if she were to be possessed by hubris to the extent that she outgrew her schlub of a husband in New York and left him flat for a man, Bridges, who would be of more use to her. If it breaks up his marriage, so what? She needs him for her crew chief and lover.

But it's not that kind of movie. Not at all. It's the story of a woman who succeeds despite all the obstacles strewn in her path by an arrogant patriarchal society. She's propelled by her love of drag racing, although there is curiously little attention paid to her feelings about driving. There IS plenty of footage about the drag races themselves. Engines are noisily gunned; cars burn rubber and often crack up or burst into flaming comets without the bother of any noisome explanations. That, presumably, is to keep the men in the audience from falling asleep during the prolonged romantic conflicts. The races have little drama because, after all, drag races only last a few seconds.

The musical score is mostly of the period and people who grew up in the 60s and 70s should enjoy the pop songs. Before, during, and after Bedelia's triumphs on the track, the score turns airily inspirational, lacking only a heavenly choir.

I rather enjoyed it the first time I saw it, but I was younger then and my heart may have been more like a wheel. Now it looks dated and in some ways irritatingly generic. It's one of those "Firsts" movies. Lindbergh was the first to fly the Atlantic solo, so there's a movie about him. There's a June Allyson movie about one of the first women doctors. There's a movie about the first African-American to graduate from West Point, a movie about the first American astronauts, about the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, about Columbus, about the first woman to cross the Atlantic by air, about the first man to get the idea of the intermittent windshield wiper. This is about the first woman to achieve national recognition as a drag racer.

No problem with Bonny Bedelia's performance, though. She's more than good enough in a stereotyped role. Leo Rossi certainly looks right as the envious husband. Bill McKinney can be seen briefly as a more than usually easy-going King Of The Track. And Dick Miller, he of the jutting chin, is always welcome.

"Firstly, let me say this... in no time in the History of the Academy Awards has a major Film such as "Heart Like a Wheel" been so grossly overlooked. I don't know what happened with this one.. maybe there was no decent advertising, maybe 20th Century got nervous because of the subject matter and tried to hide the Film upon release or maybe and more likely is that the Voters of the Academy did not hear of or screen this film. Its a rotten damn shame, because Bonnie B. performance is unquestionably one of the greatest of all time! Tour de Force is not enough.. its simply taking a role and eating it alive! As important as Sally Field's "Norma Rae" was, Heart Like a Wheel proves that women can dominate not only in American Society but on the Silver Screen. Bridges is outstanding as a aggressive, violent and womanizing Connie Kalita. Even if you hate drag racing, see this film. Back to Oscar; the film did receive a Nomination for Best Costume Design, so I will give credit where credit is due. Rosenthal's original mysterious synth score is intriguing and haunts you well after leaving the theater. There is some ground-breaking sound here.. hopefully somebody smart will come along and re-digitize this soundtrack into a surround mix but the score is in Dolby. Jonathan Kaplan's Direction is quirky, not the best ever, but a fine job never-the-less. This is a subject matter that you have to have at least some knowledge of going into it and I think the Director did. I don't know if Shirley M. was actually on-set, didn't see a Tech Credit but I assume she may have been. Bonnie is sensational in this roller coaster, quarter mile of burning rubber emotional ride of a real-life courageous and abused woman. Enter woman into man's sport issues for the first time and all hell break loose when track records fall. Shades of modern-day racers such as Danica Patrick and Sarah Fisher are reminders that women continue to fight for their rights to not only have a chance to play the game but to win! Heart Like a Wheel wins in every single frame of film and is without question, the Film that somehow Oscar missed!

The 1980s saw the release of a number of American "women's pictures", most of which were informed by subtle social changes (in 1981, American laws eliminating of all forms of discrimination against women came into effect) and most of which saw strong-willed women battling against the odds.

One such film was 1983's "Heart Like a Wheel", the tale of drag racing legend Shirley Muldowney. Played by actress Bonnie Bedelia, Muldowney's a female drag racer who finds herself belittled and berated by sexist drivers, all of whom deem the racetrack to be "no place for women". Muldowney stands her ground, of course, and kicks down doors of discrimination in her own little way.

Fittingly, "Heart Like a Wheel" opens with a father informing his daughter that he wishes for her to be "self-reliant and not dependent on men". The rest of the film finds Muldowney locked in various power struggles, both within her marriage and with others racers, one of whom is infectiously played by actor Beau Bridges. As is typical of such films, most men in the picture are portrayed as philanders, drunks, jealous types or irrational hot-heads. Ironically, racing movies prior to the eighties (see 1969's "Winning" in particular) had begun to critique macho obsessions with winning, possessions and dominance. By the time "Heart Like a Wheel" came around, the on-screen male driver had already been neutered. He would be rehabilitated come the late 1980s, an insecure backlash against a perceived loss of male privilege. Muldowney, incidentally, was the first woman to receive a license from the National Hot Rod Association, and would be dubbed The First Lady of drag racing.

7.5/10 – Worth one viewing. See "Downhill Racer".