Road to Nowhere: Day #288 - La Carrera Panamericana (1992)
Viewed October 15, 2006
La Carrera Panamericana follows the 1991 running of the automobile race of the same name. The race was first held in the 1950s to commemorate the recent completion of the Mexican strecth of the Panamerican Highway. It was discontinued in 1954 because of too many deaths and other injuries. In the late 1980s, the race began to be run again, but as a vintage car race. For the 1991 edition, David Gilmour and Nick Mason of Pink Floyd entered the race in identical cars. Gilmour decided to produce a film on the outing and the music for the project was provided by Pink Floyd (mostly catalague material, but some new stuff as well).
Essentially, the film follows the progress of the race and gives a bit of the race’s history along the way. The problem is, there’s not enough time spent on actually talking about the history of the race, what it meant to the area, etc. The whole thing comes off as more of a home movie, with lots of repetitive footage of cars whizzing by.
There are some dramatic moments late in the race when several cars are involved in accidents (including Gilmour’s), but it’s too late. By then, the film has failed to engage the audience enough for these events to have impact.
Luckily, the proceedings are somewhat rescued by the Pink Floyd soundtrack. While most of the music comes from their then-most-recent album, A Momentary Lapse of Reason, there are a few new renditions of classic songs like “Run Like Hell” and several new instrumental tracks that keep things lively.
Unfortunately, I cannot recommend La Carrera Panamericana to even the biggest of racing fans. I think it would just leave viewers empty and hungry for more substance. Floyd fans should probably get ahold of this only for the music (as far as I know available nowhere else). That’s the reason I’m holding on to it. There’s no other reason to do so.