Columnist Ron Kantowski: Different cars, same old story

Thursday, April 26, 2001 | 10:17 a.m.

Ron Kantowski's column appears Thursday. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or 259-4088.

During a promotion for the new auto racing movie "Driven," the great Mario Andretti said he would take a wait-and-see approach before commenting on this latest effort to capture the essence of his sport.

"A good movie about auto racing has yet to be made," Andretti said, sidestepping the question as if it were a rookie driver running in the racing groove.

Well, Mario, the streak stands.

On Tuesday night, I was sitting in pole position -- actually, more like the middle of a crowded auditorium -- for the Las Vegas debut of "Nights of Lightning." That might have been a better title for "Driven," given how much it borrows from "Days of Thunder," the 1990 movie based on the NASCAR circuit.

Actually, "Driven," which stars Sylvester Stallone as a fading champ car driver who is brought out of retirement to tutor a talented but raw rookie, borrows from about every popular movie ever made about auto racing.

One of the prerequisites to making a racing flick is a subplot based on heated competition between rival drivers, and "Driven" naturally has one of those. But that's not the only thing about this movie you've seen before.

In "Winning," a 1969 movie set at the Indianapolis 500, Paul Newman and Robert Wagner battled for Joanne Woodard as well as the quart of milk that goes to the winner. (Guess who won.) "Driven," has not one but two of these love triangles, turning the garage area into backstage at a Fleetwood Mac concert.

In the 1966 epic "Grand Prix," Yves Montand, in the role of Formula One driver Jean Paul Sarti, falls for an American journalist played by Eva Marie Saint. In "Driven," Stallone's character Joe Tanto does a few laps with a magazine writer (Stacy Edwards).

In "Days of Thunder," Cole Trickle (Tom Cruise) and Rowdy Burns (Michael Rooker) trade paint on the track, in wheelchairs and finally in a Bullitt-like chase through city streets in rental cars. In "Driven," Joe Tanto and protege Jimmy Bly rip through downtown Chicago in their 230-mph race cars. And if you think that is unrealistic, consider that race announcer Paul Page, who plays himself, goes the entire movie without once misidentifying the drivers.

In every racing movie, the good guy driver overcomes insurmountable odds -- a crippling injury, loss of his ride, a dead last starting position -- to win the big race on a daring last-lap pass.

In "Driven," the good guy driver starts dead last, but, owing to attrition and a steady, if uneventful, drive, finishes a respectable seventh and collects valuable points toward the season championship.

Not really. But I don't want to give away the ending.

This, however, is the viewpoint of the racing purist. If you didn't enjoy "Fear Strikes Out" because Tony Perkins threw the baseball like a sissy, then you probably won't like "Driven."

But the movie does a nice job of capturing the pace and glamour on the supercharged CART circuit. The movie drivers (Stallone and newcomers Kip Pardue, Til Schweiger and Cristian De La Fuente) look and act the part, and cameos by the real CART drivers, and the real cars, give the movie authenticity.

But if you are one of those twisted types who watches auto racing solely for the crashes, here's some advice:

Do not miss this movie.