Sunday Driver (Documentary/Custom Cars)
Picture: C
Sound: C+ Extras: C+ Documentary: B
Have you heard about low riders? To the uninformed, it could be anything from cowboys and clothes,
but it actually applies to a practice in the 1950s of making sports cars and
other prized vehicles customized to where the body can almost touch the
ground. When a law was passed in 1959
banning it, the advent of hydraulics kicked in and the love of that kind of
autobahning. Those who only though the
musical Grease, George Lucas’ American Graffiti and other 50s
nostalgia trips was sufficient will really enjoy Carol Strong’s Sunday
Driver.
This too-short 2005 documentary tells the story of the
low-riding car culture through The Majestics, the first of the many clubs that
followed, as begun in Compton, California.
It also addresses parallel clubs, but all of it still seems to add up to
the roots and origins of the scene as we now know it. Yes, one could argue the difference between the African American
culture that continued this and how many (most?) of the white fans moved on to
other kinds of custom cars, vans and the like, but that’s another
documentary. This is constantly
compelling viewing and worth your time, even if you are not a big car fan.
The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image is inconsistent
because this is a documentary with much more rough referential materials than
usual. Despite that technical limit,
the program is very watchable. The
Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo has no surrounds, but the great music employed in the
piece sounds rich enough, including classic by The Temptations, The Dramatics,
Booker T. & The MGs Brass Construction and many newer acts. Extras include weblinks, stills, 16 featurette
pieces and previews for a few related and semi-related Palm releases.
- Nicholas Sheffo
