NASCAR Fans: You MUST See "Dale"

I’ve been a NASCAR fan for most of my life. I used to tell people that I’ve been a fan since the Man in Black was the man in blue and yellow…

But during those 20+ years, I was never a Dale Earnhardt fan. Sure, he was fun to watch; but he always seemed to wreck my favorite drivers. And he always won; and I didn’t like that.

But last night, watching him finally win the Daytona 500 as part of “Dale,” I bawled my eyes out.

Come to think of it, I cried the first time too…

Even if you weren’t an Earnhardt fan, you couldn’t help but be happy for him. And all of the other pit crews coming out to greet him was nothing short of amazing.

If only the story could’ve ended there…

But of course, it didn’t. We all know how Dale’s story ended. And yes, I cried at that part too (Actually, I cried for the entire last half hour of the movie.).

I didn’t cry the first time, though, because there was no reason to think that Dale wouldn’t walk away like he always did. As the movie showed, he had much worse wrecks. So, it’s a little frustrating to think that seemingly minor hit into the wall was the one that took his life.

I guess it was just his time…

Instead of questioning his death, however, we should be celebrating his life. And there’s no better way to do that than with “Dale.”

Let me cut right to the chase. “Dale” is a masterpiece. Though the story does jump around a little bit and there is more than one bad segue, the movie as a whole is beautifully put together.

Using his 1998 Daytona win as the framework, “Dale” tells Earnhardt’s story through the words of the people who lived it—including Dale himself. The producers picked all the right interviews and clips and Paul Newman was an inspired choice to narrate, although most of the narration is done by Dale himself.

There are some classic stories told during the movie’s two-hour runtime from Steve Byrnes, Steve Park and Brian Williams that show Dale’s caring, fun loving side. But there are also some hard-to-hear stories too, mostly from Dale Jr., who talks about the hard time he had getting close to his father.

But the hardest parts to watch come in that brutal last half-hour. Watching Darrell Waltrip deal with the excitement over his brother’s win and then the pain of the loss of his friend, who just three days earlier had told Darrell he was happier than he had ever been, is just heartbreaking. And when Dale’s in-car camera goes to white, you can’t help but feel sick.

Thankfully, the movie doesn’t end there. Instead it wisely keeps telling the story until it reaches Dale Jr.’s emotional Daytona win five months later. And yes, I cried then too—both times. Just try to tell me you didn’t too…

The segue from that win into the movie’s final act is a little rough and the ending doesn’t quite work, but you’ll be so busy wiping the tears from your eyes, you’ll hardly notice.

Yes, “Dale” probably paints too rosy of a picture of his life and it does leave quite a few details out. But if you are a NASCAR fan of any driver, you MUST see “Dale.”

“Dale” encores tonight (Wednesday) and Thursday night at 8 on CMT. According to the CMT website, these will be the only times the movie will be shown on TV until the DVD release in 2008...