Product Description
The TWO DISC USA SPECIAL EDITION contains a total of 150 minutes of content. Spread across Two Discs the 90 minute Feature Presentation is complimented by an extra hour of Bonus Footage!
Special Features:
Interview with director Eric Bana
Extended interview with Jeremy Clarkson
The Speed Merchants: the Targa Florio segment
Image gallery of THE BEAST
Audio commentary with director Eric Bana and producers Matt and Peter Hill
Theatrical trailer
1970's Ford Falcon Television Commercials
Targa Tasmania Rally- Short Film
SYNOPSIS
What if you were a Hollywood movie star with an obsession for cars and racing? You would probably read every script with even the tiniest link to the subject matter, in the hope that you could tell a great car story of the likes of Grand Prix , Le Mans or Mad Max . Then one day you happened to open your garage door and sitting there, right in front of you, was the film you had been searching for.
This is what happened to Eric Bana and this time around, the co-star is his very own Ford GT Falcon Coupe- THE BEAST. Eric realized the story was in fact, about him, his first car, a lifetime of ownership and a lifetime of friendship. He set about documenting his own 25 year long love story. A simple tale of one mans ongoing relationship with his very first car.
After years of precious restoration, Eric and his 3 closest friends, decided to enter the car into one of the most grueling and dangerous motor races that exists: The Targa Tasmania Rally. This would be a personal Everest for both man and machine, until...on day 4 of the race, tragedy strikes. The man who was hell bent on trying to convey how much he and those around him loved THE BEAST , had just destroyed it.
Eric has now unwillingly cast himself in his own real life drama. We follow him from inside the race car to the surreal world of the red carpet. This compelling true story follows Eric s progression as a car lover, and as a person conflicted by what he has done.
The personal and social pressures mount up in the face of rebuilding a car that means so much to him. Along the way Eric seeks guidance and wisdom from not only the inner sanctum of his 3 life long friends but also Jay Leno, Jeremy Clarkson, and Dr. Phil.
Review
A VANITY project without a discernible ounce of vanity, Love The Beast is actor and noted revhead Eric Bana's relentlessly amiable account of owning, babying and racing the same car for a quarter of a century.
Even if you're only vaguely aware of the comedian-turned-Hollywood-star and think of the automotive industry as nothing more than purveyors of transportation, Love The Beast has the mellow glow of affectionate nostalgia for the kind of solid construction and steadfast mateship increasingly hard to come by in these prefab times.
When I was a kid, Bana begins in low-key voice-over, I dreamed of being a race car driver- Inspired by a televised Bathurst race and Mel Gibson's benighted cop Mad Max, Bana persuaded his dad Ivan (the owner of a vintage Ford Thunderbird) to buy him a 1974 Ford XB Falcon GT coupe.
The family garage under Melbourne's flight path then became for him and mates Tony Ramunno, Jack Vukoja and Andrew Temps Templeton, our cave, our cocoon.
By 1996, with Bana's professional star rising, he entered the Beast in that year's Targa Tasmania, a closed-road tarmac rally run by a guy who quit the circuit after breaking his neck in the 2005 race. The experience is a shot of adrenaline for Bana. Though it is 11 years before he can run the course again, the actor is fully prepared.
The car is rebuilt over two years, camera crews are hired - then disaster strikes. Bana talks a good bit of mateship throughout the film, referring more than once to the car as the campfire around which friends and family gathered to work, joke and bond.
Popping up to offer occasional advice are collector Jay Leno I have a relationship with all my cars- English motoring writer and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson and, in the film's biggest stretch, US self-help guru Phil McGraw. To his credit, Bana hangs on Dr Phil's every word, and to Dr Phil's credit, he comes across as less self-righteous than usual.
Whether taking a joke with his chums or nipping a little -bravery gravy- before walking the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival only days after the catastrophe, Bana comes across as a dyed-in-the-wool bloke.
The film's only sin is one of omission - he never puts a dollar figure on the obviously substantial restoration costs. Certainly he's earned the right to feed his obsession but it's the one big question mark over the film.
As emotionally raw as Love The Beast is, the film wouldn't work without a technical package at once inspired and full-throated. Conor O'Neill's intuitive editing and Emma Bortignon's discreetly complex sound mix combine with a shrewdly chosen rock soundtrack to make thrilling visuals of what is essentially a bunch of cars circling really fast.
The title of the film is not just a nickname for the car, Bana recently told a magazine -The message is that you should love your beast, whatever the beast in your life might be; Vanity, thy name isn't Eric Bana. --Sydney Morning Herald
After prolific careers as a stand-up comedian, TV sketch show performer and big screen dramatic actor, much loved Aussie Eric Bana now adds another string to his bow. With the fascinating documentary Love The Beast, Bana turns director on what has been a long gestating and deeply personal project.
Bubbling away for several years, the film traces noted revhead Bana's 25-year-long love affair with his 1974 Ford GT Falcon Coupe, but spins off into other directions as well, taking in Bana's relationships with his friends and family, and also questioning his motor vehicular brand of obsession.
On this front, Bana gets surprising input from avuncular American relationship guru Dr. Phil (yes, that Dr. Phil), noted UK motor journalist and Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson, and talk show host and fellow revhead Jay Leno.
Part travelogue (Bana bounces from New York to London, and to nearly all points on the Australian map while involved in both his day job and as a professional race car driver) and part interior journey, Love The Beast offers a view of Bana not glimpsed in his acclaimed screen performances (Chopper, Munich, Romulus, My Father), nor in his various interviews or press appearances.
The film, however, is also steeped in sadness. Just before the release of Romulus, My Father, Bana rammed his beautifully restored Ford Coupe into a tree while racing in The 2007 Targa Tasmania Rally. The car was written off completely, and the effect that it has on Bana is stunning.
Looking almost like he's lost a friend or a family pet, Bana's sense of quiet devastation is palpable, and provides one of the many grace notes in Love The Beast, which digs enthusiastically into the rarely seriously discussed issue of the bond that can exist between man and machine. --FILMINK Magazine
Movie star petrol-heads are really nothing new, with Steve McQueen and Paul Newman cinema s best-known proponents of pushing the pedal to the metal. Ex-Hulk Eric Bana also worships at the automotive altar, and Love The Beast is an indulgent but moving account of a decades-long love affair with his first car, a Ford GT Falcon Coupe, aka The Beast .
When he enters the re-tooled car into an endurance rally, its a chance to relive his youth and reconnect with old pals, but an exercise in nostalgia is deepened by an unexpected event.
Interviews with Jeremy Clarkson and Jay Leno plump the running time of what should really be viewed on the small screen. But if you love Top Gear, this is for you. --EMPIRE Magazine
About the Actor
ERIC BANA was first introduced to American audiences in the title role of Mark Chopper Read in the feature film CHOPPER, which premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and was then released in the U.S. to critical notice after its Australian success. Bana earned awards from the Australian Film Critics Circle and the Australian Film Institute for his portrayal of Chopper.
Bana was seen co-starring in Ridley Scott s BLACK HAWK DOWN as Delta Sgt. First Class Hoot Gibson, one of a group of elite US soldiers opposite Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore. The war epic, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Sony, is based on journalist Mark Bowden s best-selling account of the 1993 US mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. Following the US release of BLACK HAWK DOWN, Eric starred in the Australian comedy, THE NUGGET, a film which he portrays a working class man whose life is suddenly changed by discovering a nugget that provides him, and his two friends, with instant wealth.
Shortly thereafter, Eric starred as the title role of Bruce Banner in THE HULK for director Ang Lee and Universal Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics character. He was also featured as Hector the Prince of Troy in Warner Bros. TROY, for director Wolfgang Peterson. The film was based on Homer s The Iliad, and co-starred Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. The following year, he starred in Steven Spielberg s critically acclaimed MUNICH, about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Bana also appeared as the title role in the Australian film, ROMULUS, MY FATHER, based on Raimond Gaita s best-selling memoir, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Next, he played the title role in Warner Bros. LUCK YOU, opposite Drew Barrymoore. Following LUCKY YOU, Eric starred as Henry Tudor, opposite Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL.
Last summer, he co-starred in J.J. Abrams blockbuster hit, STAR TREK, as the villain, Nero. He was also featured in the Judd Apatow film, FUNNY PEOPLE, opposite Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill, and THE TIME TRAVELER S WIFE opposite Rachel McAdams, based on the best selling novel by Audry Niffenegger.
His first film as a director, the drama documentary, LOVE THE BEAST had its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 starring Bana, Jay Leno, Dr. Phil, and, from BBC s Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson. The film explores the meaning of his 25-year-long relationship with his first car, and the importance of the bonds that form through a common passion.
Eric is currently in production on the Focus Features action-thriller HANNA, where he plays a father who has groomed a 14-year-old girl, played by Saoirse Ronan, to be a cold-blooded killer. HANNA is set for a 2011 release.
Bana currently resides in Australia with his wife and two children.
About the Director
ERIC BANA was first introduced to American audiences in the title role of Mark Chopper Read in the feature film CHOPPER, which premiered at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and was then released in the U.S. to critical notice after its Australian success. Bana earned awards from the Australian Film Critics Circle and the Australian Film Institute for his portrayal of Chopper.
Bana was seen co-starring in Ridley Scott s BLACK HAWK DOWN as Delta Sgt. First Class Hoot Gibson, one of a group of elite US soldiers opposite Josh Hartnett, Ewan McGregor and Tom Sizemore. The war epic, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer for Sony, is based on journalist Mark Bowden s best-selling account of the 1993 US mission in Mogadishu, Somalia. Following the US release of BLACK HAWK DOWN, Eric starred in the Australian comedy, THE NUGGET, a film which he portrays a working class man whose life is suddenly changed by discovering a nugget that provides him, and his two friends, with instant wealth.
Shortly thereafter, Eric starred as the title role of Bruce Banner in THE HULK for director Ang Lee and Universal Pictures, based on the Marvel Comics character. He was also featured as Hector the Prince of Troy in Warner Bros. TROY, for director Wolfgang Peterson. The film was based on Homer s The Iliad, and co-starred Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom. The following year, he starred in Steven Spielberg s critically acclaimed MUNICH, about the aftermath of the 1972 Munich Olympics.
Bana also appeared as the title role in the Australian film, ROMULUS, MY FATHER, based on Raimond Gaita s best-selling memoir, which premiered at the Toronto Film Festival. Next, he played the title role in Warner Bros. LUCK YOU, opposite Drew Barrymoore. Following LUCKY YOU, Eric starred as Henry Tudor, opposite Natalie Portman and Scarlett Johansson in THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL.
Last summer, he co-starred in J.J. Abrams blockbuster hit, STAR TREK, as the villain, Nero. He was also featured in the Judd Apatow film, FUNNY PEOPLE, opposite Adam Sandler, Seth Rogan and Jonah Hill, and THE TIME TRAVELER S WIFE opposite Rachel McAdams, based on the best selling novel by Audry Niffenegger.
His first film as a director, the drama documentary, LOVE THE BEAST had its US premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2009 starring Bana, Jay Leno, Dr. Phil, and, from BBC s Top Gear, Jeremy Clarkson. The film explores the meaning of his 25-year-long relationship with his first car, and the importance of the bonds that form through a common passion.
Eric is currently in production on the Focus Features action-thriller HANNA, where he plays a father who has groomed a 14-year-old girl, played by Saoirse Ronan, to be a cold-blooded killer. HANNA is set for a 2011 release.
Bana currently resides in Australia with his wife and two children.
