The five protagonists in Detroit have few things in common, except: their lives revolve around acceleration racing. Once auto factory workers, they now apply their skills in the service of their hobby. Subtly the film establishes drag racing as a metaphor for the haunting myth upon which America was founded.Motorcity is set in Detroit, and its ostensible subject is the amateur drag racing scene. The Film is less concerned with documenting the races themselves, than with conducting a search for the deeper significance and source of this popular sport, which I find to be so quintessentially American. Motorcity traverses the American mythology of success, finding parallels between the taming of the Wild West and drag racing’s celebration of acceleration. On the surface, drag racing may seem to be a metaphor for capitalism’s single-minded imperative: accelerate! But when examined closer, drag racing also appears to be an escape route from conventional modes of earning and burning money.
Arthur Summereder
Gerald Weber
