★★★★★★★★★★ 6/10

Eric Bana’s 1974 Ford GT Falcon Coupe is the Beast in the title. At the beginning of the documentary he states, “Two things have remained constant in my life, my mates and my Beast.” This film is about his love for his car and his friends. This is the first car he’s ever owned, it was and still is his rallying point for his three lifelong friends. Without Bana and his Ford, the three men would have little contact with each other. The focus though is really about Bana’s relationship with his first car.

Starring in big Hollywood films like Troy and Munich, Bana can afford to race any car he wants. Instead he chooses to race his modified coupé in the Targa Tasmania Rally. The rally is a tarmac time based race across Tasmania. Bana and friends intend to win the gruelling 5 day race. The documentary uses the rally and results to illustrate how important the Beast is to Bana.

Indulgent is the word I would use to describe this film. I don’t mean that in a mean way but what normal person can muster the resources to have a full-blown documentary, about what is essentially an obsessive hobby.  It boils down to guy gets, loves, and loses car.  How interesting the documentary is to you, depends on if you like Eric Bana, cars or if you have your own obsessive passion.

The documentary is nicely shot and narrated by Bana. Tasmania while beautiful was not what I expected. I think I was expecting something more jungle like. There are some great interviews with Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, Jay Leno and Dr. Phil.  Together they discuss Bana’s life long love. There’s a particularly tense moment when I thought Bana was going to throttle Clarkson.
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IMDb rating 7.7/10 – 660 votes

cars, Documentary, Eric Bana, film, info, motor sports, movie, racing, rally, review, Targa Tasmania Australia, Documentary