Speed Racer: The Message

The Wachowski brothers’ first venture since the Matrix Trilogy captures the heart of the all-against-one theme, and adds amazing environments, intense racing, and a fantastic story. The races, the cars, and the colorful characters and environments give a great feel to the whole experience. However, it is clear to most people and critics that the dialogue was not even close to the strong point of the film.

For me, sunk deep in the adrenaline rushes and the cheesy dialogue, was a great resonating story. The character called Royalton is the main enemy in the film. He owns a huge corporation, Royalton Industries, and tries to get Speed and Racer Inc. to join with him and be sponsored. Racer Inc., led by Pops Racer, is an independent company and prides itself in that tradition. The superb driving skills of Rex Racer, and then Speed Racer, is what has kept them in the runnings with corporate sponsored drivers. When Speed rejects Royalton’s offer, Royalton becomes infuriated and promises Speed that he will never cross the finish line again. He also tells Speed of a long tradition of corporate corruption in the biggest race of the year, The Grand Prix.

The character of Royalton almost seems like a very cartoonish version of today’s corporate leaders, but then you realize it is not such a far fetched portrayal. Royalton talked about special deals that were being made to fix races so that certain corporations could raise their stocks, in the end only concerned about themselves and more money. A practice that does nothing but taint the great sport of racing. Speed represents the one who just loves to race, and is all that is good in the sport. He joins Racer X in the fight to keep all that is sacred in the sport alive and out of greedy hands.

There is a scene in the movie where Royalton fraudulently accuses Racer Inc of cheating, making Racer Inc. lose credibility to the public’s eye. The media then writes in papers about “Racer Inc., a family of cheaters”. Speed points to the article and says, “There has got to be something we can do about this.” Pops replies, “We can’t, corporations control the media.” HOW fucking true is that statement? Very in today’s world. The people are controlled by what the media tells them, and the corporations control what the media tells the people. In 2004, 5 corporations controlled the media which doesn’t leave many points of view<http://www.corporations.org/media/>. FAIR(Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting) is a great group that monitors the media and the many biases.

From the FAIR website:

Independent, aggressive and critical media are essential to an informed democracy. But mainstream media are increasingly cozy with the economic and political powers they should be watchdogging. Mergers in the news industry have accelerated, further limiting the spectrum of viewpoints that have access to mass media. With U.S. media outlets overwhelmingly owned by for-profit conglomerates and supported by corporate advertisers, independent journalism is compromised.

Ultimately, FAIR believes that structural reform is needed to break up the dominant media conglomerates, establish independent public broadcasting, and promote strong, non-profit alternative sources of information.

Also check out this page which explains what is wrong with the media.

The character of Speed Racer represents FAIR and anyone else fighting against these types of control over things they love.

I can also put the situation of the characters, Royalton and Speed, in comparison with the Music Industry. Royalton being one of the Big Four and Speed Racer being a talented aspiring artist. The big labels want only what is marketable, what sells, but what they still don’t get is that what sells is what’s real. Most of the stuff played on MTV and the radio is highly influenced by the majors to a point that it is just a product, nothing more.

Speed Racer represents the way that things should be. Giant companies shouldn’t control things like the media in such a way that there are only a few points of view for people to have daily access to. Speed represents the future of everything to come. All it takes is the strong love of something, enough love, to change things for the better. There is way to much control in the world given to too few people.

Watching Speed Racer was a great reminder to me of these truths about our world, and I hope that everyone gets reminded of these things through other facets of creation and art. Not everyone liked Speed Racer, but that does not mean it’s message is not for everyone. Look deeper into your art and find these meanings, they are more common than you may think.

Tags: corporations, important message, media, Music Industry, speed racer