The Russell Young series WEST features imagery, references, and obsessions of Young’s own world built within the larger framework of the American drama. The spaghetti westerns he watched in his...
The Russell Young series WEST features imagery, references, and obsessions of Young’s own world built within the larger framework of the American drama. The spaghetti westerns he watched in his youth, NASCAR racers before they were safely regulated, 70s big wave Hawaiian surf photography, California girls, Hells Angels, nickel plated revolvers, bison, rodeos, the Marlboro Cowboy before he was commercialized into oblivion, Native American chiefs before they, too, were almost driven into oblivion—they all debut in Young’s quest to confront and interrogate the idealization of the American Southwest. The Last American Hero (also known as Hard Driver) is a 1973 American sports drama film based on the true story of of NASCAR driver Junior Johnson. A young hell raiser quits his moonshine business to try to become the best NASCAR racer the south has ever seen.