Anyone who knows me knows that, over time, Days of Thunder has improved every time I watch it. My appreciation for it only grew during my marathon of director Tony Scott’s films last summer.
So when the Byrd Theatre in Richmond, Va., announced it was showing the 1990 classic as part of its “Racing Nights” series — every Thursday in August to commemorate NASCAR month in the Commonwealth — I knew I was gonna be there no matter what.
The nearly-100-year-old movie hall shows stuff pretty much every night, has recurring yearly traditions and is a less than a half-hour’s walk from my new apartment in Richmond’s Museum District, but (as far as I know) they’ve never done this racing-themed deal when motorsports comes to RVA.
My friend and former roommate (also named Adam) — who’d never seen the movie before — and I grabbed popcorn and drinks, kicked our feet up from the front row of the balcony and settled in.
After a wonderful-as-always performance by Bob Gulledge at the Mighty Wurlitzer organ (as is tradition for the Byrd), the lights came down for those of us watching from the balcony — the lower section is being renovated — and things got rolling.
I’m not going to do a blow-by-blow of the movie — that’d be redundant and boring — but I will talk about how different the movie is when it’s on a big screen. You can hear our own Vito Pugliese and I chat about it on my podcast, though, as part of my “Sports Movie Showcase” series.
The biggest thing is the sound.
It’s nothing new with the Byrd, per se, because their sound system is beyond excellent. I see John Carpenter’s 1982 classic The Thing there every October when they show it, and the sound effects, screeches and explosions in that movie are absolutely incredible every single time.
I also saw Michael Mann’s masterpiece Heat there last fall, and the sound for the finale — where Al Pacino and Robert De Niro pursue each other through parts of an airport — made it sound like jets were literally strafing the theater. Not kidding (not to mention the iconic shootout scene). And the space effects for Danny Boyle’s underrated film Sunshine earlier this year sounded incredible. You get the idea.
So I was curious to see how Days of Thunder would hit our eardrums, and I was not disappointed. We get the Hans Zimmer score during the opening credits, and then the field takes the green flag behind the “Directed By” title card — and the sound of 43 engines came roaring out of the Byrd’s speakers.
The visuals are by far my favorite part of the movie, or really of any Tony Scott movie. But any movie is better on a big screen, and this one really delivered.
The sunset shots are already ridiculously good in the movie, but in a theater they absolutely blew me away. The first shot of the below tweet, where Cole Trickle pulls Rowdy’s car back into the pits after his test run, is one of my favorite shots in any movie. Ever.
But the other shots — the wash of green during Cole’s MRI, the sun-drenched rainbow of spectators in wide track angles, the vibrant fleet of Cup cars flying down the backstretch — blew me away just as much.
Now, how many of the 50-75 other people in the balcony knew Harry Gant, Rusty Wallace or Neil Bonnett when their cameos came up?
Probably not many.
I’d wager that at least a dozen of those people were Byrd regulars who just see as many things as they can there. Not a bad thing at all — I was just interested to clock how many people there seemed to be NASCAR fans already.
I didn’t get a good read on that, but I’m pretty sure I saw some gear on a few groups there. I myself had on my old Jeremy Mayfield Dodge hat, which I got in like 2004, and this “Directed by Tony Scott” shirt I ordered for this occasion (and literally any other movie of his I can see in a theater).
So, on all fronts, the experience was incredible. That’s both in terms of the movie and its presentation as well as the staff there. The guy taking tickets shouted out my shirt when he checked myself and the other Adam into the theater, the employees at the concessions counter were great and they run a pretty fantastic ship overall at the Byrd.
If you’re ever in Richmond, get to a movie (or two, or three) there. This wasn’t sponsored in any way by them, of course — I just love the Byrd, wanted to give them the spotlight and I’m glad I got to see Days of Thunder there.
Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.