Speed Racer edited [spoilers]

When I saw Speed Racer at the theater, I remember thinking that the final race scene was barely comprehensible. As color and motion splashed by on screen, I felt that the only thing that helped me understand the sequence was the frequently use of cutaways to Mom and Pops Racer, Trixie, (and others). So last night I made an edit of the final sequence without the flashbacks and cutaways. I wanted to see if the sequence would in fact be incomprehensible. What I ended up with surprised me.

First of all I was surprised to see the rigid structure of the sequence. It's always this: racing, CU of Speed, flashback/cutaway. Racing, CU of Speed, flashback/cutaway. Over and over. So when you cut out the flashbacks and cutaways, you just end up with racing, Speed CU, racing, Speed CU, racing. Not only that, the close ups are basically the same shot: Speed gymbals slightly left or right. What's weird is that the sequence actually seems to make more sense without the cutaways. In fact, it's the cutaways and flashbacks that add a sense of cacophony and urgency to the sequence. Also, without the cutaways, you lose a lot of the feverish emotion of the scene.

There is one part of the sequence that is designed from the ground up to be incomprehensible. It's the part immediately before Speed comes out of the tunnel to win the race. There is some sort of explosion with two cars; I still don't know what happened. All you can make out is that Speed is determined to do something, there's an explosion and flying through the explosion is Speed Racer. It's an interesting, highly abstract sequence.

A couple of other things I noticed: after Speed flies through the explosion to cross the finish line, the car teeters on its front end before skidding to a stop. The animation/effect is really terrible, very awkward. Then, when the Mach 6 finally comes to a stop, you see rubber dripping off a tire which then deflates as if the race was won just in time.

My fascination with the sequence lies in its baroque formalism. There's nothing you need to bring to the scene. It does it all for you telling you exactly what you need to know and what you should be feeling.