Family First

Rating: Null/10 (16 September 2011)

Vin Diesel plays Dom Toretto in "The Fast and The Furious". Dom, a fugitive ex-con, hiding with his girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez) who is forced to leave his girlfriend and crew behind to avoid the police catching them all. This results in a serious of high profile crimes and Dom returns to Los Angeles (LA) seeking answers. Once back in LA Dom is thrown back with Paul Walkers character (Agent Brian O'Conner). The two do not see eye and are often verbally battling. However as Agent O'Conner and Dom are each investigating the crimes their paths continue to cross and soon it is obvious that Fenix (Laz Alonzo) is behind the crimes. Fenix works for a drug dealer named Arturo Braga (John Ortiz). Each of the men wants Braga for his own personal reasons. The film takes the viewer on exciting car chases through the Mexican desert, underground tunnels, and through the streets of LA. Each of these scenes is made more realistic by the camera angles. One such scene appears as the drug running team is racing across the Mexican desert towards mountains. At first, it looks as if the cars might smash into the side of the mountain but at the last minute, the camera angle exposes an opening. The theme of this film may seem hard to locate under all the action but it is an old-fashioned one. Nothing is more important than family and good friends are. Families come in many forms some of directly related and others are chosen. The police to the ending of the film demonstrate this throughout the film from the first time Dom leaves his girlfriend and crew in hopes of avoiding their capture. Dialogue is the main factor used to demonstrate the theme. A good example of this towards the end of the film Brian is seriously hurt and even though the police are coming Dom stays behind to make sure Brian is safe by saying "he's tired of running". The theme is again repeated at the end of the film when Brian returns the favor however to describe the scene or dialogue would ruin the end of this fast paced film. Although many viewers will only see the fast cars, action packed scenes, and violence the underlying fact of the film is families are the most important things.