Civil War Street Race

Civil War Street Race is a 1983 historical fiction racing film directed by Alan Smithee starring NASCAR driver Earl Dareheart and Formula One driver Liki Nauda. Set during the Civil War, it tells a reimagined version of the conflict, where battles are won by street races.

The original screen play called for actual motorized vehicles for the street racing segments, but due to budget constraints and concerns over historical accuracy the studio ended up renting horses instead. The movie was originally set to be a trilogy, but due to the lawsuit surrounding the film subsequent films were scrapped.

## Plot

In July 1863, as the Battle of Gettysburg rages, the heroic Union Captain Ulysses S. Sherman must outpace his mortal foe and ex-brother-in-law, Major Robert E. Jackson in a street race across Pennsylvania to decide the outcome of the war.

## Cast

Noted NASCAR driver Earl Dareheart was cast in the lead as Captain Ulysses S. Sherman, opposite Liki Nauda as the villainous Major Robert E. Jackson. Steve Buscemi voices President Abraham Lincoln, however in a controversial decision Beeple Studios used the actual corpse of President Lincoln to portray himself physically, puppeteered by Jim Henson.

No less than six actresses were used as flag wavers during the pre-race scenes, due to injuries inflicted by horse kicks and tramplings.

## Production

While the choice to use Lincolns body paid off for the studio at awards season, it cause several problems for the production team. The 1860's era embalming was somewhat haphazard and as a result control over his eyelids was marginal, with many awkward blinks and winks during moving speeches. Manipulation of the mouth proved challenging, and in several shots (mostly when forming "A" sounds) Henson's fingers are clearly visible. According to an unnamed cameraman, the late president also stank like "that time a possum died in my grans AC unit and we didn't find it for a month."

## Pre-Production

During the casting process, a number of unconventional choices where made by Beeple Studios. Such as the decision to cast motorsports personalities in the lead roles, despite the lack of internal combustion engines in the entire film, and those drivers total inexperience with horses.

During the pre-race moments you can actually see the haircuts and colors of the race girls change between shots due to several replacements of actresses. Three of which died of their injuries.

Another strange choice was the decision to use the actual Corpse Of Lincoln. This decision was reached after several unsatisfactory auditions for the role from Arnold Schwarzenegger, Harrison Ford and Michael J Fox. While consuming his customary lunchtime half-kilo of Colombian cocaine, Studio Executive Bill Nicholson stated "Why don't we just get the lanky old bastard in person and get someone else to voice him, like Lucas did for Vader". Finding no objections to the idea, a team of production assistants and interns where dispatched to the Lincoln Tomb in Springfield, Illinois, to retrieve the President. This they did in a daring midnight raid using stolen construction equipment, though two died in the getaway and resulting shoot-out with police, and the manhunt for the perpetrators did effect the planned shooting timetable for the DC exterior scenes.

## Reception

### Box Office

While a critical and financial success, all earnings were lost to the Lincoln estate as an out of court settlement for the unlicensed use of the presidents body, and paying the fines for the grave-robbing committed in order to retrieve it.

### Critical Response

The work was positively received as a bold re-imagining of Americas darkest hour.

### Accolades

Confusingly, The Academy Awards nominated the character of Lincoln for Best Supporting Actor, not clarifying whether they meant the voice actor (Buscemi), the physical actor (Abraham Lincolns Corpse) or the puppeteer (Jim Henson). Ultimately, they decided that the physical work had been more demanding than the voice work, and the Award was won by Abraham Lincolns Corpse.