Vanishing Point (1971)

[Neville]

Whoa, this is one cool, cool movie. I remembered the title a few weeks ago, while i was looking for road movies to watch. This one is pure 70s. It's sort of a thinking man's action movie, basically it consists of the journey of a man (Kowalski), who feels the urge to step on the accelerator to the limit while he's on a business trip to California.

And pretty much that's it. We get some flashbacks of Kowalski, which portray him as an alienated person and sort of explain his rebellion against the stablishment, and also some encounters with other outsiders who help him along the way, such as a biker or an old man he finds in the middle of the desert. But most of the film is Kowalski driving around, making a fool of the policemen who try to stop him and so on.

The film has its problems. I personally found the encounters with other outsiders a bit too long, but we get lots and lots of chases and stunts all the way to the end, and the minimalistic portrait of Kowalski (he barely speaks throughout the movie) works very well.

[Scott]

This is definately an enjoyable film that I discovered due to those here at badmovies.org. Never heard of VANISHING POINT or TWO LANE BLACKTOP till the topic came up a couple years ago. Nice car, scenery, and how about the ending.

I just picked up a road movie called MOTORAMA and I'm looking forward to viewing it. Might be fun.

Nice image from the movie Neville.

Here's an image from TWO-LANE BLACKTOP.

[trekgeezer]

Glad you discovered this great movie Neville, there are several posts about around the board from last year.  I found it on $5 DVD, which includes the UK cut of the film.


Imagine the impact it had on me and my friends at age 17 when it was first released.

[Neville]

It must have been really something watching this film on its time of release. I kept thinking while I was watching it that it wouldn't work today as well, because society today is very different. Not to mention that the cops wouldn't be folled as easily as then and would have lots of technology to help them capture Kowalski.

[Mr_Vindictive]

This film is still my favorite car chase flick of all time.  Kowalski kicks ass and everything about it is pure 70s.  I love how it tries to throw some existentialism in there, but it's all about that alpine white Dodge Charger racing cross country.

I really need to pick this one up on DVD.  I keep meaning to do so but keep forgetting.

[Ash]

I haven't seen this one yet but it sounds good.
This was the movie the characters in Grindhouse (Death Proof) were talking about while sitting in a diner.

I might have to check this one out.   

[soylentgreen]

I had seen some small part of it years ago and never got around to seeing the whole damn thing...this thread has compelled me to correct that oversight.   

In popping it into my netflix queue, I noticed a pretty-much-in-name-only tv remake with Viggo Mortensen from 1997.  Sounds vaguely intriguing though.  Having been a fan of his for many years now(long before the general populace even had an inkling who the hell he was!)I'd be willing to extend the effort to check it out. 

[akiratubo]

Vanishing Point is one of the best movies around, as far as I'm concerned.  I wouldn't change a thing about it.

that alpine white Dodge Charger

It's actually a Challenger.