Vanishing Point (1971)

[Scott]

VANISHING POINT (1971) - Great car chase film. It's about a guy who is delivering a Supercharged Dodge from Denver to California within 15 hours. Great cinematography of the Southwest. The valleys and mountains are a beautiful backdrop while the police are on his tail of this speeder almost from the beginning. Their is a radio DJ who is listening into police scanners to get the latest on what the police are doing to stop this guy and he broadcast over the radio a kind of information both for the driver and those listeners and following the story. Along the way the driver gets help from a few different people till he finally meets a roadblock in California.

[Yaddo 42]

Much like driving on a long road trip for real, I consider this one kind of hypnotic. There are stretches where little happens but I feel compelled to watch it whenever it turns up on TV. I have the VHS, but want the DVD for letterboxing if nothing else.

[Scott]

I remember you talking about another film TWO LANE BLACKTOP that would make a good double feature with VANISHING POINT.

Thanks to Trek Geezer for tuning me in on VANISHING POINT. A couple other films that I think we have mentioned on this board are CRAZY HARRY AND DIRTY MARY and ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE.

[AndyC]

This movie struck a chord with me back when I was 18 or so. I was totally into hotrods and musclecars at a time when rabid environmentalism was trendy, lots of people around me were down on driving, and new cars were all turning into identical little streamlined blobs with four-banger engines. Kowalski's rebellion meant something to me, as he tried to be a sort of free sprited supercharged cowboy in a time when authority had grown to the point where you just couldn't do that anymore. But after a series of hard knocks, he was determined to be the master of his own destiny, which he ultimately was. Nice bit of counterculture filmmaking, deeply philosophical, and full of good action. You can also see how this movie influenced later car chase pictures, particularly Smokey and the Bandit - another story involving a guy making a high-speed delivery in a fast car, who, through a series of events, winds up becoming way too important to the authorities, as well as something of a folk hero.

[Scott]

I'm not a big car enthusiast, but always liked the cars of old with their unique designs. A lot of good things disappeared around 1980.

Now we have a digital world of video games, internet, and endless shopping malls.

Music and film have run out of ideas and the world of sports has become totally rediculous.

What's left for tomorrow? Should be interesting or will it ?



Post Edited (12-20-04 09:08)

[Menard]

You may find it of interest that the DVD of 'Vanishing Point' has both the US realease and the British release. The editing is different and the British release contains the missing segment with Charlotte Rampling; just in case you were wondering why the movie skips the night between leaving the cyclists and the finale.

Bob