That such an epic film was not listed in the Unique Cars and Parts "
Top 5 Car Chase Movies" has been a point of contention ever since we published our picks. We admit we were wrong - but we are not too sure which movie we would have to bump from those we had already listed. Theoretically, it is not possible for a Top 5 to be made up of 6 movies. It was also not possible for just the one
Dodge Challenger R/T to complete the film. So we will apply the same artistic licence.
Vanishing Point was filmed in 1971 by director Richard C. Sarafian, and to this day remains a classic car chase movie that will keep you on the edge of your seat. From the get-go, you are thrust into the action. The opening scenes start on a lonely desert road, at a small desolate town. The camera pans slowly with the opening credits, to reveal a police motorcycle being followed by two large bulldozers.
Given the nature of the movie, it is obvious a road block is being prepared. The TV crew are not far behind, but strangely the bulldozer drivers seem to have no idea why they have just placed their rigs in the middle of the road - arguably one of the silliest lines in the movie being "I wonder whats going on?".
Scratch under the surface of the movie a little and there is the story of two marginalised men, the delivery driver Kowalski (Barry Newman) and Disc Jockey Super Soul (Cleavon Little). Both are decent, intelligent men who can't or won't live in burgeoning competing cultures which in reality have offered them very little of worth or substance, despite their own personal sacrifices.
Flashbacks let the viewer in a little on Kowalski's story. He had tried to "fit in" with the Establishment as a soldier, the a police officer and later, attempted to do the same with the blossoming 1960s counterculture, but soon disappointingly found that they both were ridden with their own various forms of dishonesty and insincerity. Personal honor, self-reliance and genuine respect--Kowalski's stock in trade--were tragically valued very little by either, despite each one's shrill and haughty claims to the contrary.
Moreover, it's no accident Newman's character has a Polish surname; the Poles throughout their history have created a very rich and unique Slavic culture largely based upon just such a "marginality" - being geographically jammed between powerful historic enemies, Germany and Russia, and never being able to fully identify with either one, at often great cost to themselves. It's also no accident Little's character is blind and black, the only one of his kind in a small, all-Caucasian western desert town--his sightlessness enhancing his persuasiveness and his ability to read Kowalski's mind, the radio microphone his voice, his race being the focus of long simmering and later suddenly explosive disdain--all of the characteristics of a far-seeing prophet unjustly (but typically) dishonored in his own land.
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Vanishing Point Trailer... |
The desert environment also plays a key role in cementing the personal relationship between and respective fates of these two men--to paraphrase British novelist J.G. Ballard, prophets throughout our history have emerged from deserts of some sort since deserts have, in a sense, exhausted their own futures (like Kowalski himself had already done) and thus are free of the concepts of time and existence as we have conventionally known them (as Super Soul instinctively knew, thus creating his own psychic link to the doomed driver.) Everything is somehow possible, and yet, somehow nothing is.
Finally, Vanishing Point is also a "fin de siecle" story, a unique requiem for a quickly dying age - a now all-but-disappeared one of truly open roads, endless speed for the joy of speed's sake, of big, solid no-nonsense muscle cars, of taking radical chances, of living on the edge in a colorful world of endless possibility, seasoned with a large number and wide variety of all sorts of unusual characters, all of which had long made the USA a wonderful place--and sadly is no longer, having been supplanted by today's swarms of sadistic, military-weaponed cop-thugs, obsessive and intrusive safety freaks, soulless toll plazas, smug yuppie SUV drivers, tedious carbon-copy latte towns, and a childish craving for perfect, high-fuel-efficiency safety and security.
Topping it off is a great soundtrack, breathtaking cinematography and direction, and automotive action that has seen no equal. This film manages to be both compelling and exciting. Just watch it already.
| Movie Facts |
| Charlotte Rampling had a role as a hitchhiker whom Kowalski met while en route, but her scenes were deleted before the US release. The scenes were re-inserted for the UK release. The DVD release includes both the US and UK versions. |
| The car featured in the film is a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T, with a 440 cubic-inch V-8, and not a 426 Hemi V-8 (as is often believed). Five white Challengers loaned from the Chrysler Corporation were used during the filming. |
| The Challenger had Colorado plates: OA-5599 |
| There was actually four 440 Challenger R/Ts and one 383 Challenger R/T, which was an automatic with green interior. This one was used for some exterior shots and it pulled the 1967 Camaro up to speed so the Camaro could hit the bulldozers. As confirmed by property master Dennis J. Parrish, all of the cars were NOT originally white. They were just painted white for the film. During the scene where Kowalski has a flat tire, you can see green paint in the dents. |
| Cameo: [David Gates] The singer/songwriter (of Bread fame) played the piano during the rousing revival in the desert with the J. Hovah singers. |
| The names of the cities on the California Highway Patrol tracking board (where Kowalski never made it) were Stockton, Oakland, Berkeley and San Francisco. |
| Director Richard C. Sarafian's original choice for the role of Kowalski was Gene Hackman, but the studio, 20th Century Fox, insisted on using Barry Newman if the movie was going to be made. |
| The colour white was chosen for the car simply so the car would stand out against the background scenery in the movie. White was not symbolic in any way. The director says this in the DVD commentary. |
