"Vanishing Point" (1978)

From all the car movies I've seen, I'm ashamed to say that I've never seen "Vanishing Point". Though this has been on top of my list for a while now and I decided to check it out. Why you say? This movie might be the most influential car movie to this day, and is easily a cult classic. As like other cult classics, this movie does target a niche audience. Many of people have disliked this movie and I guess this is why I have pushed this movie aside till now. Hopefully it delivers what I want.



The story, like a lot of other car movies, has a very small impact on this movie. Kowalski (Berry Newman) is given a '70's Dodge Challenger R/T to deliver from Denver to San Francisco. But to top it all off, he bets his drug dealer that he can make it there in less than 15 hours. Along his trip, he has caught the attention of the police in Utah, and now the whole state is after him. Though he does have some help from a radio jockey in California narrating his entire trip.

Getting lost in the desert kind of sucks.

Now right after watching I did a quick Google maps search of the trip that Kowalski takes. It's a shy over 2000km and a roughly 20 hour trip (abiding the speed limit of course). Now that is a wicked road trip, too bad most of it is going through the desert and we know how exciting that can be. Which stinks, because filming a car chase through the straight roads, and boring terrain of the desert is very bland. There is only so much you can really do with these settings. At least the Challenger is a pretty car to look at.

This brings me to my first point, this movie is car porn. That is all, and very niche porn if you ask me because the only car you really get to see is the Challenger. There are a few cop cars being tossed around and a Jaguar E-type (in my opinion the greatest looking car ever built by a man in a shed) that races him. Other than that, it's just Kowalski, his car and the open desert road.

Super Soul's blind eyes are the perfect spotter for Kowalski

Besides the car aspect of this movie, there isn't much else to it. But I need to bring up Super Soul (Cleavon Little). He is the DJ at KOW radio station in California. It seems to me, he has a weird telepathic connection with Kowalski. He uses the radio station to communicate with Kowalski, pointing him in the right direction. Oh and he also taps into the police radio to help, who he calls 'The Last American Hero', out. I liked him a lot, he brought a vibrant colour to what seems to be a very black and white movie.

What I really disliked about this movie is the ending. This is definitely a spoiler, so skip this paragraph if need be. The movie abruptly ends with Kowalski driving into two bulldozers blocking the road and the car goes up in flames. That is it? He just dies? I guess there is some weird philosophical theme to this movie, but I was really hoping he was going to be the hero and evades the cops and make it to his destination. Why else would you drive across 4 states? Bah-humbug!

Let me be straight forward, this movie isn't for everyone. It is obviously targeted for automotive geeks. I'll say that I enjoyed the movies for its cool car chase concept and the idea of just driving 'till you can't drive no more. But besides that, it's not that great of a movie. The story is bland, there isn't much fluidity in here and everything non-car related feels tacky. Not sure if I'll ever see this movie again, but I'll sure have fun memories of it.