Vanishing Point

This is a movie I almost felt I knew but really didn't. I knew it was a '70s car chase classic that had some artier pretensions, and I have the Primal Scream album of the same name that uses dialogue samples from the movie. But I didn't really know it. I watched the dvd last night, both the U.S. and U.K. versions, then got caught up in the Richard C. Serafian director commentary, so it was a late night.

The plot is basically that a speed freak ex-cop named Kowalski has to deliver a 1970 white Dodge Challenger from somewhere in Texas to San Francisco in a couple days. The highway patrol is soon on his trail, setting up roadblocks and trying to kill his rising status as some sort of cult hero or symbol of freedom, a burgeoning legend helped along by the exhortations of DJ Super Soul, played with ecstatic hipster fervor by Cleavon (Blazing Saddles) Little in his first film role. The sweep of America (that is, Texas, Nevada, Arizona) is breathtaking and DP John A. Alonso and Serafian create some wonderful and much-imitated shots. Barry Newman plays Kowalski and he's fine, but as Serafian recounts, Newman wasn't his choice and he told his then-boss, Richard Zanuck, that he would make the car the star. That's not to say Newman isn't good--he is, but then, he doesn't have to do too much. His strength is in embodying Kowalski as not a tough guy or superhero or grinning Burt Reynolds rebel but as a straight guy--an ex-cop who hasn't lost his respect for people and for life, even if he's lost the will for the latter. He's not out to kill anybody but possibly himself, a man driven to get to his destination, but that destination lies on another plane and not necessarily San Francisco. On one level, it's a kickass film with a cool car, good stunts, liberal drug use and tits and some choice gospel-tinged Americana music from Delaney & Bonnie and others, but on another level it's about escape and circularity and rebirth. The Serafian commentary is excellent and he makes a good case for what he was trying to do in the film, and one wonders what other good-to-great films we might have had from the man if this had been more successful on its release. If you rent it, watch the U.K. version--it restores a couple scenes that add more to Kowalski's background and features a very interesting encounter on the road with the mystical Charlotte Rampling, who could represent Death, or not.

Incidentally, I understand Viggo Mortensen acted in a remake a few years back, but I can't imagine it adds anything to the original.