Perhaps the most iconic road movie of all and… I have no idea what to write about. The fact is that even the most iconic road movie is, after all, a road movie. Someone goes from point A to point B, almost all the action is tied to the car, when viewed, it creates a very interesting, meditative effect, and a couple of days after viewing, only the ending and, sometimes, one memorable scene as a bonus usually remains in my head. Anyway, there’s not much room for action inside the car. Especially if you’re driving and going somewhere. And, nevertheless, films of this genre consistently arouse the interest of many – and especially those who like cars, driving or traveling from point A to point B.
So, why is the Vanishing Point the most iconic road movie? To be honest, I do not know. In my opinion, all the films of this genre are too similar to each other, and it is very difficult to choose the most among them. At the same time, I personally will not be able to call the “Vanishing Point” my favorite road movie if I am still asked to choose only one of the viewed ones. But my personal opinion is not interesting to anyone, and in culture it is the “Vanishing Point” that makes the most references… or did I just grow up at a time when most references were made to the “Vanishing Point”? In short, personally, I most often come across references to this particular road movie, so I came to the conclusion that Vanishing Point is the icon of icons that everyone loves. The clip Show Me How To Live by Audioslave – I adore Tom Morello – is completely and completely a Vanishing Point. White Dodge Challenger autographed by Vanish in Need For Speed: The Run. Terminal Velocity 1994 with Charlie Sheen and the Evil (and the good too!) Russian… although the director was Deran Sarafyan – the son of the director of “The Vanishing Point” Richard Sarafyan – so this reference seems to be an indicator of kinship, and not the impact of the original film on world culture… But then we have Quentin Tarantino’s Death-Resistant – and there they refer directly to the Vanishing Point movie. So if the “Vanishing Point” is not favored in our country, then Death Proof at one time seemed to look if not everyone, then every second one for sure.
By the way, I want to pinch the language with an English-Russian dictionary to what Death Proof translated as Proof of Death – this man is a rare radish.
In short, in general, I have seen only one reference to other road movies in my whole life: in the movie The Domestics of 2018, the main characters steal a Chevrolet straight from a Two-Lane Highway. Even the license plate says 2LANE – especially for doubters. But I’ve seen so many white Challengers that now neural connections automatically trigger in my head at the sight of such a car: the white Dodge Challenger is a Vanishing Point – the 70s. It worked one hundred percent with the recent game Heading Out, by the way: I was sure that the action of the game takes place in the seventies, just by looking at a couple of screenshots, and a recent article by my colleague confirmed my guesses. So, it seems to me, there is still something in this: it is the white Dodge Challenger that is clearly present in world culture, which began its long journey precisely in the film “The Vanishing Point”.
However, all this does not clarify the question of why this particular film, and not, say… “Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry.” Why not? After all, the films are essentially the same: the main characters take a Mopar-mobile and roll into the far distance. Or “Bonnie And Clyde” ’67? At one time, the film was a bomb: It is considered one of the first films of the New Hollywood era, which broke many old canons and, in fact, launched the genre of the correspondingly updated road movie. However, in our time, few people will remember Arthur Penn’s Bonnie and Clyde. In general, as I said: I do not know. So recommending a “Vanishing Point” to someone who has not yet seen it is both extremely difficult and extremely simple. In a nutshell: fans of cars and American oil cars are required to watch; for everyone else, by and large, there is only one question. Do you like road movies? See “Vanishing Point”. Don’t you like it? Don’t look. Don’t know what a road movie is? “Vanishing Point” – no worse than any other representative of the genre is suitable for a novice padawan.
All that can be said to somehow help a potential viewer decide on a choice is to provide a synopsis. Its content is as follows: someone known only as Kowalski is a Vietnam veteran, a former policeman, as well as a former auto and motorcycle racer. At the moment, Kowalski is working as a drug addict and delivers cars along the way. At night from Friday to Saturday in Denver, he picks up his last order – a white Dodge Challenger with supercharging -and then stops by his dealer for aids and argues with him for an additional portion of substances that will arrive in San Francisco by fifteen o’clock on Sunday. It’s 2,000 kilometers from Denver to San Francisco, so Kowalski presses the pedal to the floor, after which we’ll have an hour-long chase with short interruptions to small secondary scenes.
The main character of any road movie is, of course, not so much a person as his car. The much-mentioned 1970 Dodge Challenger in Alpine White. We all have a favorite idea generator called Chrysler at that time just decided to try out another unusual advertising move: to give movie studios cars for rent for just one dollar a day.Last but not least, that’s why Chrysler cars – which include Dodge cars – appeared so often on screens in those years. Richard Sarafian said that a total of eight cars were rented, although in later interviews stunt coordinator and one of the best stuntmen of the time, Cary Loftin, as well as the lead actor Barry Newman both said that there were only five cars. Their information is considered more reliable, since it was Newman and Loftin who were driving cars.
Four Challengers were equipped with 7.2-liter engines and a manual transmission, and the fifth was equipped with a slightly more modest 6.3-liter engine with an automatic transmission. None of the power plants were actually inflated. And anyway, according to the director’s assurances, not a single car over 150 accelerated. So the screeching of supercharging and the illusion of speeds above two hundred is the magic of cinema. As well as the sounds of grinding tires on the ground. Well, magicians also sometimes mess up.
However, not a single car accelerated above one hundred and fifty only during filming. It is reliably known that behind the scenes actors, stuntmen and God knows who else, with great pleasure dissected the roads on brand-new white Challengers. For example, one of the actors – Paul Koslo – recalled how Carey Loftin went to the hotel after a day of shooting and accelerated to 230. He was noticed by New Mexico patrol officers, who could hardly keep on his tail. Comrade Loftin, however, decided to stop at the nearest gas station (performing a 360-degree turn in the process), after which he was very hastily arrested. One of the producers had to rescue the lead stuntman from the clutches of the law under the pretext that Carey was testing the car before filming. Barry Newman also described his feelings with great pleasure and very colorfully:
“The engine was so powerful that the car just took off. And those skinny wheels – the rubber burned, it was only necessary to touch the gas. I would say there was too much power for such a case. I put it in first gear – and the car almost reared up.”
And, by and large, what is happening on the screen successfully conveys both Newman’s words and Loftin’s skills. Maybe the cars really didn’t go faster than 150 on the set, but cinematic techniques successfully accelerate them to the mentioned 230 – and, perhaps, sometimes even faster. Despite the rare shoals, the magic of cinema works one hundred percent. So if you want to see how one of the coolest muscle cars, and even with the largest engine available, cuts through endless fields and deserts, maneuvers on winding dirt roads of the 70s and rushes past small towns of one-story America, which are located in the middle of nowhere – welcome to watching the feature film Disappearing Tchk. The whole genre of road movie as a whole consists of something like that.
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