The movie Vanishing Point just started on ACTN action channel. Its the original not the shitty remake. Just a heads up!
Just caught it on T.V. for the first time. Not bad. Some nuditity. Cleavon Little was good. Liked the chase through Austin Nevada. If he hadn't turned at the church he would have bombed past Jerry Forman's house.
Never saw the movie ,I don't watch Tv .I hang here instead .Ill have to see that movie eventually .Ill put that on my bucket list .What's a shame I don't think I get that channel .
Thats another movie that ruined me as a kid and got me hooked. I guess that if you drive fast enough into an imobile object that a challenger can turn into a camaro
I like the flick, but I actually liked the remake better. In the original, you never really know why Kowalski is running, or why he has to make the delivery in such ridiculous time. It's neat to see the cars and all, but it's not much more than a rambling, drug-induced car chase. The remake actually tells a story, you understand why he's trying to get home and you (at least I) actually get more out of the flick. Call me silly and shallow, but I like to know why stuff is happening on the screen...
okay, you are silly and shallow He is running because he tried other stuff and it all didn't work. He runs to keep from standing still. The flashbacks explain why. Crashed out as a racer, didn't fit in the crooked police dept., loss of the woman he loved. He sets the delivery goal himself, trying to push the limits. He didn't have to, he wanted to. That's in the garage scene when he picks up the car, and also when he talks with the dealer. He does not fit into the world around him, although he has tried. He is only comfortable driving fast alone. He is not a typical lead role, but an anti-hero. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-hero Does the Clint Eastwood spaghetti western character cited in the wiki article make sense to you? The story line in the remake seemed contrived, since there were any number of times when that chase could have been stopped or he could have explained himself but didn't. Any bigblock oil pan would have worked, too. For a real twist, the beginning of the movie shows him at the final point, just before going to meet the bulldozers. The Challenger passes a 1967 or 68 Lincoln and the frame freezes. The Challenger disappears. Then it's days earlier. He is delivering the Lincoln that the Challenger passed (days later). It's like he is in a time loop (purgatory).
Woke up to late, next showing are not till tomorrow. Seen that and Dirty Harry n Crazy Mary at a double showing. Neat watching as a kid.
A friend of mine send me a copy ripped from some source on the internet and it has a scene in it that I never saw before. Kowalski picks up a hitchhiker and ends up getting laid. Good for him. I have to admit that I never noticed the time loop passing himself. Nice! Thank You RodStRace!
Thanks, I've asked a lot of people if they noticed that. Only 2 others have. I haven't posted it before, wondering if someone else would. It's one of those little things that get missed a lot, but they obviously felt it was important to the story, since they spent the time and effort to make the car disappear in the short sequence. http://uk.video.yahoo.com/watch/5300513 -1:07 to -:52 from the end. That's where I got the screen print. Looking again, that may be a Chrysler, not a Lincoln. Hard to tell. I've read that it originally was a more cerebral script, but that Hollywood dumbed it down into a car chase B movie. There are still small elements of the original, but that since some stuff was cut out, it doesn't make as much sense. More thoughts on wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_Point_(1971_film) where it also explains the missing sequence.
Saw VP at a drive in when it first came out sitting in my buddy's TR-3, head resting on roll bar. They are low enough that you can set your beer on the ground and it's in easy reach.
LOL, I paused the movie to explain the loop to my nefew last time we watched it. He loves that movie, and not just because of the boobies. Well, alot because of the boobies. I always liked the fact that it seems like a sinceless car chase till you think about it the next day. I get the man never fitting in, running from himself, never being able to stop and never being able to brake the cycle. I think Kowalski is THE best example of the anti-hero in film history. As for the remake, I found it harder to follow and much less believable than the original.
Yeah that movie also ruined me too. one of my all time favorites... now if I could find a woman who could sit through it... all car... MAN! I need too see that again..
Boy, what a night at the Drive-in. 2 Lane Black Top, VP, and American Graffie. I drove my '41 Plymouth, John had a '69 Z, Mike had a '70 Camaro, Paul had a '71 Cuda, and Bill had a '68 KR 500. By the time the third movie came on there was so many beer cans around our cars you couldn't walk by our cars without tripping. OOOOH the good old days.
Nope, that is a '69 Imperial. As you know, he drops the Imp off in Denver and picks up the Challenger. He drives down West Colfax in Lakewood, past the old Lakewood Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge City Dodge dealerships along the way. Some really cool '65-earlier cars on the used lots there, but you have to freeze-frame! Since I-70 is actually Interstate all the way through where they filmed in Colorado now, where the motor cop loses the bike at the No Name exit, looks nothing like that these days! If you want spooky, the race with the Jag was filmed in a little town called Cisco, Utah. These days, that little town is even spookier-looking, since it is more or less, a ghost town. It's about halfway between Grand Junction, CO and Moab, UT. Drop by at sundown for the full effect!
When the coppers in the chopper are looking for him in the desert and find the old man's truck they say something like "Look......Oh wait thats just an old derelict, looks like its been there since the depression". Wasn't that a 1946-47 Ford?
It's a pre-war car, but I'd have to run my VHS of the movie to see again. Seemed to me it was a '38 or '39 Ford, but I would have to see.
Still got the old VHS tape of it,,great film,,no need to find all teh flaws ,,just a great movie to enjoy
OK, you're silly and shallow. just bustin' yer nuts! i was never sure what point the original makers were trying to make. it was all caught-up in the whole early 70s existensial(sp) hollywood genre. i was really affected by it the first time i saw it on late-nite"hunred dollar movie" like lot's of these type flicks, i've grown to appreciate it more for entertainment value than anything else. they most have blown-out/bent about 100 wheels in the filming. sound effects are sketchy at times. still one of the movies that i have on tape/dvd for "wall-paper" playing in the shop 24/7. One over-looked movie with tons & tons of great car stunts is "IT'S A MAD MAD MAD WORLD" lots of comedy great actors, and some AWESOME car stunts and driving.
anytime i read a post where someone's just seen VP and says "i don't get it" i realize that hey they just don't GET IT. the whole story is laid out there. what's not to get? i saw fast and Furious once... now THAT movie i do not get. i saw the remake of Gone in 60 Seconds once; don't get that one either. except that Nick Cage fucks up a fucked up Mustang.
nick cages "remake" of gone in 60" blows ass!! the original had some of the most awesome non computor effects ever!!!!!!!!. if you want to talk fantasy sh*t, you're probablly a fan of the awful "toyko drift" crap. it's real easy to CG all that physics defying crap. for REAL stunts, these are TRADITIONAL stunts. no CG, no after-market b-Shit. just the real deal!!
I never picked up on the scene passing himself before, thanks. I was thinking where he picked up the hitchhiker...that he was hallucinating the whole thing from sleep deprivation. He was getting all googlyeyed and nearly passing out a few times. I think it was a pretty accurate representation of how you slip in and out of normalcy when your up and running that hard and how it changes your perception. I found a good quality original version of it. got a few screenshots for y'all! sorry if they're not too revealing I didn't want to post anything offensive to tender constitutions. Pretty good quality huh?
Great movie. I loved it! But I'm still trying to figure out how that naked gal plonked her bare ass on that bike seat (after the seat had the sun beating on it for 10 minutes) and didn't shoot straight up at least 20 feet!
For a real twist, the beginning of the movie shows him at the final point, just before going to meet the bulldozers. The Challenger passes a 1967 or 68 Lincoln and the frame freezes. The Challenger disappears. Then it's days earlier. He is delivering the Lincoln that the Challenger passed (days later). It's like he is in a time loop (purgatory).[/QUOTE] exactly!
The Jalopy Journal
