Sunday 21 January 2018

Vanishing Point (1971 Richard Sarafian)

Finally... Very much of its time, similar to Two Lane Blacktop, a descendant of Easy Rider and Mitchum's Thunder Road. Guillermo Cabrera's script (from Malcolm Hart's outline) actually has two endings, if you count the one at the beginning. Barry Newman races a 1970 Dodge Challenger (which we are informed has been supercharged) from Denver to San Francisco (an 18 hour, 1200 mile journey) and whilst doing so we see bits of America exposed and his past life flash-backed. All the while blind DJ Cleavon Little makes him into an antihero ("Speed means freedom of the soul").

Very impressively photographed by John A. Alonzo.

Quite influential I think - can't imagine Sugarland Express without it. Maltin finds it disappointing but with a great rock soundtrack - for me, there are too many songs with 'Jesus' in them.





Does he drive through the night? There's no night scenes. It doesn't rain, either.

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