Welcome back to my blog. Here’s my recommendation of a movie to check out today and hope you punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” OK, for today, let’s venture back to 1971 to find an anti-hero in a muscle car with “Vanishing Point” starring Barry Newman and Cleavon Little.
“Vanishing Point” has a little history in my life: It is the last film I ever saw at a drive-in (remember those?). The better thing in my memory is that while it is basically a car-chase flick, it also makes you evaluate what’s happening on the big screen through solid acting and even better screenwriting.
In “Vanishing Point,” you have a driver taking a cool Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver to San Francisco. He’s amped up on his own history and internal motivation, even though that motivation isn’t clear to anyone but himself.
Our anti-hero, “Kowlaski” played by Newman, is a former soldier and disillusioned police officer and he’s also a former race car driver. From all intents and purposes, it appears he’s looking for his “Vanishing Point.”
As authorities begin chasing his slick white muscle car, his adventure is followed by a disc jockey with the moniker “Super Soul,” played by Little, and the two men’s fate becomes intertwined via AM radio (remember that?).
You’ll have to make your own evaluations about the underlying nature of Newman’s motivations of both his actions and his ultimate apparent foolhardiness – and that is the enigmatic twist that has left audiences in debate for decades as the film took on cult status.
Thankfully, there were filmmakers in the past that crafted an action/car-chase flick into something more than just eye-candy for the computer-enhanced folks. Oh, yeah, no computer enhancing for the stunts in “Vanishing Point.”
Oh, and forget about the tepid “reboot” also called “Vanishing Point” from 1997. It’s basically crap when evaluated against the original.
So, I say punch your “Ticket to the Movies!” and you can find “Vanishing Point” only available for rent on only a few streaming platforms. “Vanishing Point” is a film to actually make you think, so find it! Watch it! Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later for “Vanishing Point.”
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