Vanishing Point (1971)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a speed freak in more ways than one, popping uppers so that he drive 24/7, having bet his drug dealer that he can deliver a supercharged car to California in record time; in doing so, he becomes a wanted man by the police.The car chase is a staple of the action movie genre, but Vanishing Point, by director Richard C. Sarafian, IS a car chase - the whole damn thing! As such, the plot is virtually non-existant, the film largely reliant on the vehicular action which sadly isn't jaw-dropping enough to sustain interest for almost 100 minutes.Being a product of the hippie generation, the whole thing is given a pseudomythological, existentialist vibe, in which driver Kowalski is elevated to legendary anti-hero status by DJ Super Soul (Cleavon Little), and there are plenty of off-beat characters along the way, all of which has secured the film a cult following, but I found the whole thing highly over-rated and ultimately pretty boring.On a more positive note, the cinematography is great, while the mythical road warrior angle and much of the shots seem to have influenced George Miller's Mad Max movies (leading to Fury Road, which for me, is the ultimate car-chase movie).

I do not agree with suicide, however tough and ugly, however depressing and struck by your fate, life is worth living! That said as a principle, I do not quite understand the end of the movie, why Kowalski chooses to commit suicide, after all the attempts he is passing through and out of which he went so well. He was not depressed, he had a strong moral, very tough guy, he had no reason to choose that stupid death, entering with his high-speed car into the dam on the road. Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger and Paul Koslo are all OK in their roles. A very nice and original appearance by Gilda Texter in the role of Nude Rider. Cool music in the soundtrack, many songs, Mountain with "Mississippi Queen", Kim Carnes, etc. A film that enjoyed my teens and whom I had been happy to review, except for the final, which I had forgotten, which is unjustified and disappointing. Richard C. Sarafian has many exciting movies under his belt.

A stupid plot, fast cars, cops being wrecked in their own cars and motorcycles, a very cool driver, and oh,...A gorgeous naked chick on a Honda motorcycle in the middle of the desert.You can't think this stuff up! Throw in a hip black radio host and you've got it all.This is the archetypical 70's rebel movie. A Vietnam Vet and disgraced cop racing across the United States in a bad-ass car against all odds.What can go wrong? ABSOLUTELY EVERYTHING! A true American Classic.So many movies that year fell by the way side totally unremembered.This film delivered and always will.Vanishing Point smokes like a ten-ton bomb that waits to go off at the very end.Loved it. Will always love it.

When Chrysler was first approached for this film, the executive who eventually green-lighted their participation could not believe that anyone would ever watch it. "It's basically a 90 minute ad for a car," he is reputed to have said. Understatement! This 90 minute ad became such a cult hit that an attempt was made to redo it (kindly notice my selection of the word "attempt" and we will discuss the remake no more in this life). Barry Newman had proved a reliable TV actor to that point, but no one had guessed that he would infuse the character of Kowolski with such (pardon the pun) drive. Don't want to give too much away on the off chance you have not seen this film yet, but other reviewers who have opined that this film is a metaphor for the demise of America (from the freedom of the open road, to a police state, with rules and penalties for breaking those rules) may not be far off the mark. See the original, not the AHEM-NEVER-TO-DISCUSSED remake, prepare for a look at the US when freedom was more than a 7 letter world, and prepare for what may possibly be Newman's best work in his career.