The Last Chase (1981)

the audience applauded

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

The acting in this movie is really good.

Not many folks today go around thinking about Barry Goldwater's slogan from the 1964 Republican convention. I wasn't even alive then, but as a child who spent more than a few sick days with a TV, a VCR, no cable, and a couple Uhf bootleg movies, one of them "The Last Chase", I understood that even though "extremism in the defence of virtue" may not be a vice, I could tell you at age 8 that it was a bad policy to follow. Others have noted the various issues that come up in this movie. The energy crisis that isn't solved by new technology, but by the iron fist of regulation. Social control achieved through restriction of movement and herding people into cities. "Re-education" as a stand in for jail. Devolution of government into authoritarianism. An Ebola like plague laying waste to America.These issues get paraded through the plot in a pretty clear black-and-white line up. Fast cars = good. Government bureaucrats = bad. And for that reason, this film has largely been written off as a mere adventure film, one that stacks up poorly against its contemporaries. But strip away the zooming car shots and barrel rolling areal sequences, and you get something that is a little bit GATACA, a little bit Vanishing Point, but with a very 1980s Reaganesque ideology.You also have a few shallow side plots that are meant to break up the diadacticism. The creation of a father-son bond. The hopelessness of losing your purpose in life. The emotional baggage of causing a fatal crash, or losing your loved ones to premature disease.Today all those things would be played out with color filters and weeping string accompaniments-over-dialuage that are the hallmark of post LORT "adventure" films. Back then, that was out of the question. Protagonists like square jawed Lee Majors looked you squarely through the camera lense and gritted out lines like "I've done a lot of losing in my life; I don't want to lose you too." All actor. Maybe not the best actor, but no fluffy BS. Solid performances by Majors and Meredith here, and nothing but praise for George Touliatos's Hawkins. Performances backed up, not tread upon, by a rich and powerful musical landscape which is, in my opinion, Gil Melle's best.The story is simple: a man and a boy on the road, the latter there to expose the complex layers of the protagonist's character. Today, the story would be about a bunch of tweeny kids wrestling with themselves through emotional full-nelsons that would put Hulk Hulgan to shame. Got to play to the youth market if you want box-office $$$.All I can say it, the conflicts in this movie make it well overdue for a remake, but thankfully the wrong people haven't made one. Redone in the minimalist style of "Road to Paloma", the 917 CanAm Spyder could come roaring to life again for an epic remake, but probably end up a commercial flop. Redone with typical Hollywood sensibilities (I'm thinking "Rollerball" now), it would still be a commercial flop. So there it is... if the film sounds interesting to you, nothing for it but to start looking through those crates of VHS bootlegs at the next yard sale you drive by... until, that is, the oil runs out.

After watching this on the MST3K episode, I have to wonder how many movies this film borrows from. It seems to combine elements of Logans Run, Farenheight 451, Final Sacrifice and at least several others. At one point I was really expecting Cris Makepease to call Lee Majors ROWSDOWER. I wonder if the director has any clue how many holes there are in the plot. like the fact that, even though gas is unavailable, there is plenty of it in abandoned gas stations, and the stations are located close enough together to keep an F1 race car going all the way across the country.

I remember seeing this film at the theater with Robin Williams' Popeye" as afternoon double feature movie matinée when I was kid. This was low budget Canadian film marketed as American film (Lee Majors made a couple of Canadian movies like this in early 80's such as Agency with late Robert Mitchum) The shortage of oils leading into ban of automobiles, epidemic wiped out the populations, and people are forced by government to live in suppressed society with ridiculous rules and restrictions. The Six Million Dollar Man, Lee Majors, plays former race car driver who rebuilds his Porsche that was hidden underneath of his garage and breaks free to California where people are start living in free society like used to be. Former World War jet fighter played by late Burgess Meredith is after him to kill. This movie has so much potentials and a good plot , but it gets lost or misguided to make a solid movie. It just failed to develop those interesting issues/setups/surprisingly great characters into some what successful movie. However that didn't stop this movie to become fun/enjoyable vintage guilty pleasure low budget sci-fi action flick. Movie stardom hungry Lee Majors with mullet, wearing silver racing jacket (I think stunt man, Mike, from recent Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof might be got the idea from Lee's character, Frank Hart. Well, looks wise....) did his own car stunts with red Porsche racing car. The cross country chase between Porsche and jet was all old school stunts, and it also captured beautiful Denver/Rocky Mt. No CGI on this!!! This movie also features Chris Makepeace from My Bodyguard and Vamp. I really like to see this movie available on DVD sometime soon!!!

Have seen this movie and think it's terrific! Here's what Laszlo Uriel "laszlo-laszlo" (San Francisco, CA USA) has to say about it. It sums up my thoughts as well.One has to wonder whether this movie was the inspiration for Al Gore's desire to ban internal combustion automobiles. In any case, this movie shows the kind asinine totalitarian regime Socialists seem to be trying harder and harder to turn the United States into. It gives us a taste of the sort of top-down, "obey the rules or else", brainwashing type of society we could find ourselves in if we're not careful.Having been 'convinced' over the years to submit to authority and preach the 'goodness' of the new oligarchical system compared to the 'badness' of the old individualistic system, Lee Majors' character, an ex-race car driver, find encouragement in a few short pirate television transmissions. "Radio Free California, calling America" inspires him to dig up and reassemble his hidden race car, and flee the defacto prison the east coast has become.In true neo-Democrat/Socialist style, he is ordered stopped at any cost, preferably by being killed. A single Vietnam War aircraft and its pilot (Burgess Merideth) are pulled out of mothballs and a bottle, respectively, for this task.Other means are also employed along the way to try and stop the car and its occupants, including a Stalin/Mao-esquire slaughter of a group of innocent people who took them in to give them medical care.Now in 2005, since California is literally going broke spearheading the Union away from individual rights and toward Socialism, the idea of "Radio Free California" returning to machines and to personal liberty takes quite a leap of faith, but it's a fun 3000 mile trip across the country nonetheless.As the story goes, the Social dystopia was able to take hold after a disease wipes out much of the population. Since the time the film came out, 1980, the likelihood of such massive devastation from disease has only increased. And never has the proverb "Power corrupts; Absolute power corrupts absolutely" been any truer than it is today.I don't agree for a second that the point of this movie was to encourage the worship of the internal combustion engine or petroleum products. But yes, in the case of Lee Majors' character and the race car, it was a gasoline engine that was the appropriate, if not the only tool capable of escaping tyranny.If this movie is one big ad for big oil companies, does that mean every movie about police who use firearms to help arrest evil-doers, or which shows someone defending their own life with a firearm, is just a big ad for Colt or Glock? Loners who are ticked off at the system trying to pound them into behaving like everyone else will like this movie. I loved this movie! But if you're into that whole "ride public transit or go to jail" thing, you'll only like the first 15 minutes of this movie...so have your Michael Moore tapes ready.