POTENTIAL SPOILERS
"Vanishing Point" was made in 1971. You can see the influence from "Easy Rider", but you can also see a bunch of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Thelma and Louise" that were influenced by "Vanishing Point". The girls in "Grindhouse: Deathproof" test drive a white 1970 Challenger just like the one in VP.
When you watch this movie you have to remember this was a different time of no political correctness. This movie has a beautiful nude girl riding a motorcycle, hate crimes, reckless endangerment, drugs everywhere, etc. Basically this ex race car driver Kowalski has to drive a new supercharged 1970 440 Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Kowalski makes a bet that he can do it in 15 hours. He drives like a maniac and meets some characters along the way. A lot of people have tried to explain the movie and the ending with symbolism. The 1960s and 1970s was such an important and interesting time in American history. This movie falls right in the middle of that time and has a lot to say.
I was watching the movie a second time with the director's commentary in the background. Apparently he wanted Hackman instead of Newman and the Challenger wasn't his first choice for the car. The nude lady riding the motorcycle has been a costume supervisor on movies like "The Green Mile" and TV shows such as "Grey's Anatomy". She was the girlfriend of one of the actors who played a cop. The director asked if she would be willing to ride a motorcycle nude and she said yes. He said she had to go out in the desert and get sunburned before the scene (I guess they didn't wear sunscreen back then). She did and she burned her vagina. The doctor had to take care of some blisters before she could sit on the motorcycle seat nude.
There are some really interesting flashbacks in this movie that helps develop the lead character. He was a race car driver and a cop before he delivered cars. I thought the flashbacks were really well done.
SPOILER ALERT
They crashed a white '69 Camaro at the end of the movie instead of a Challenger. That kind of irks me as a Camaro guy.
I found a copy at Blockbuster. Apparently the UK version is better since there is 6 minutes of extra footage.
[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 6/8/2007 12:45p).]
"Vanishing Point" was made in 1971. You can see the influence from "Easy Rider", but you can also see a bunch of movies like "Smokey and the Bandit" and "Thelma and Louise" that were influenced by "Vanishing Point". The girls in "Grindhouse: Deathproof" test drive a white 1970 Challenger just like the one in VP.
When you watch this movie you have to remember this was a different time of no political correctness. This movie has a beautiful nude girl riding a motorcycle, hate crimes, reckless endangerment, drugs everywhere, etc. Basically this ex race car driver Kowalski has to drive a new supercharged 1970 440 Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Kowalski makes a bet that he can do it in 15 hours. He drives like a maniac and meets some characters along the way. A lot of people have tried to explain the movie and the ending with symbolism. The 1960s and 1970s was such an important and interesting time in American history. This movie falls right in the middle of that time and has a lot to say.
I was watching the movie a second time with the director's commentary in the background. Apparently he wanted Hackman instead of Newman and the Challenger wasn't his first choice for the car. The nude lady riding the motorcycle has been a costume supervisor on movies like "The Green Mile" and TV shows such as "Grey's Anatomy". She was the girlfriend of one of the actors who played a cop. The director asked if she would be willing to ride a motorcycle nude and she said yes. He said she had to go out in the desert and get sunburned before the scene (I guess they didn't wear sunscreen back then). She did and she burned her vagina. The doctor had to take care of some blisters before she could sit on the motorcycle seat nude.
There are some really interesting flashbacks in this movie that helps develop the lead character. He was a race car driver and a cop before he delivered cars. I thought the flashbacks were really well done.
SPOILER ALERT
They crashed a white '69 Camaro at the end of the movie instead of a Challenger. That kind of irks me as a Camaro guy.
I found a copy at Blockbuster. Apparently the UK version is better since there is 6 minutes of extra footage.
[This message has been edited by Old Main (edited 6/8/2007 12:45p).]