Review of Vanishing Point (1971) by Andy A — 21 Oct 2009

Though the whole "free love" thing seems like it should be some tired romantic dinosaur at this point, it hardly impedes the film the way it really should in this day and age. Yet beneath all of its high aspirations, director Sarafian underscores a more familiar sense of cynicism in this epic road movie that is as at home today as it was then. And with a script fleshed to a healthy life by Cuban exile and novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante aka G. Cain (author of Tre Tristes Tigres), "Vanishing" takes a soft-spoken yet adrenaline-addled touch on the chase movie that is typically lost on most others of the genre. This is "Bullitt" for the Gen-Xers. There's a noticeable lack of much technical bragging rights, but the movie does boast a great blend of man and machine, envisioned through the counter-culturist Barry Newman and his a dirty white beaut of a '70 Dodge Challenger, a relationship that should satisfy most gearheads looking for something truer than just a nice wax job and a pretty face behind the wheel. You might be surprised by Cleavon Little's stint as the blind small-town DJ "Super Soul" too. Yet, if you're expecting anything of the antics his more well-known role as Sheriff Bart is known for, then you should just keep on trucking. Like the inwardly disenchanted man he portrays in the film, pleading to the ex-racer/cop Kowalski (Newman) to stop his interstate joyride before it's too damn late, the entire film, while punctuated with sun-shiny hipster moments and back-country twang, is ultimately defined not by its dated emotional status but rather by its moments of dry southwestern nobility, a need for speed and the very human inability to stop.

PS: Richard Kelly is apparently tied to the suspected 20th Century Fox remake...If you haven't been bitten by the protest bug then I suggest you get sick now before it's too late. He must be stopped!