Review of Vanishing Point (1971) by Trev B — 06 Sep 2009

Very heavy-handed existentialism (when it makes an effort to BE about anything) overlays this post-Easy-Rider car chase extravaganza. Barry Newman is jacked up on speed and bets he can shave a few hours off the Denver/San Fran delivery of a supa-powered muscle car by driving like a bat out of hell. This attracts the attention of cops in 4 states and other free spirits along the way. Pains are taken to show our protagonist has a heart, and flashbacks clumsily break up the action to tell us how often that heart has been busted up. Cleavon Little play Greek chorus in the person of Super Soul, the flamboyant blind DJ listening to the police band in some back-country crackertown.

All that aside, this is really just an exercise in making The Longest Car Chase EVAR, giving it enough hipster doofus points for Tarantino to reference it HARD thru the back half of "Death Proof".