Vanishing Point
1971
In VANISHING POINT, an ex-racecar driver (Barry Newman) gets high on Benzedrine and leads the police on a hectic cross-country chase. On his strange journey, he meets numerous odd characters. Read more
| Starring | Barry Newman, Dean Jagger, Cleavon Little, Robert Donner |
|---|---|
| Director | Richard C. Sarafian |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
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Vanishing Point
In VANISHING POINT, an ex-racecar driver (Barry Newman) gets high on Benzedrine and leads the police on a hectic cross-country chase. On his strange journey, he meets numerous odd characters.
| Starring | Barry Newman, Dean Jagger, Cleavon Little, Robert Donner, Paul Koslo, Anthony James, Timothy Scott, Gilda Texter |
|---|---|
| Director | Richard C. Sarafian |
| Studio | 20TH CENTURY FOX HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 35 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Action/Adventure |
| Language | DVD: English |
| Dubbed | French, German, Spanish |
| Hearing-impaired | English, German |
| Subtitles | DVD: Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish |
| Released | DVD: 09 Sep 2002 Production year: 1971 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews (3)
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Fast cars are the stars of this remake of the 1971 cult classic. When race-car driver Viggo Mortensen learns that his wife's (ER's Christine Elise) pregnancy has turned life threatening, he desperately races across four states in a super-charged car in order to be by her side. Through a series of misunderstandings he soon becomes a wanted man, with the police and FBI in hot pursuit. Writer/director Charles Robert Carner revs up the action but eventually runs out of gas, despite a good cast and scenic desert locations.
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Having just driven 1,500 miles non-stop from California to Colorado, Sarafian's sullenly uncommunicative anti-hero... read more on Time Out
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Most helpful member's review
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15 out of 15 people found this review helpful
Vanishing Point - a cult classic
The film centres around the protagonist Kowalski, an ex-cop, ex-racing driver and Vietnam vet. who now delivers cars for a living. At the start of the film he has a bet with a colleague that he can drive a Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in under 24 hours. Due to some erratic, high speed driving and an incident with some hitchhikers he is pursued by the police. With the help of a blind radio DJ and his police scanner he is able to avoid capture until the climatic ending.
There are numerous reasons why I think is this an excellent film. The main one being, it captures the zeitgeist perfectly. The Vietnam war shaped so much of politcal and social thinking at the time that it's influence can clearly be seen in Vanishing Point which is essentially a car chase movie. Early Seventies counter-culture was based around the anti-establishment, personal freedom ethos of the hippy movement due to large scale dissention towards American involvement in Vietnam. Kowalski is an embodiment of this school of thought, he was a cop and vet. both establishment jobs. But he was unable to function in either role and for most of the film is on the run from the police. Now he drives across vast empty deserts, high on speed displaying his desire to feel free. This notion also acts as an explanation for his decisions at the end. In essence, his soul is still free and he is sticking it to 'the man' at the same time.
Having said this there are other possible reasons for Kowalski's action which adds to the enjoyment for me. For example, through flashbacks we learn of his past occupations and that his girlfriend/wife was killed in an accident. Consequently it is his inability to fit in, the loss of his lover and a mind clouded by drugs which combine to create the stark ending to the film.
A tight script, clinical direction and an excellent performance by Barry Newman as Kowalski produces an action-packed ride which entertains from beginning to end. Personally, I like it for the symbolism and the ambiguity of the main characters motivations but it can be enjoyed purely for the fast car chases and high-impact ending.
Recently, the film was used as the basis for the video Show Me How To Live by Audioslave proving that it is a genuine cult classic. -
Most recent members' review
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1 out of 1 person found this review helpful
Vanish
Unlike many modern films, the title could be said to summarise the entire theme of the movie.
Vanishing point is named after those long straight roads out in the middle of America that seem to go on forever. Looking into the distance the two points of the road seem to meet in the middle. Something that can be seen but never reached, this is Kowalski's vanishing point.
Kowalski races towards a point where the two opposing sides within him will meet. As his focus passes to the horizon he travels through all the events in his life. -
News and features
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McQueen's Bullitt takes poll position on car chase movie list
- 30 Mar 2009
Steve Mcqueen's race through the streets of San Francisco, California in Bullitt has topped another poll to find the Best Car Chase Movie. The late icon's heroics at the wheel turned the 1968 film into an instant classic - and now Bullitt has beaten 1998's Ronin and the original Italian Job (1969) as the best action-packed motor movie of all time on AOL Autos new list. The top 10 also includes Cannonball Run, Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof, cult classics French Connection and Vanishing Point... Read more
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In VANISHING POINT, an ex-racecar driver (Barry Newman) gets high on Benzedrine and leads the police on a hectic cross-country chase. On his strange journey, he meets numerous odd characters.... -