Vanishing Point

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For other uses, see Vanishing point (disambiguation).
Vanishing Point

Theatrical poster
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
Produced by Norman Spencer
Michael Pearson
Written by Guillermo Cain
Malcolm Hart (story outline)
Barry Hall (uncredited)
Starring Barry Newman
Cleavon Little
Dean Jagger
Victoria Medlin
Charlotte Rampling
Music by Kim Carnes
Delaney, Bonnie & Friends
Pete Carpenter
Mike Post
Jimmy Bowen
Cinematography John A. Alonzo
Editing by Stefan Arnsten
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) January 15, 1971
Running time 106 min. (approx.)
Country  United States
Language English
Budget US$1,300,000
Gross revenue US$12,442,673

Vanishing Point is a 1971 action-road movie starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, and Dean Jagger.

Vanishing Point is notable for its scenery from filming locations across the American Southwest and its social commentary on the post-Woodstock mood in the United States. The film is beloved by Mopar auto enthusiasts because it is one of the few movies ever to feature a classic Dodge muscle car. Though there was a 1997 remake, the original 1971 version of Vanishing Point is a classic cult film.

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

Barry Newman plays a car delivery driver named Kowalski (his first name is never given throughout the movie) who works for Argo's Car Delivery Service in Denver, Colorado and is assigned to deliver a white 1970 Dodge Challenger to San Francisco. Flashbacks which appear throughout the movie hint that he has either lost everything he has ever wanted and was reduced to taking the job of a car delivery driver as a last resort, or he is (what is called today) an adrenaline junkie. He is a Vietnam veteran, a former law enforcement officer, former race car driver, and former motorcycle racer. He lost his job as a cop apparently after being framed in a drug bust, perhaps in retaliation for his preventing his partner from raping a young girl. He seemingly gave up his automobile and motorcycle racing careers after two near-fatal accidents. His girlfriend in the movie, is not actually his girlfriend, but someone he was supposed to arrest, but fell in love with. All this is revealed when Vera (the love of Kowalski) says "Wouldn't it be funny after all if you did have to arrest me? I mean, me trying to turn you on, and you trying to turn me in?". After that, she drowns while surfing in the winter. This is also in the script, when Kowalski says "You're crazy surfing in the middle of winter." and Vera replies with "I'm going out again. Maybe I'll catch an 8-footer. I'll ride it in your honor. Sayonara. Remember me."

As the movie opens, Kowalski is near the end of his chase by the California Highway Patrol, where two bulldozers and a CBS News truck are setting up. After seeing the bulldozers, he turns around, only to run into three patrol cars further up the road. He then drives off the road to think, then gets back into the car and continues to drive back toward the roadblock. As the white Challenger passes a black Chrysler Imperial, the movie freezes, and the Challenger vanishes on Sunday at 10:02 am.

The Imperial continues on, and the film then flashes back to Denver, Colorado, two days earlier on Friday at 11:30 pm, where Kowalski's journey began. He has just arrived in Denver with a black Chrysler Imperial he is delivering from San Francisco. His supervisor demands he get some rest, but Kowalski insists on taking on a delivery back to San Francisco that night. Kowalski is assigned to deliver the white Challenger. He stops at a biker bar to buy some Benzedrine pills and tells his drug dealing friend Jake (Lee Weaver) that he must get to San Francisco by 3 o'clock the next day (although the delivery is not due until Monday). They make a small bet (the cost of the speed pills), and Kowalski takes off at high speed out of Denver.

Later Saturday morning near Glenwood Springs, Colorado, two motorcycle cops appear in Kowalski's rear view mirror and try to get him to pull over for speeding. He runs one off the road and, after stopping and seeing that the officer is unhurt, Kowalski takes off again and shakes the other officer by jumping across a trench.

Kowalski is chased across the states of Colorado, Utah, and Nevada and into California, with the police unable to catch him. The whole way, Kowalski has his radio tuned to the station KOW, which is broadcasting out of Goldfield, Nevada. A blind African-American DJ at KOW known as Super Soul listens to the police radio frequency and encourages Kowalski to evade the police. Super Soul seems to understand Kowalski and, through a writer's conceit, seems to see and hear Kowalski's reactions.

With the help of Super Soul, who calls Kowalski "the last American hero" on his radio show, Kowalski begins to gain attention among the counterculture and news media. Bikers and hippies flock to KOW radio in Goldfield to offer support. In a police chase in Nevada, Kowalski finds himself surrounded by police and flees into the desert. There, he blows a left front tire. After changing it, he encounters a rattlesnake and a snake catcher behind his car while placing the original tire in the trunk. Kowalski is helped by the old man who catches snakes in the desert to escape a police chopper that is now searching the desert for him. The old man leads him to a Pentecostal sect that reluctantly gives him fuel. The old man then redirects Kowalski back to the highway. There, he picks up two gay hitchhikers stranded en route to San Francisco with a "Just Married" sign in their rear window. They become combative and try to hold him up at gunpoint, but Kowalski throws them out of the car.

In the afternoon of Saturday, a police officer and some unidentified thugs, shouting racial epithets, raid the KOW studio and physically assault Super Soul and his engineer. Near the California state line, Kowalski is helped by a hippie biker and his nude girlfriend, who has followed Kowalski's police career and made a collage of articles about his story (it is hinted that perhaps she is the girl he prevented from being raped). They discover that Super Soul's encouragement is now being directed by the police to entrap Kowalski; they give him more Benzedrine pills, and help him get through the roadblock trap by strapping a motorbike with a red light and air raid siren to the top of the Challenger, fooling the police into clearing the roadblock for him to speed through, putting him in California by Saturday at 7:12 pm. This means that 3:00 pm on Saturday—Kowalski's original goal—has passed without comment. Kowalski calls Jake the dealer on a payphone, who has read about the chase in the newspaper. Kowalski reassures him that he's fine and still intends to deliver the car on Monday. However, the California police have put sensors on back roads that allow them to track Kowalski as he drives through the night.

In the U.K. release of the film (available on the U.S. DVD), Kowalski then picks up a mysterious hitchhiker (played by Charlotte Rampling). Kowalski accepts marijuana from her despite being shown refusing drugs (other than speed) several times in the past. He stops the car when he starts feeling stoned. She says she has been, "waiting for him, everywhere and since forever." When he awakens the next morning, she is gone, without a trace. According to interviews with Barry Newman and commentary from the director, the hitchhiker was a representation of death finally catching up with Kowalski.

It is still early Sunday morning when Kowalski makes it to Cisco, California (a vacant cattle town in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of San Francisco). There, with the California Highway Patrol in hot pursuit, Kowalski catches up to the opening of the film and crashes into the two bulldozers set up by the police as a roadblock, producing the fatal fireball of his death.

[edit] The ending

The ending (and, by extension, the overall theme of the film) has been the source of much debate. The viewer is left guessing why Kowalski insists on driving to San Francisco immediately and then drives heedlessly across four states to his death. Kowalski himself says only "I gotta be in Frisco 3 o'clock tomorrow afternoon." And when Jake scoffs that he's being put on, Kowalski says, "I wish to God I was."

Barry Newman offered his interpretation of the film's ending in an interview printed in the March 1986 issue of Musclecar Review. He said, "Kowalski smiles as he rushes to his death at the end of Vanishing Point because he believes he will make it through the roadblock." The August 2006 issue of Motor Trend magazine has a sidebar with Newman, in which he explains that Kowalski sees the light glinting from between the two bulldozers. "To Kowalski, it was still a hole to escape through. It symbolized that no matter how far they push or chase you, no one can truly take away your freedom and there is always an escape." Newman also theorized that the entire film itself was an essay on existentialism. Kowalski drives to drive, with no real purpose for doing what he's doing. He decides to give his own life its definition and meaning, with complete freedom over his actions.

Sarafian explained that he wanted to make Kowalski appear otherworldly, and that the world within the film was a temporary existence that he was just making a stop in. And at the ending of the film, he was ascending from this existence into another (and even points out that the lyrics of the end song point this out, "when the light of life stops burning, till another soul goes free").[1]

[edit] Cast and crew

Actor Role
Barry Newman Kowalski
Cleavon Little Super Soul
Dean Jagger Prospector (The Desert Snake Catcher)
Victoria Medlin Vera Thornton
Karl Swenson Sandy McKees (Argo's Car Delivery Attendant Clerk)
Lee Weaver Jake (Denver Drug Dealer, Kowalski's Connection)
John Amos Super Soul's engineer
Joe Brooks Speed Freak
Tom Reese Sheriff
Paul Koslo Charlie (Young Nevada Patrolman)
Robert Donner Collins (Older Nevada Patrolman)
Owen Bush Communications officer
Bill Drake KLZ-FM Reporter
Severn Darden Rev. J. 'Jessie' Hovah
Delaney Bramlett J. Hovah's singer (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
Bonnie Bramlett J. Hovah's singer (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
Bekka Bramlett J. Hovah's Baby (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
Rita Coolidge J. Hovah's singer (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
Patrice Holloway J. Hovah's singer (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
David Gates Piano player at revival meeting (as Delaney & Bonnie and Friends)
Anthony James Male Hitchhiker #1 (Front Seat)
Arthur Malet Male Hitchhiker #2 (Back Seat)
Timothy Scott Angel
Gilda Texter Nude motorcycle rider
Charlotte Rampling Female Hitchhiker
Cherie Foster Girl #1
Valerie Kairys Girl #2

[edit] Production

Guillermo Cain wrote the screenplay for Vanishing Point based on two actual events: the disgraced career of a San Diego police officer and a high-speed pursuit of a man who refused to stop, eventually killing himself when he crashed into a police roadblock.[2] Cain modeled the character of Super Soul after legendary rock and roll singer The Big Bopper, eventually re-naming the character from Super Spic to Super Soul.[3] His script had all the ingredients that reflected the popular alternative hippie-lifestyle of the time: rebellion, drugs, sexual freedom, and rock and roll. In 1969, director Richard Sarafian had turned down an offer to make the Robert Redford film Downhill Racer and was drawn to the counterculture themes in Cain's script.[2] Originally, the director cast Gene Hackman to play Kowalski but 20th Century Fox studio executive Richard Zanuck refused and insisted on relative unknown actor Barry Newman.[4]

According to Sarafian, it was Zanuck who came up with the idea of using the new 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T because he wanted to do Chrysler a favor for providing Fox for many years with cars on a rental base for only a dollar a day (many if not most of the other cars featured in the film are also Chrysler products.)[5] Stunt Coordinator Carey Loftin has said that he requested the Dodge Challenger because of the "quality of the torsion bar suspension and for its horsepower" and felt that it was "a real sturdy, good running car".[6] Five Dodge Challenger R/Ts were loaned to the production by Chrysler for promotional consideration and were returned upon completion of filming. No special equipment was added or modifications made to the cars, except for heavier-duty shocks for the car that jumped over No Name Creek.[6] Loftin remembers that parts were taken out of one car to make another because they "really ruined a couple of those cars" while jumping ramps between highways and over creeks.[6] Newman remembers that the 440 engines in the cars were so powerful that "it was almost as if there was too much power for the body. You'd put it in first and it would almost rear back!"[6] To convey the appearance of speed, the filmmakers undercranked the cameras. For example, in the scenes with the Challenger and the Jaguar, the camera was cranked at half speed. The cars were traveling at approximately 50 miles per hour (80 km/h) but at regular camera speed, they appeared to be much faster.[6]

Principal photography began in the summer of 1970 with a planned shooting schedule of 60 days.[3] The shoot had a few mishaps, including Newman driving a Challenger equipped with three cameras into the bushes in order to avoid a head-on collision when a "civilian" driver ignored the traffic blocks installed to ensure the safety of the crew.[7] The film's cinematographer John Alonzo used light-weight Arriflex II cameras that offered a great deal of flexibility in terms of free movement.[8] Close-up and medium shots were achieved by mounting cameras directly on the vehicles instead of the common practice of filming the drivers from a tow that drove ahead of the targeted vehicle.[8] An average day of filming involved the actors and the crew of 19 men spending many hours traveling to the remote locations, shooting for an extended period of time and then looking for a motel to spend the night.[9] Dean Jagger's scenes were shot on the Salt Lakes of Nevada.[10] Super Soul's radio station was filmed in a small town called Goldfield. All of Cleavon Little's scenes were completed in under three days. Financial troubles plagued the studio at the time forcing Zanuck to shorten Sarafian's shooting schedule by 22 days. In response, the director decided not to film certain scenes rather than rush through the rest of the shoot.[10]

Loftin was the film's stunt coordinator and responsible for setting up and performing the major driving stunts.[6] Newman learned from Loftin and was encouraged by the stunt coordinator to do some of his own stunts. In the scene before Kowalski crashes into the bulldozer, Newman drove and performed a 180 degree turn on the road and went back himself and without the director's knowledge.[6] The 383 car was also used as the tow vehicle in the crash scene at the end of the movie.[6] A ¼ mile cable was attached between the Challenger and an explosives-laden 1967 Chevrolet Camaro with the motor and transmission removed. The tow vehicle was driven by Loftin, who pulled the Camaro into the blades of the bulldozers at high speed. Loftin expected the car to go end over end but instead it stuck into the bulldozers, which he thought looked better.[6]

After principal photography, Vanishing Point was cut from 107 minutes to 99 minutes, completely removing a scene where Kowalski picks up a hitchhiker played by Charlotte Rampling.[6] Newman felt that the scene gave the film "an allegorical lift" but the studio was afraid that the audience would not understand.[6]

[edit] Soundtrack

Vanishing Point Soundtrack
Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released January 15, 1971
Recorded 1970
Genre Country
Hard rock
Pop
Rock
Label A&M
Amos Records
Producer Pete Carpenter
Mike Post
Jimmy Bowen
Tom Thacker
Professional reviews

Sarafian wanted to score the majority of the film from an album called Motel Shot by Delaney, Bonnie & Friends.[10] Lionel Newman, head of Fox's music department at the time, denied Sarafian's request because the studio did not want to spend a lot of money obtaining rights to the tracks. The director then suggested that musician Randy Newman score the film but this request was also denied.[10] After watching the film, musical supervisor Jimmy Bowen wrote three original songs. Delaney, Bonnie & Friends ended up performing a musical number in the film.[10]

A soundtrack of the film was released in the U.S. on vinyl LP by Amos Records. The vinyl soundtrack is long out of print. There have been reissues of the soundtrack compact disc in the U.S. by A&M, including various record companies, and in Europe by Amos Records.

[edit] Track listing

  1. "Super Soul Theme" - The J.B. Pickers - 1:50 (Bowen)
  2. "The Girl Done Got It Together" - Bobby Doyle - 2:47 (Settle)
  3. "Where Do We Go From Here?" - Jimmy Walker - 2:53 (Settle)
  4. "Freedom of Expression" - The J.B. Pickers - 5:48 (Bowen)
  5. "Welcome to Nevada" - Jerry Reed - 1:52 (Barnhill/Lanier)
  6. "Runaway Country" - Doug Dillard Expedition - 4:09 (Dillard/Berline)
  7. "Love Theme" - Jimmy Bowen Orchestra - 2:40 (Bowen/Carpenter)
  8. "You Got to Believe" - Delaney, Bonnie & Friends - 3:00 (Bramlett/Bon)
  9. "So Tired" - Eve - 2:10 (Creamer/Sliwin/Temmer)
  10. "Mississippi Queen" - Mountain - 2:32 (West/Laing/Pappalardi/Rea/Knight)
  11. "I Can't Believe It" - Longbranch Pennywhistle - (Frey/Souther/Seger/Browne)
  12. "Dear Jesus God" - Bob Segarini and Randy Bishop - 3:57 (Segarini/Bishop)
  13. "Sing Out for Jesus" - Big Mama Thornton - 1:47 (Carnes)
  14. "Sweet Jesus" - Red Steagall -
  15. "Over Me" - Bob Segarini and Randy Bishop - 3:04 (Segarini/Bishop)
  16. "Nobody Knows" - Kim & Dave - 2:22 (Settle)

The first ever recorded material by Kim Carnes appears in the soundtrack, credited as "Kim & Dave". Kim Carnes also wrote the song performed by Big Mama Thornton. The pop music group Delaney, Bonnie & Friends had a small role as a Christian music band, which included singer Rita Coolidge and singer/songwriter David Gates at the piano.

Tracks "I Can't Believe it" and "Sweet Jesus" are not on the original LP Soundtrack.

[edit] Reaction

Vanishing Point premiered in late January 1971 and did not receive positive notices.[11] In his review for the Los Angeles Times, Charles Champlin wrote, "Vanishing Point might have had a point, but it ... ah ... got lost. What's left is sophisticated craft and fashionably hokey cynicism".[12] Variety magazine said, "While stock car addicts may be able to maintain interest in the ultra-fast manipulation of the car, many viewers will just get car-sick ... or sick of the car, which isn't the same thing".[13] Larry Cohen, in the Reporter criticized the film for being "calculated, tedious and in desperate need of tightening, the picture, produced by Norman Spencer, is uninvolving and devoid of a cohesiveness that might have made it work".[14]

Newman recalls that 20th Century Fox had no faith in the film and released it in neighborhood theaters only to disappear in less than two weeks.[6] However, it was a critical and commercial success in England and Europe which prompted the studio to re-release it in the United States on a double bill with The French Connection. A cult following began to develop due in large part to a broadcast on network television in 1976.[6]

[edit] DVD

There were two theatrical releases. The U.S. version and U.K. version. Both are included on the Region 1 DVD.

[edit] Blu-ray

20th Century Fox released 'Vanishing Point' in the United States on Blu-ray Disc on Feb 24, 2009.

[edit] Legacy

Vanishing Point was the inspiration for the 1997 album by Primal Scream, also titled Vanishing Point.[11] It is meant to be an alternative soundtrack to the film. Leader singer Bobby Gillespie said, "The music in the film is hippy music, so we thought, 'Why not record some music that really reflects the mood of the film?' It's always been a favourite of the band, we love the air of paranoia and speed-freak righteousness ... It's a pure underground film, rammed with claustrophobia".[15] In addition, a track from the album was named "Kowalski" after the character from the film. The track also featured samples of Super Soul's "last American hero" speech from the film. Author Irvine Welsh scripted the video for "Kowalski" which was directed by musician Douglas Hart. The video features a Dodge Challenger and super model Kate Moss beating up the band.[15] Adrian Sherwood remixed the album which was issued later in 1997 entitled "Echo Dek".

The film was the basis for Audioslave's 2004 music video "Show Me How to Live", directed by the AV Club and which included members of the band in the 1970 Challenger travelling across the desert, following the plot of the movie.[11] Death Proof, the Quentin Tarantino contribution to the faux-exploitation "double feature" Grindhouse, features a chase involving a Dodge Challenger resembling the one seen in Vanishing Point (not being an R/T model and having an automatic transmission). Death Proof also references the movie by name repeatedly calling it - "one of the best American movies ever made". The car in the film also has the license plate OA 5599.[11]

In an episode of Top Gear, one of the hosts Richard Hammond road tests a 2008 Dodge Challenger across Nevada and fondly references the film as the inspiration for him choosing that car.

[edit] Remake

A Vanishing Point remake was created for Fox television, first airing in 1997, and also featuring a 1970 Dodge Challenger.[11] The film stars Viggo Mortensen as Kowalski, rewritten as a suspected militia sympathizer from Idaho, and Jason Priestly as "The Voice", a libertarian talk radio shock jock who replaces Super Soul. The two films are similar, but the remake removed all of the original's mystical elements.[11]

Richard Kelly is currently writing a remake of the film for 20th Century Fox.[16]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Vanishing Point DVD commentary featuring Richard C. Sarafian, [February 3, 2004]. Retrieved on August 17, 2007.
  2. ^ a b Siegel, Mike (Autumn 2008). "The Freedom of Speed". Cinema Retro: pp. 26. 
  3. ^ a b Siegel 2008, p. 28.
  4. ^ Siegel 2008, pp. 26-27.
  5. ^ Siegel 2008, p. 27.
  6. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zazarine, Paul (March 1986). "Kowalski's Last Ride". Muscle Car Review. 
  7. ^ Siegel 2008, pp. 28-29.
  8. ^ a b Siegel 2008, p. 29.
  9. ^ Siegel 2008, pp. 29-30.
  10. ^ a b c d e Siegel 2008, p. 30.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Siegel 2008, p. 31.
  12. ^ Champlin, Charles (March 18, 1971). "Chase is on in Vanishing". Los Angeles Times. 
  13. ^ "Vanishing Point". Variety. February 1, 1971. 
  14. ^ Cohen, Larry (February 1, 1971). "Vanishing Point". Reporter. 
  15. ^ a b Kessler, Ted (May 3, 1997). "Vortex, Drug & Rock n Roll". New Musical Express. http://www.theprimalscream.com/press/nme-3may97.html. Retrieved on 2008-11-16. 
  16. ^ Kelly, Richard (February 12, 2007). "Southland Tales Teaser Trailer". Richard Kelly's MySpace blog. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanishing_Point"
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