- Joined
- Jun 14, 2016
- Messages
- 10,217
- Reaction score
- 1
Lol this movie is crazy! Best driving scenes ever, hands down. Better than Ronin, better than the Bourne driving sequences, better than all driving sequences ever filmed. It's manly driving. No cgi, no trick editing, just balls to the wall driving frenzy.
Kowalski is the anti hero. Takes a bunch of speed and makes a bet he can drive from denver to san fran in like 1 day. Meets naked hippie chicks on motorcycles, gets chased by cops, and becomes a hero from a radio show host following his exploits.
And that ending. Holy crap! It's open to interpretation as to what it means. I won't spoil it but it's a huge wtf moment.
Anybody seen this?
Edit:
I've been reading up on Vanishing Point, because i can't articulate how truly unique it is. some interesting facts about it:
- Steven Spielberg names it as 1 of his favorite films.
- Death Proof also references the film 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.[16]
- Newman also thought that the entire film was an essay on existentialism. Kowalski drives to drive, with no real purpose for doing what he's doing. He decides to give his 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. At the end of the film, he was ascending from this existence into another. The lyrics of the end song underscore this interpretation: "Nobody knows, nobody sees, till the light of life stops burning, till another soul goes free."
- The UK theatrical release of the film differs slightly from the US release in plot and running time. In the UK release, Kowalski picks up a mysterious hitchhiker (Charlotte Rampling) toward the end of the film. Kowalski accepts marijuana from her, despite refusing marijuana in several previous scenes. 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 meant to be an allegorical figure representing death.[6]This scene was removed from the final US version, reducing the film from 105 minutes to 98 minutes. Newman felt that the scene gave the film "an allegorical lift" but the studio was afraid that the audience would not understand.[9][15]
This movie, u guys just need to watch this movie. It's a work of art. Seriously. I feel like i understand the post woodstock counterculture mentality of the time better now than i ever have before, because of this movie.
Last edited:
