Topic: Vanishing Point

[DammitDan]

I watched Vanishing Point for the first time yesterday...  It was a pretty decent movie with some cool car chases, but it seemed to go over the top in the movie's philosophical view of itself.

But I must say, the naked chick riding the Honda was the high point of the movie.  Ahh Gilda with the pointy boobies...

http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0856749/

Anyone else notice the sweet, sweet irony in her chosen career path?

It struck me at about 11pm last night and I just started laughing 

[cb650]

If you search sohc4 there was a good thread on it.  With pics .




                            Terry

[tramp]

the movie was great and i still have good memories about the babe

[ofreen]

It was fun watching the Challenger drive around, but the ending never made any sense to me.  Seemed pointless.  I have the DVD and listened to the director's commentary, but that was no help.

[BobbyR]

It was fun watching the Challenger drive around, but the ending never made any sense to me.  Seemed pointless.  I have the DVD and listened to the director's commentary, but that was no help.

I was a student of the film, there has been a lot of speculation. Some think he was so strong out on speed that he figured he could make it. Others think the smile on his face may mean that he knew this was the end and he would be freed from all of ghosts of his prior life. Either way Kowolski was an icon during that period of time. Maybe he finally found the Vanishing point.

[ofreen]

One thing the director said was that he didn't get to make the movie he wanted to because the studio kept chopping his budget, so a lot of character development and back story never made it in the movie.

[Raul CB750K1]

It was fun watching the Challenger drive around, but the ending never made any sense to me.  Seemed pointless.  I have the DVD and listened to the director's commentary, but that was no help.

+1.

First of all, I didn't understand why did he started the chase. He should have just stop and pay the fine or whatever. Even if he was raising time, stopping for the cop wouldn't make much difference in a cross country trip.

I didn't really understand why the radio speaker was beaten. Even if he was supporting Kowalski, the beating was excessive.


I didn't really understand why the girl should ride the bike naked. It seems just a poor script excuse to show some flesh and appeal to the male public.

And finally I don't understand why he decides to end like that. If there was no escape there was no way to give the car on time, so once that you are not going to make it, he chose the worst option. And it didn't seem to me like if he was a "tortured soul" so he was willing to die.


Well, I just saw the movie a few months ago in english language and I surely didn't catch all the dialogues, but the movie didn't tell much to me.

[BobbyR]

Well Raul you were not living in America during that period of time.The country was very polarized over Vietnam and other social issues. That is why the DJ was beaten, he was talking about freedom and making a free man a hero and spreading that message. In NYC construction workers attacked students having a peaceful demonstration at Pace University.  At Kent State University National Guard members shot and killed anti war demonstrators. It was a dark, ugly and frankly a confusing time here.

Kowolski did not stop for the Cops since he was also challenging authority. Remember the only laws he broke was speeding and failure to comply. However the authorities chose to use extreme measures to stop him. If you lived here during that period, you would have been able to understand the film.

[DarkRider]

If im not mistaken there were flash backs to his time as a cop through out the movie...perhaps something happened that lead to him wanting to end it all like that. There was also the racisim factor to take in mind with the DJ.

[333]

Okay, how boring of a movie would it have been if he just paid the fine?  And it was made just after the beginning of the "free love" era, so the nudity seemed right at the time.  The violence also makes for a better movie.  And while it has been 25 or so years since the one time I saw it, I did catch the TV version about a year ago.  It was lame, but in it his wife dies( I don't remember the original) so it seems to me that might be a reason to end it all at the end of the movie. 

That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[BobbyR]

If im not mistaken there were flash backs to his time as a cop through out the movie...perhaps something happened that lead to him wanting to end it all like that. There was also the racisim factor to take in mind with the DJ.

Very true, if you notice nothing he ever did worked out well. He was a Viet Vet also. Racism was truly one of the motivators in the DJ beating.

[seaweb11]

FIGHT THE  MAN!

[DammitDan]

In the beginning of the movie he races up to the barricade and stops and turns around, then runs back into the 3 cops driving head-on and he turns off into the desert to contemplate for a while.  Then it goes through the flashback explaining how he got to the desert with a helicopter circling overhead, and all the events leading up to it.  (Though I never really understood why he was trying to drive to Cisco anyway).

He had bad experiences in Vietnam (he was awarded the Medal of Honor for whatever he did there), he had bad experiences as a cop, his girlfriend drowned in the ocean (because she was surfing in the winter...  ) and he was blamed for it, he never cut it as a race car driver/flat track motorcycle racer, and he was seriously hopped up on speed and probably dehydrated to boot.  I think he was just giving up, and he left the desert (from the beginning of the movie) and ran back to the barricade.  That's why he smiled when he hit the barricade.  He finally realized he couldn't escape his past, no matter how far or how fast he tried to run.

AHA!  See, I told you this movie was wrapped up in its' own philosophy 

[SClay115]

(Though I never really understood why he was trying to drive to Cisco anyway).

He was delivering said Challenger there. From what I can gather from the film, he was driving from somewhere in Colorado, don't think it was Denver, thought it was more south, to San Fran. I think it's a great film as well, I believe they also remade it, but for some reason I think the remake wasn't nearly as good as the previous one. But I'd have to agree with Dan on this one, the entire "can't escape your past" feel was definitely apparent in the film.

Good flick though, just try not to think so much about it. 

Steve

[DarkRider]

the only things the two versions of the movie had in common were white challengers and the fact they were both trying to deliver the cars somewhere...both versions of kowalski had different backgrounds. Hell i think the two challengers were different even...both were R/Ts but If i remember the original was a 440 and the remake was a Hemi...or it was the other way around...been awhile since i have seen either version.

[jsaab2748]

At the VERY beginning it shows him driving down the road and
the challenger passing another vehicle going the opposite direction,
just before it "vanishes".  A subtitle shows the time of day that is just BEFORE the time shown at the end of the movie when the car crashes,
if memory serves me. Seemed like he was "gone" before they ever got
him. Just my opinion, but I liked the Jaguar scene the best

[Raul CB750K1]

Lots of good explanations here, but there are still some questions lingering in my mind:

1. Even if it was the time of "free love", did that mean that people was naked all day long? Why on earth would a girl ride a bike naked in the middle of nowhere?

2. Even worst, why did Kowalksi turn down the offer for sex?

3. And third, he was hired to drive the car to Frisco, but did Kowalski ever think that the owner would not notice all the beating that the car underwent for all that offroad driving?

[ofreen]

Lots of good explanations here, but there are still some questions lingering in my mind:
1. Even if it was the time of "free love", did that mean that people was naked all day long? Why on earth would a girl ride a bike naked in the middle of nowhere?

There's a funny remark in the director's commentary on the DVD about how badly she was sunburned during filming and a certain part of her anatomy that was badly blistered.

2. Even worst, why did Kowalksi turn down the offer for sex?

He may have spotted the blisters.

3. And third, he was hired to drive the car to Frisco, but did Kowalski ever think that the owner would not notice all the beating that the car underwent for all that offroad driving?

The answer is in your question.  It wasn't his car!

[Raul CB750K1]

I see ofreen, "ride it like if you stole it"   

Again, I should have stopped seeing the movie after Kowalski turned down the sex offer. From that point the movie lost all its credibility!!!! Since when a single man turn down a explicit sex offer by a gorgeous lady?

[BobbyR]

Lots of good explanations here, but there are still some questions lingering in my mind:

1. Even if it was the time of "free love", did that mean that people was naked all day long? Why on earth would a girl ride a bike naked in the middle of nowhere?

2. Even worst, why did Kowalksi turn down the offer for sex?

3. And third, he was hired to drive the car to Frisco, but did Kowalski ever think that the owner would not notice all the beating that the car underwent for all that offroad driving?

1. There was a lot of nakedness during that period of time. I saw plenty at Woodstock. Sort of a non conformist thing. America was and still is a Puritanical society. Nakedness represented freedom. Europe is way ahead of us in these matters.

2. Here he showed character. He was a moral man. You saw that when he was a cop and stopped the other cop from raping the young girl even though it cost him his job.

3. He did not set out to off road the car, once he mixed it up with the cops in his own mind he was at the point of no return.

What you are looking at is a very low budget movie written on the fly, with a bigger budget, more writers etc, it may have been better or maybe worse. We will never know.

[DammitDan]

2. Here he showed character. He was a moral man. You saw that when he was a cop and stopped the other cop from raping the young girl even though it cost him his job.

OHH!!  I was wondering what the hell that was all about...  Never even entered my mind that it was a flashback to Kowalski's past

[Raul CB750K1]

Everytime i hear "kowalski" I can't help but remember an old joke about a businessman that sits in a plane besides a hot chick. After almost an hour of flight he decides to take a chance and in order to start a conversation he tells her "that magazine you are reading must be very interesting; you haven't stopped reading since takeoff". The chick replies: "oh well, I'm a sexologist and I'm reading a very interesting sex article. According to it, american indians are the men with longest dick, and polish men the ones with thicker dicks. My name is X -whatever-. And you?" and the man replies "White Cloud Kowalski, nice to meet you"

[BobbyR]

o

[Rhonda750F]

"White Cloud Kowalski, nice to meet you"

[74cb750]

I do remmember this movie....sort of
as I was a teenager then.
I just thought it was cool, how he just said
the heck with it.

[ofreen]

I just thought it was cool, how he just said
the heck with it.

I guess that's my problem with the ending.  Nothing in the movie really justified his committing suicide.  Yeah, he lost his woman, and he had to put up with some crap.  So what? 

The worse part is he took a perfectly good car with him.  It had been through the ringer a little bit, but I could have fixed it.

[mark]

I saw the movie for the first time when I was a kid. In a theater on the big screen. It was awesome. Who needs a plot when you have fast cars and boobies? (Also awesome - Gone in 60 Seconds and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry)

As for some of K's odd behavior, (refusing sex, running into bulldozers, etc..) the handfulls of little white pills that he ate throughout the flick could explain part of that. The man was wired out of his gourd for a few days. Speed kills. Only the writer knows for sure.

Toby Halicki used up a heckuva lot more yellow '73 Mustangs making Gone in 60 Seconds. He died making the sequel.

"White Cloud Kowalski, nice to meet you" 

[Rushoid]

Toby Halicki used up a heckuva lot more yellow '73 Mustangs making Gone in 60 Seconds. He died making the sequel.

Actually, he only had the two. Almost all of the cars in the movie were his, including the police cars and the damaged Caddys at the dealership (he didn't own those until they got wrecked though. OOPS!). Also, the scene where he hits the telephone pole was an actual accident. He reportedly asked if the camera crew captured it at the scene. 

[Wheelhorse77]

Pros--No sped up fast and furious fake scenes... the car was actually performing and performing well.

At the very end, you will note that it is a 69 camaro that hits the catapillers. Flat hood the flys off and the famous louvers before the rear wheel well give it away.

He was trying to beat the clock, which in a sense, was a joke because time ran out.

The original was claimed to do 180 mph and with a 440 six pack and with the right rear gear, I would believe it could do it. When he walks away from the helicopter, that's no bs.

The movie also promoted the awesome capabilities of the Challenger to compete with the other pony cars. The movie did very well in portraying the brute force the Challenger could lay down. Another interesting note, in some desert scenes, it almost sounds like several clips from the movie Bullitt were used as dubs.

[dusterdude]

well at least they wrecked a chevy,nothin lost there.

[DarkRider]

I remember reading about them using a 6 cyl camaro for the stunt double in that last scene...at least it looked like a base model when i rewatched the movie a couple years ago.