Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Vanishing Point - Movie Review

Unusual as hell. There is a car delivery man who has just dropped off one car in some small place in the USA. Instead of resting, he wants to get back on the road and speed his blues away. He makes a small bet with a dealer that he will be in San Francisco next day by 3 in the new car he has to deliver. No hurry, just a need to push himself to the edge. Off he goes, at a great speed, and that strikes you visually, as his white car surfs the US countryside like lightning.

Along the way he pushes two insistent highway policemen on their bikes off the highway when they try to stop him. By now we know this man is an expert behind the wheel. A flash, and we know he has been a successful motorbike rider. More chases, by cops and he avoids them all. It looks like no one can catch this man. Another flash, he was a race car driver when he was younger. A man in a faster car challenges him to a race and he beats him off the road. Another flash, he is a US war veteran, an ex-traffic cop who busted his senior who was trying to rape a girl in the car. His name is now out as policemen across many states are out to catch him. He is a celebrity - the spirit of freedom. Kowalski. A radio jockey tunes into the police frequency and urges Kowalski onwards, telling him how not to get caught, that he is the last free spirit on the earth. Kowalski zooms on, helped by strangers, misfits, a nude girl on a bike and her biker boyfriend.

A road block is set up with heavy dumpers. Police all over the place. The only crime, Kowalksi, is speeding and not heeding to law. Another flash, he is a hero. And his girlfriend died in a drowning accident. Kowalski does not give a damn.

The swift white care races into the small gap between the dumpers, that little vanishing point. Can Kowalski find his peace?

I don't think I will see another like this movie. It has that whole Woodstock, hippie, mood. Freedom was big. Heroism was big.

No comments: