A Car Movie Done Right

A Car Movie Done Right

- Arthur St. Antoine

I WAS BARELY six hours into a 12-hour flight across the Pacific, and I’d already finished my book. Ugh. I checked my iPad. Dammit, forgot to load any e-reading. I sighed, tucked the book and iPad away, and unfolded the multimedia screen.

Let’s see. “War for the Planet of the Apes.” Nah, all that hair might land on my semi-faux Salisbury steak. Hmmmm. “Transformers: The Last Knight.” Uh, not when I could already picture the sequel: “Transformers: The Very Last Knight. Promise.” I flipped absent-mindedly through more pages of CGI-inflated, Dolby-drenched pablum and then suddenly had to blink twice.

There amid all the robots and superheroes was Richard Sarafian’s dusty, existentialist 1971 car classic, “Vanishing Point.” I first saw it as a wideeyed teenager on late-night TV but hadn’t seen it in years. I pulled on my headphones and cranked up the volume.

In case you haven’t heard of it, let alone seen it, here’s “Vanishing Point” in a nutshell: Kowalski, a sleepless car-delivery driver amped up on amphetamines, bets the pusher who supplies his pills that he can drive from Denver to San Francisco in less than 15 hours.

How’s that for a Cliffs Notes plot? Except Kowalski isn’t just a car delivery driver. He’s a man with a past—ex-race driver, decorated Vietnam vet, and disgruntled, disgusted ex-cop who’s sick of the law preying upon the weak. This is getting interesting, no?