10-Vidcap Review or Less :: Vanishing Point 1971

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"And there goes the Challenger, being chased by the blue, blue meanies on wheels. The vicious traffic squad cars are after our lone driver, the last American hero, the electric centaur, the, the demi-god, the super driver of the golden west!"

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This post is in response to the "There's Something in My Eye" thread over at The BMMB, where you were asked to list any offbeat cinematic moments that reduce you to a blubbering idiot. Well, here's one that gets me every time ... Vanishing Point, right at the point where Kowalski, realizing he's finally and inevitably reached the end of his road, his brain addled on speed, a sly smile crossing his face, says "Fuck it" and floors his irresistible force right into an immovable object...

A melancholy ode to the vanishing American hero, a 99-minute Dodge Charger commercial, or the 1960's counter-culture movement's last, dying gasp, there are many ways to interpret Guillermo Cain's script. Me? I tend to get a little existential when I think about this movie, and, in the end, though it makes me sad, I feel secure and humbled knowing that after all his trials and tribulations, tempered by the desert heat, shunning prophets and false prophets alike, Kowalski died for all our sins, and that he is still out there, somewhere, foot on the floor, going hellbent toward another, endless horizon. So, when the next time you face a moral dilemma or a crisis of conscience, just ask yourself:

WHAT WOULD
KOWALSKI DO?

Man ... I need to get that on a T-shirt.

Vanishing Point (1971) Cupid Productions :: 20th Century Fox / EP: Michael Pearson / P: Norman Spencer / D: Richard C. Sarafian / W: Guillermo Cain / C: John Alonzo / E: Stefan Arnsten / M: Jimmy Bowen / S: Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Paul Koslo, Robert Donner, Dean Jagger, Severn Darden, Timothy Scott, Gilda Texter