Article on Vanishing Point in Road & Track

I thought this was worth a read.

Sad because it's true.

Last year they showed The Blues Brothers in limited theaters to celebrate it's 40th anniversary. Sure, covid was going on, but still........ I wasn't expecting to be the ONLY person that showed up. The theater was one of those big multiplex ones and there were plenty of people going to see other movies. If a 'car movie' with known actors and stars gets no attention, what do you think is gonna happen with a B-movie like VP? I have copies of The Blues Brothers movie, but I had never seen it in a theater on the big screen.

Vanishing Point is one of those movies that continues to have a certain mystique about it as well.

Did you know that the movie contains about 40 seconds worth of an unreleased Longbranch/Pennywhistle song?
A song so buried in the mire that Glenn Frey himself could not locate a master tape of the song for the Longbranch/Pennywhistle retrospective CD a few years ago.

Of course, I don't need to tell anybody who Glenn Frey was or what band he lead through the 70's.

I took a first date to the drive-in to see it. When Gilda showed up on the Honda, it kinda shocked both of us and all I could think of to say was "that's one way to get an all over tan". I was too cool at 16.


Tim

Look at the current genre of movies being made.

1) Politically correct
2) Slasher/horror
3) Revenge
4) Sci-fi

Movies like Vanishing Point, Two Lane Blacktop, Heart Like A Wheel, Redline 7000, Grand Prix just aren't being made any more. Ford Vs. Ferrarri and Tucker were two exceptions, how did they do? I still get chills watching the chase scene from Bullit but I am part of a dying breed.

Vanishing Point is what made me a Mopar guy (for better or worse lol).
When I was in Junior high, custom vans were the big craze. I wanted to build a “shaggin wagon” when I turned 16 and got my license. I worked odd jobs and saved all money for when I got my license. One day I told my dad that if he bought me a used van when I was 16, I thought I’d have enough saved to customize it.
He informed me if I wanted a car when I got my license I’d have to buy it myself. Whoops. Time for a plan B. Maybe a used muscle car? I started reading Car Craft and Hot Rod instead of van magazines and thought about Camaros, Mustangs and Chargers.
Then one Sunday night, I think it was in 1976, ABC showed Vanishing Point. It changed my life, seeing Kowalski banging gears with that pistol grip shifter had me hooked. I’d never paid much attention to Challengers and cudas but it was then I decided that was what I wanted. I bought a Challenger when I was 16 and have had them for the 40+ years since.

That is a nice story.

105 minute UK version of Vanishing Point on OK.RU with on screen subs


98 minute US version of Vanishing Point on OK.RU without on screen subs


Watch it while you still can.....

I do think that, on a whole, the muscle car mystique will soldier on. There will always be a new generation to discover films like VP, Two Lane, etc. What they will make of them, who knows, but the titles will live on. Muscle cars (and movies about them) always equated to machismo and personal freedom, and I can’t see those concepts losing any popularity among young males for a long time post-2021.

I dunno man.... maybe? I find though that more often than not, even though the younger generations hold in their hand a device that gleans access to the wealth of knowledge man has thus cultivated.... they still don't use the damn thing. They've also had it ingrained in their psyche not to question things.... not to ask "Why?" or "How?"

Most don't watch TV anymore and even if they did.... these movies certainly won't be on TV anymore. Not since Speed Vision and Bruce Dern hosting "The Lost Drive In" have I ever seen ANY of these films on TV. (Ok, maybe the ONE exception would be on TCM - but that's it!) So, unless we actively take a role in trying to expose the younger generations to this stuff.... they won't have any interest in it at all.

The same goes for cars. I have a cousin who inherited his fathers' millions. The kid is 30, lives in a million dollar home, has a 250k/year job and yet still covets my garbage and promises me that one day he will own all my cars. (Over my dead body, but that's neither here nor there.) Anywho, story is he comes to me and says his wife has granted him to spend 20k on a fun toy and he's looking at this POS '85 Mercury Capri. And I'm like.... no, no, no.... don't waste your money. So I spent an hour showing him a dozen other cars in province that are under 20k and WAY cooler. The one I thought I turned him onto was a '72 Mustang convertible. Beautiful car, recent restoration. 302/4-barrel/C4. Grabber Blue, white guts and top. P/S, P/db.... just a gorgeous and well appointed car. $16k. It was something that both he could enjoy, his wife would enjoy, wouldn't eat them out of house and home and their new baby would make a BILLION memories growing up in the back seat of a Mustang convertible.

My cousin actually thanked me for the help and my opinions.

Three weeks later he shows up un-announced to show off the same piece of trash Mercury Capri he originally looked at. *facepalm*
It'd already cost him a small fortune because the first day he took it to work, he didn't put the hood pins back in (fiberglass hood, no springs, no latch..... you see where I'm going with this....)
He lead-foots it on the street and near the top of 3rd gear the hood flies up and back, cracks the hood, breaks the header panel, smashes above the windshield....

Wouldn't have happened if he bought that groovy Grabber Blue convert his cousin showed him..... Just sayin'.....

I guess my point is.... even if you do lead them by the hand, they're still going to find some way to foul things up.

And the “good ol days” were never really that either, were they? Haha. I know what I know because I spent a lot of time doing things the wrong way. Eventually you learn. And either way, we’ll be dead by the time everything has lost its meaning (or it’s meaning has been twisted and perverted). Till then, hammer down.

Well, for me the good ole days were that indeed. I find myself looking back ALL THE TIME & missing those days. Our world today...............well - whatever.

My thoughts exactly!...

I still have a Blu-ray player because I care about sound quality. Streaming audio is inferior.

Don’t forget Superheroes. Every other movie is a Superhero movie. Boring.

I agree. ENOUGH of the stupid comic book based movies.

Oh God.... Superhero movies. What a load. Last time I went to the theatre to watch something GOOD, I went with a bunch of girls from work to see "Puss in Boots".
Even the Sci-Fi isn't good anymore. FFS, they screwed up STAR TREK. We used to think VOYAGER was the low point and now.... my God.... it's gone so woke it makes a person want to vomit. I didn't even make it through the first episode.

Would love to see a day come when the almost average Joe could make a movie on a shoestring budget and get it played. But I don't think there's anybody out there with the gumption like Toby Halicki, Floyd Mutrux, Greydon Clark or even another Spielberg or Lucas.

https://youtu.be/4hU6OdT9u2I