I've seen a couple of web pages defined Vanishing Point as a existentialist movie.
And though that is technically true; it may not be the best way to approach this film.
I think that at it's heart this is just a road movie about a singular man driving from one place to the other. With excessive manoeuvring and phenomenal camera angles.
That might sound a bit simplistic but often I think it's the best way to enjoy most films.
You can sit there and try to give existential opinions about a movie means. But arguably it always devolve back to what you see on screen.
Luckily vantage point is one of those films you can enjoy from both angles. You can look at it as nothing more than a theoretical story of a man's unquestionable Drive in the face of emptiness and Desperation against the world that ultimately destroyed him or you can just watch it as a fun getaway movie.
I appreciate that both approaches are equally enjoyable.
He's driving extremely irrationally to try and win a bet against this biker guy who claims he can't make his delivery within a mirror 2 days.
And this guy Kowalski decides to take up the bet and try for it. With no real Rhyme or Reason as to why he's doing this or why he's being such an irrational driver to begin with.
If he had just drove in a little bit more carefully and actually obeyed the police the one time they pull them over he would have been able to get away with it. Although there is a scene later on where they described his license was suspended so maybe the police arresting him would have done him in to begin with.
Then again he probably has a fake license on him so he might have been able to get away with it.
That part's not in the movie that's just an idea in my own head, giving all his previous experience with what he's been doing here.
He was a former cop, a former NASCAR driver and even served a couple years in the Vietnam War.
All these things went badly because of injury, corruption in the police force and then an inevitable car accident that left him out of the driving circuit.
All of this culminating in a man who's kind of lost and indifferent to the world hence his Extreme driving and inevitable demise towards the end.
We also have this crazy radio DJ played by Cleavon Little who keeps egging him on to try and make it. He creates this weird symbol of rebellion out of Kowalski as this kind of culture movement of the late 1960s.
And once again this is where you can get into all this esoteric about the real message of the film. But you don't have to.
You can just sit back and literally enjoy the ride which is phenomenal.
I don't how the director of this film did it, but he was able to make a car chase scene last almost an hour and a half and keep it entertaining the entire time.
Switching up camera angles, changing scenarios and keeping the tension just high enough that you never get bored of the chase.
But also not turning it up to 11 constantly as to make you indifferent to it.
Peppered throughout all of this or a bunch of weird and wacky characters that Kowalski comes across.
Including a man who captures rattlesnakes and helps him hide from a helicopter. This crazy Reverend dude who's singing out in the middle of the desert with a choir of people. Even this (kind of uncomfortable by modern standards) possibly gay couple who tries to stick the guy up for his car.
Oh and of course there's some grade-a racism is a group of bigoted prick trieing to kill the guy who was running the radio station as he's attempting to help out this common Thug.
Though I suspect they probably try to smash up his radio store regardless giving all the other circumstances.
And finally there's this team of camaraderie between all the lower class people as they kind of stick up against the man being represented by the cops. None of them do anything to trying stop this guy from speeding across various state lines and a lot of them keep offering them drugs too. Including an awful lot of uppers which I suspect is the only way this guy was able to drive for several days straight.
Overall this is a really enjoyable film. It's as basic as you can get and yet despite all that I was able to talk about it more than most films.
There's plenty here you can dig into if you want but you don't have to. Sit along for the ride or write a freaking grade paper about it they're both options to you.
Comments
Post a Comment