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    Nostalgia Central
    Home»Movies»Movies by Decade»Movies - 1970s
    Movies - 1970s Movies - V 2 Mins Read

    Vanishing Point (1971)

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    Kowalski (Barry Newman) has just driven 1,500 miles non-stop from Califonia to Denver, Colorado to deliver a car. Pausing long enough to grab a supply of benzedrine, he bets a friend that he will deliver a supercharged white 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours.

    He is determined to let nothing stand in his way and he hits the road, fast. When the police attempt to stop him, he goes faster still.

    Incidents on the journey remind him of his past and a series of flashbacks provide elliptical glimpses of his past as a racing driver, a disillusioned cop who couldn’t stand the corruption and brutality of his colleagues, and a doomed lover.

    Kowalski’s desert journey takes in side-trips involving faith, sex, friendship, and – in a sequence involving Charlotte Rampling as a hooded hitchhiker – death.

    He picks up a vocal admirer in the form of a blind half-crazed DJ named Super Soul (Cleavon Little, pre-Blazing Saddles) who dubs him “the last beautiful, free soul on this planet” as he guides him away from the cops.

    But in California, he hits a roadblock of bulldozers and his car goes up in flames.

    vanishingpoint3

    Directed by Richard C. Sarafian from a script by exiled Cuban postmodernist writer Guillermo Cabrera Infante under the pseudonym Guillermo Cain, Vanishing Point is one of a handful of early 70s road movies that exist in the space opened up by Easy Rider in 1969.

    Kowalski
    Barry Newman
    Vera
    Victoria Medlin
    Angel
    Tim Scott
    Jake
    Lee Weaver
    Sandy
    Karl Swenson
    Super Soul
    Cleavon Little
    J. Hovah
    Severn Darden
    J. Hovah’s singers
    Delaney & Bonnie & Friends

    Director
    Richard C. Sarafian

    Video

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