Vanishing Point
Starring Barry Newman and Cleavon Little, aka the DJ SuperSoul
Directed by Richard Sarafian
1971
This classic flick is a pass along from the recent Tarentino film, 'Grindhouse' which paid major homage to the movie.
Newman plays James Kowalski, an early Vietnam Vet and busted former, honest, cop working as a car delivery person. The car, a white 1970 supercharged Dodge Challenger is as much the star of this movie as Newman.
Newman is engaged to drive this muscle car from Denver to San Francisco. For some reason, left to us to speculate upon, he decides to do so in record time. This, of course, garners police, and a multi-state, escalating, chase develops from Western Colorado to Eastern California.
The locations for this two lane chase are all superb - scenic highlights of the route. In contrast the soul DJ played by Cleavon Little gives us running social commentary on the events as he tracks them on the station's police scanner.
