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Vanishing Point is a 1997 television film directed by Charles Robert Carner and starring Viggo Mortensen, Jason Priestley, Peta Wilson, Christine Elise, and Keith David. A remake of the 1971 cult film of the same name, it aired on the Fox television network.
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by Paul Zazarine
Kowalski's Last Ride
For movie goers who are also autobuffs, a few 'road movies' stand out as acut above the standard box office fare. Perhaps the best known of these isthe critical and box office hit Bullitt. While the Bullitt plot was alittle thin, it did have Steve McQueen and that exciting chase sequencethrough San Francisco. Equally as popular today is the 1971 cult classic,Vanishing Point. Vanishing Point was more than just a chase movie, although at the time ofrelease the message it carried beneath the explosive photography and fastpaced music wasn't fully appreciated. Over the years it has remained in theminds of movie goers who just happen to also be in love with highperformance cars. Vanishing Point had a subconscious effect on the viewer;its impact remained long after seeing it. Fifteen years after its release, many are still intrigued about the stars,the plot and, of course, the cars. Over the years, numerous myths havedeveloped concerning Vanishing Point. Ever since we ran a Vanishing Pointtrivia question in the March, 1984 issue of Car Review, we've receivedscads of letters and phone calls relating contradictory details about themovie and the cars. What began as a passing trivia question soon turnedinto a tidal wave of Vanishing Point mania. We had really touched a nerve, so to put the capper on a lot of wronginformation, we talked to some Vanishing Point experts. That only provedto cloud the story even more. So we cranked up the Watts line, assured theboss it was for a worthy cause, and proceeded to call Hollywood. Wearranged two interviews, one with Vanishing Point stunt coordinator CareyLoftin; the other with Barry Newman, who starred in the role of Kowalski.What we learned from them reinforced some stories while other myths crashedand burned. Carey Loftin has coordinated and performed stunts in numerous moviesincluding On The Beach, It's A Mad, Mad, Mad World and Grand Prix.Many will remember the exciting street race sequence in the recent film,Against All Odds, which won Loftin an Academy Award. Newman has high praisefor Loftin, 'Carey is the greatest stunt driver that ever lived. I did afew of the minor stunts, but Carey set up and did the major ones. He reallyset them up beautifully and made me look great!' Loftin is currentlyworking on a car chase sequence on the elevated railways of Chicago forRunning Scared. One of the main points of controversy has centered around the 1970 DodgeChallengers using in Vanishing Point. Carey Loftin remembers that hespecifically requested Challengers because of the 'quality of the torsionbar suspension and for its horsepower. It was a real sturdy, good runningcar.' Five Alpine White Challengers were loaned to Cupid Productions byChrysler for promotional consideration and were returned upon completion ofthe filming. How the cars were equipped has been a point of controversy amongVanishing Point buffs. 'There were five cars,' Loftin said. 'The numberfive car that we never used was an automatic and it did have the 383. Allthe rest had the 440. All the 440's were equipped with four-speeds, andall were four-barrel motors.' Speculation had been that Hemi or Six PackChallengers were used, which Loftin and Newman dispelled. The carsperformed to Loftin's satisfaction, although dust came to be a problem.None of the engines were blown, and Loftin recalls that no specialequipment was added or modifications made to the cars, except forheavier-duty shocks for the car that jumped over No Name Creek. No specialbracing or frame ties were used in any of the Challengers. Newman remembers that the Challengers were wrenched for the movie by MaxBalchowsky, who also prepared the Mustangs and Chargers for Bullitt. 'Maxwas like a surgeon. It was amazing. He would take parts out of one to makeanother car work, because we really ruined a couple of those cars, what withjumping ramps from highway to highway and over creeks.' Newman agreed with Loftin's memory about the cars. 'I remember the carshad 440 engines and had a tremendous amount of power. It was almost as ifthere was too much power for the body. You's put it in first and it wouldalmost rear back! They had a four-speed and there was also an automaticcar. That was a 383. I think we used that one as the camera car on thestraight runs.' One difference between the filming of Bullitt and Vanishing Point wasspeed - or the appearance of speed. As the Mustang and Charger spedthrough the streets of San Francisco, the were moving at actual speed.For Vanishing Point, the cameras were undercranked. Consequently, asLoftin explains, 'the top speed at the most was between 100 and 110miles-per-hour. We had a fairly low rear end ratio, and to get theappearance of speed, we would undercrank the camera. When people arewalking, it can look really crazy, but out in the desert, it looks likethe car is really flying. For example, on the scenes with the Jaguar,we cranked the camera at half speed. The cars were going about 50miles-per-hour, but at regular camera speed, it would appear to bemuch faster.' For the high speed desert scenes, Newman remembers traveling a littleslower. 'It was more like 80-90,' said Newman. 'What happens is if youshoot a car from the side, you can go by at 30 miles-per-hour, but itlooks like you're doing 20. The perspective is off. So those shotswhere I look like I'm traveling at 150, we weren't going that fast atall.' We asked Loftin how well Barry Newman drove the Challenger during thefilming. 'He caught on so fast I couldn't believe it,' Loftin laughed.'I'll tell you one thing Barry did. The scene before the crash at the endwhere he comes up and does a 180 on the road and goes back, he did thathimself. The director didn't realize that. I was standing behind thecameraman, and when Barry did the stunt, I said 'he's a good listener andlearner.' Sarafian thought it was me. I told him Newman had to dosomething! Barry did a terrific job.' Driving across the desert was not all fun and games, as Newman relates.'We had tremendous traffic control, although once I almost did get introuble. They blocked off five miles of road to keep traffic away whilewe made the shots. One of the Challengers was used as a camera car.That particular Challenger was set up with three cameras. One was mountedon the hood looking into the windshield and looking at the driver.Another camera was hooked onto the front bumper and it looked ahead of thecar at the white lines. A third camera was on the rear bumper. Thecamera car also had a tremendous amount of lights on it. The lights wereextremely bright, and it's difficult to see, especially with that Coloradosun shining in your eyes. Somehow, while I was driving on this controlledfive mile strip of road, a car got through the traffic blocks, and I wason the road by myself, and suddenly, I happen to see a car coming at me!I just swerved off to the right and went up a hill. A couple of thecameras fell off, but we were alright. It was a close call.' Special preparations were made for the spectacular crash at the end ofthe movie, as Kowalski speeds into the bulldozers placed across the roadwith blades down to stop him. Several days were needed to set up thestunt. A derelict 1967 Camaro was purchased and stripped of engine andtransmission. A tow-rig setup that Loftin had used successfully in thepast was employed. 'I've used this rig for a long time,' Loftinexplained. 'And as long as you're towing it, it will go to that fulcrum.There was a crown on the road, and I had a mechanic there. I would towthe Camaro, and he'd reset the front end. We did this several timesuntil the car would tow right in the center of the road.' 'I had a quarter mile of cable when we did the stunt. The strip of roadleading to the bulldozers went straight back, over a slight hill and thento the left. When I started to tow, I couldn't see the Camaro, so I toldthe effects man to put it in the ditch on the left hand side so it will bein a straight line. After all the testing I just had to believe that itwould work. Once I got it up to speed, it came straight down the road,I was doing a good 80 miles-per-hour at the time of impact.' 'With the motor and transmission out, we were prepared for the car to goend over end, but it stuck into the bulldozers, which was a better effect.The effects man loaded the Camaro's front-end with explosives to go off onimpact, and if I had lost control and gone into the ditch and really hitsomething hard, it would have exploded there. The director set thebulldozers about five to six inches apart, just enough to get my cablethrough. He asked me what the point of no return was, and I said 'abouttwo seconds after you say 'action'. Once I go it's all the way. I don'thave anything to stop the Camaro except those bulldozers!' 'We towed the Camaro with the fifth car, the 383 automatic. I used thatone because if you miss a gear and your line goes slack you lose the car.I'd rather use an automatic than risk a chance of losing the car. That383 was a good running car. In fact, it would probably run just as fastas that 440.' What happened to Vanishing Point after it was filmed is as interesting asthe making of the movie itself. Newman recounts that a portion of VanishingPoint was cut, shortening the film from 107 to 99 minutes. 'There was awonderful scene where Kowalski stops the car and picks up a hitchhiker,played by Charlotte Rampling. The girl, dressed in black and shrouded infog, is carrying a sign that says San Francisco. He picks her up, she getsinto the car and she asks him 'What are you?' He answers, 'a car deliverydriver.' She says, 'No, what sign are you?' They talk and end up spendingthe night together in the desert. Suddenly she says, 'Don't go to SanFrancisco,' and vanishes. She was the symbol of death.' 'That was an interesting scene, because it really gave the film anallegorical lift and explains everything.' I was in Austria filming TheSalzburg Connection while they were editing Vanishing Point, and I receiveda call from my agent in New York. He had just seen a screening of VanishingPoint and said they cut it up and made it look like a 'B' movie. They cutout the Rampling scenes because they were afraid the audience wouldn'tunderstand what happened to the girl in the car; why was she suddenly notthere? That was their explanation. In its final form, Vanishing Point bears little resemblance to theGuillermo Cain screenplay, which was loosely based on two real life events.The movie was released without the Rampling scenes, and the 107 minuteversion was never shown. Vanishing Point premiered in late January of 1971in an edited state that bore little resemblance to the original version.'20th Century had no faith in the movie,' Newman recalled. Therefore theydumped the film in neighborhood theaters as a multiple release, and it wasout of the theaters in less than two weeks.' Vanishing Point was then taken to London, where it became the biggestcritical and box office hit of the decade in Britain. Because of theimmense popularity of Vanishing Point in Britain and Europe, it became a'back door classic' and returned to American theaters on a double billwith The French Connection. Thanks to the tremendous popularity ofThe French Connection, Vanishing Point finally played to an appreciativeAmerican audience. And the cult following began to grow, spurred on byone broadcast on network television in late 1976. What amazes Newman is that even though Vanishing Point has not been airednationally for almost ten years, 'Kids still line up along side of me in mycar and say 'Hey - Vanishing Point, Man' and give me the thumbs up sign,It's amazing!' Why has Vanishing Point become a cult classic? 'At the timeit was made,' Newman explains, 'we were still living in the sixties, withthe individual against the institutions - the establishment. Theindividual, the loner, the anti-hero was very, very popular then, and itwas a very moving thing when the guy killed himself. When he died, itstayed with people. They came back and saw the film over and over again.I was never aware of the impact of the film while I was making it.' Newman played Kowalski as 'a man who has failed before - and that's theallegorical thing in this film - that Kowalski was going to get throughthose bulldozers. He smiles as he rushes to his death at the end ofVanishing Point because he believes he will make it through the roadblock.Deep down, Kowalski may have believed he wasn't going to make it, butthat's the basis of an existentialist film. The hero is fated to die, andyou know it when he takes off that he's not going to live. The titleVanishing Point was meant not for his impact into the bulldozers. At thebeginning of the movie, the Challenger and a black Chrysler pass eachother and the Challenger vanishes, and he delivers the black car to Denver.It represents Kowalski's point of no return - it was his Vanishing Point -it was his last ride.'
Vanishing Point - The Movie
Vanishing Point is based upon two true events. The story centers arounda car delivery driver ferrying a 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to SanFrancisco. He's made a bet that he can make the trip in 18 hours. Thedriver, who's name is Kowalski, has a number of encounters with the policewho try to stop him. His cross country trek snowballs into a massivepolice hunt that attracts the attention of the national media. TheVanishing Point story line was inspired by a young California driver whorefused to stop and died after crashing into a police roadblock. Through a series of flashbacks, we learn that Kowalski was a Vietnamveteran with a Medal of Honor. His girlfriend had drowned, his careersas a police officer, a motorcyclist and as a stock car driver had allended in failures. The Kowalski character was loosely based on theshattered career of a San Diego police officer. Few understood the existentialist message in Vanishing Point, howeverthere is much more that just 90 minutes of chase scenes. The dramaticfinal scene in which Kowalski vaporizes the Challenger and himself intothe two bulldozer blades was not because he had given up on life. He'ssmiling at the end of Vanishing Point, as he rushes toward the center oflight between the blades, because he thinks he can make it. Barry Newman told us he is currently negotiating for the rights toVanishing Point. There is a good possibility we may yet learn whathappened to Kowalski, because Newman has plans to make Vanishing Point II.
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Vanishing Point Collectibles
Among Vanishing Point fans, and there are a lot of them, a highly prizedpossession is the 99 minute videotape of the film, which, interestinglyenough, has Charlotte Rampling's name on the label, although she doesn'tappear in the movie. It can be purchased from your local video dealer orthrough Magnetic Video Corporation, 23434 Industrial Park Court, FarmingtonHills, MI 48024. The catalog number is 1028, and the suggested retailprice is $59.95. The Holy Grail for Vanishing Point fans is the original soundtrack album,released on the Amos label and distributed by Bell records, a division ofColumbia Pictures. Its catalog number is AAS8002. It is no longer in thecatalog, however you may run across a copy in used record stores or swapmeets. The music used for the soundtrack features Delaney & Bonnie &Friends (one of whom is Rita Coolidge), Jerry Reed, Kim Carnes and a numberof unknown artists. The cover artwork shows a white 1971 Challenger, withNew York plates, inside and on the back are stills taken from the movie.
Acknowledgments
Our sincerest thanks to Barry Newman and Carey Loftin for taking timeout to speak with us. Special thanks to Robert Hilpl who loaned us theVanishing Point videotape and soundtrack album and supplied us withpictures of his Alpine White 1970 Challenger. Special thanks also goesto Jill Kirklander at 20th Century Fox for researching the VanishingPoint stills. Also thanks to Mark Warren and Jeff Johnson of the SpecialInterest Auto Club for their help. Photos by 20th Century Fox,Robert Hilpl, and Paul Zazarine. Kowalski lives!
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