Peel-out pix: Our 5 fave movie chase scenes
From today’s eco-friendly, efficiency-minded and fanatically frugal vantage point, the dawn of the modern-day car chase scene (circa late 1960s to early 1970s) looks like a decadent wonderland. Preserved on film, these sequences surely must be the stuff from which only dreams are made: gas at around 35 cents a gallon; high lead and low MPG; and V-8 engines as the rule, not exception.
This pre-catalytic-converter era certainly represents the U.S. automobile’s halcyon days. Never mind that today’s cars are far more environmentally friendly and are rife with 21st-century advances in safety, comfort and reliability. You know what they say: The pavement’s always blacker on the other side.
We recently got to thinking about some of the greatest examples of automotive muscle to make it onto the big screen. Sure, plenty of them occur in movies made 40 years ago—including ones we didn’t have room to include, such as “The French Connection,” “Dirty Mary Crazy Larry,” “Gone in Sixty Seconds” and “Two-Lane Blacktop.” But recent years have proven that, like the automobile, the chase scene is eternal. And as the air turns crisp and our activities move indoors, here’s a list of our favorite flicks that are perfect for fall evenings: **
Steve McQueen burns rubber during Bullitt's quintessential car chase scene.
1. Bullitt (1968)—Sure, hot pursuit existed in films prior to this Steve McQueen masterpiece, but never at such levels of precision. Rightfully heralded as the premiere (and perhaps premier) modern chase scene. McQueen, a maverick police detective driving a now-iconic highland green 1968 Mustang 390 GT Fastback, gets into a melee with two silent-but-deadly types occupying a bad-guy black 1968 Dodge Charger.
The cat-and-mouse game starts with Charger gingerly pursuing Mustang in the suspension-punishing up-down San Franciscan streets (ideal for turtle-paced Rice-A-Roni-approved cable cars but not high-flying hot rods). A minute or so later, McQueen has turned the tables and is following the perpetually mute villains—one a nerdy black-haired bespectacled driver and the other a more sinister white-haired shotgun-toting passenger. Plenty of screeching tires, gear-shifting rumble and Battling Tops-styled smack ‘em-up collisions. See how many VW Bugs you can spot parked along the curbs.
"What do those red-octagon signs mean again?" Kowalski (Barry Newman) buries the speedometer needle.
2. Vanishing Point (1971)—Chase scene expanded to occupy an entire film. Raise nose: This heavily symbolic existential slice of celluloid celebrates the sanctity of the individual. On a no-think level, it’s a fantastic excuse to celebrate the bygone days of the American muscle car.
Kowalski (Barry Newman), a decorated Vietnam vet who makes his living transporting vehicles, bets a buddy for chump change he can drive a 1970 supercharged white Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. His amphetamine-fueled fury brings him in contact with a collection of countercultural characters, including: a blind African-American DJ who signals Kowalski details about his police pursuers; an old desert drifter; a religious serpent handler; and a benevolent biker.
Flashbacks throughout reveal what might be driving Kowalski, who gets the better of a Porsche-driving smart aleck, two would-be hijackers, a helicopter and cops from Colorado to California. Lots of great shots of Newman’s character yanking the gear shift with a defiant gleam in his eye. Remade for TV in 1997 with even more obvious religious overtones, but far less horsepower.
Roy Scheider's character doesn't care much for a NYC grocer's citrus selections.
3. The Seven-Ups (1973)—A pre-“Jaws” Roy Scheider sinks his teeth into the pavement as an unorthodox New York City elite policeman (driving a ’73 Pontiac Ventura) chasing a couple of cop killers. Indebted to “Bullitt” in many ways—lone cop pursues two crooks in a big black car; highway-bound chase starts in the city; bad guy brandishes sawed-off shotgun—this flick’s chase scene throws into the mix schoolchildren in peril, plus a senior citizen-packed tourist bus.
Roy’s classic dialog: repeatedly grimacing “Jesus Christ” as attempt after attempt to catch the crooks fails. This rip-snortin’ ride ends with a bang as well as a whimper. In a neat twist, the scene’s final moments testify to the importance of LBJ several years earlier signing into law the National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act, requiring shatter-resistant windshields in automobiles.
Mr. Eddy (Robert Loggia) gently explains the hazards of tailgating to a fellow motorist.
4. Lost Highway (1997)—Now this is what highway-safety films should look like instead of the snoozefests we were subjected to during driver’s ed. David Lynch certainly isn’t for everybody, but the car chase scene in “Lost Highway” offers near-universal appeal. In a darkly tongue-in-cheek scene unrelated to anything else in the film, a Thunderbird-driving tailgater gets on the wrong side of a syndicate man known only as “Mr. Eddy,” played by veteran tough-guy actor Robert Loggia.
Right after being passed while given the one-finger salute by the honking tailgater, Loggia’s character snarls to his gun-packing passengers, “This is where mechanical excellence and 1,400 horsepower pays off,” before flooring the gas pedal of his Mercedes-Benz 450SEL 6.9 and ramming his not-so-polite fellow driver’s vehicle. The rest of the dialog is unquotable in a family forum, but Mr. T-Bird pledges never to tailgate again.
"And I had just 3 more payments." The Matrix ventilates a Caddy.
5. The Matrix Reloaded (2003)—Short on believability, but long on fun (courtesy of eye-tantalizing CGI-created EFX), the “policemen” are the bad guys this time because they’re merely Matrix-manufactured personifications a.k.a. those sunglasses-&-suit-sporting scoundrels. Tons o’ cars occupy the lanes in this highway scene, which features martial arts mayhem atop a trailer truck and a new twist on playin’ chicken. Too many cars are used to name them all, except the heroes’ vehicle of choice: a silver 2003 Cadillac CTS.
That’s our brief glimpse into the ever-evolving film segment known as the “chase scene.” We’d love to hear from you about your top picks. Please post your favorite car chase scene along with the reason it rates tops, and we’ll include it here.
** Please remember, just as the commercials say, these scenes were performed by “professional drivers on a closed course,” so don’t try this at home.