Vanishing Point is a 1971 British-American action film directed by Richard C. Sarafian, starring Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, and Dean Jagger. It focuses on a disaffected ex-policeman and race car driver delivering a muscle car cross-country to California while high on speed ("uppers" in the story), being chased by police, and meeting various characters along the way. Since its release it has developed a cult following.
Although shot in America the bulk of finance came from Britain. Plot Car delivery driver Kowalski arrives in Denver, Colorado, late on a Friday night with a black Imperial. The delivery service clerk, Sandy, urges him to get some rest, but Kowalski insists on getting started with his next assignment: delivering a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum (with top speeds exceeding ) to San Francisco by Monday. Before leaving Denver, Kowalski pulls into a biker bar parking lot around midnight to buy Benzedrine pills to stay awake for the long drive ahead. He bets his dealer, Jake, that he will get to San Francisco by 3:00 pm Sunday, even though the delivery is not due until Monday. Through flashbacks and the police reading of his record, it's revealed that Kowalski is a Medal of Honor Vietnam War veteran, former race car driver, and motorcycle racer. He is also a former police officer, expelled from the force after preventing the rape of a young woman by his superior. While driving across Colorado over the speed limit, Kowalski is pursued by two motorcycle police. He forces one officer off the road and eludes the other officer by going off-road. Later, the driver of a Jaguar E-Type roadster pulls up alongside Kowalski challenging him to a race. Kowalski is nearly run off the road; he then overtakes the Jaguar which crashes into a river. Kowalski gets out of his car to look back at the driver, then takes off, with police cars in pursuit.
Kowalski drives across Utah into Nevada, with the police in pursuit. During the chase, his radio is tuned to station KOW, broadcasting from Goldfield, Nevada. A blind black disc jockey, who goes by the name of "Super Soul," listens to the police radio frequency and encourages Kowalski to evade the police. With the help of Super Soul, who calls Kowalski "the last American hero", Kowalski gains the interest of the news media, and people gather at the KOW radio station to offer their support. During the police chase across Nevada, Kowalski finds himself surrounded and heads offroad into the desert. After he blows a tire on a dry lake bed and becomes lost, Kowalski is helped by an old prospector who catches rattlesnakes for a Pentecostal Christian commune. The prospector gives Kowalski fuel, and directs him back to the highway. There, he picks up two homosexual hitchhikers stranded en route to San Francisco with a "Just Married" sign in their rear window. The hitchhikers attempt to rob him at gunpoint; Kowalski fights them off and continues alone on his journey.
Saturday afternoon, a vengeful off-duty highway patrolman and a group of thugs break into the KOW studio and assault Super Soul. Near the California state line, Kowalski is helped by hippie biker, Angel, who gives him pills to help him stay awake. Kowalski is recognized by Angel's girlfriend who admires that he prevented the rape by his senior police officer. As Kowalski continues to listen to the KOW broadcast, he notices a change in Super Soul's tone. He suspects he is being directed by the police to entrap him in California. Confirming that the police are indeed waiting at the border, Angel helps Kowalski get through the roadblock by modifying the Challenger to simulate a police car. Kowalski finally reaches California on Saturday at 7:12 pm. He calls Jake from a payphone to reassure him that he still intends to deliver the car on Monday, while acknowledging he won't win their bet, and offering to double it for the next time.
Kowalski picks up a mysterious hitchhiker (Charlotte Rampling) late Saturday night. Kowalski accepts marijuana from her, despite refusing marijuana in several previous scenes. He stops the car when he starts feeling stoned. She says she has been "waiting for him, everywhere and since forever." When he awakens the next morning, she is gone without a trace.
On Sunday morning, California police, who have been tracking Kowalski's movements, set up a roadblock with two bulldozers in the small town of Cisco, which Kowalski will be passing through. A small crowd gathers, some with cameras. Kowalski approaches at high speed; failing to slow down, he smiles as he crashes into the bulldozers, destroying the car in an explosion. As firemen work to put out the flames, the crowd slowly disperses.
Cast
Production Development The film began as an original story by Malcolm Hart. He took it to Norman Spencer, a producer at Cupid Films. Cupid Films was the company of Michael Pearson whose productions included Sympathy for the Devil (1968) and Last of the Long-haired Boys. 20th Century Fox agreed to distribute and the budget was raised from the Bank of America in London.
The screenplay for Vanishing Point was written by G. Cabrera Infante, a Cuban living in England, under the pseudonym Guillermo Cain. The story was based on two actual events: the disgraced career of a San Diego police officer and a high-speed pursuit of a man who refused to stop and was killed when he crashed into a police roadblock. (The film credits the original story to Malcolm Hart.) Infante modeled the character of Super Soul after legendary rock and roll singer The Big Bopper. His script reflected the popular counterculture lifestyle of the time, containing elements of rebellion, drugs, sexual freedom, and rock and roll.
In 1969, director Richard C. Sarafian turned down an offer to make Robert Redford's Downhill Racer in order to direct Vanishing Point. He was drawn to the counterculture themes in Cain's script.
The film had to be shot in the US because of the story. Norman Spencer called it "a sort of runaway production in reverse."
Originally, Sarafin wanted Gene Hackman to play Kowalski, but 20th Century Fox studio executive Richard Zanuck insisted on casting relative unknown actor Barry Newman in the lead role.Siegel 2008, pp. 26–27. The film marked the first major screen appearances of Cleavon Little and John Amos.
Vehicles According to Sarafian, it was Zanuck who came up with the idea of using the new 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T. He wanted to do Chrysler a favor for their longtime practice of renting cars to 20th Century Fox for $1 a day. Many of the other cars featured in the film are also Chrysler products.Siegel 2008, p. 27. Stunt Coordinator Carey Loftin said he requested the Dodge Challenger because of the "quality of the torsion bar suspension and for its horsepower" and felt that it was "a real sturdy, good running car."
Five Alpine White Dodge Challenger R/Ts were lent to the production by Chrysler for promotional consideration and were returned upon completion of filming. Four cars had 440 engines equipped with four-speed manual transmissions; the fifth car was a 383 with a three-speed automatic. No special equipment was added or modifications made to the cars, except for heavier-duty shock absorbers for the car that jumped over No Name Creek. The Challengers were prepared and maintained for the movie by Max Balchowsky, who also prepared the Mustangs and Chargers for Bullitt (1968). The cars performed to Loftin's satisfaction, although dust came to be a problem. None of the engines were supercharged, but sound effects of a supercharger were added in post-production for some scenes. Loftin remembers that parts were taken out of one car to repair another because they "really ruined a couple of those cars" while jumping ramps between highways and over creeks. Newman remembers that the 440 engines in the cars were so powerful that "it was almost as if there was too much power for the body. You'd put it in first and it would almost rear back!" The Challengers appear in the film with Colorado plates OA-5599.
Filming Principal photography began in May 1970 with a planned shooting schedule of 60 days.Siegel 2008, p. 28. Financial troubles plaguing the studio at the time forced Zanuck to shorten Sarafian's shooting schedule by 22 days. In response, the director decided not to film certain scenes rather than rush through the rest of the shoot.
An average day of filming involved the actors and the crew of 19 men spending many hours traveling to the remote locations, shooting for an extended period of time and then looking for a motel to spend the night.Siegel 2008, pp. 29–30. The shoot had a few mishaps, including Newman driving a Challenger equipped with three cameras into the bushes in order to avoid a head-on collision when a "civilian" driver ignored the traffic blocks installed to ensure the safety of the crew.Siegel 2008, pp. 28–29.
The film's cinematographer John Alonzo used lightweight Arriflex II cameras, that offered more free movement.Siegel 2008, p. 29. Close-up and medium shots were achieved by mounting cameras directly on the vehicles instead of the common practice of filming the drivers from a tow that drove ahead of the targeted vehicle. To convey the appearance of speed, the filmmakers slowed the film rate of the cameras. For example, in the scenes with the Challenger and the Jaguar, the camera's film rate was slowed to half speed. The cars were traveling at approximately so that when projected at normal frame rate, they appeared to be moving much faster.
Vanishing Point was filmed on location in the American Southwest in the states of Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California. Austin, Nevada Cisco, Utah (the ending) Denver, Colorado Esmeralda County, Nevada Glenwood Springs, Colorado (first motorcycle police chase) Goldfield, Nevada (Super Soul scenes) Interstate 70 in Utah Lander County, Nevada Nye County, Nevada Rifle, Colorado Thompson Springs, Utah Tonopah, Nevada Wendover, Utah
Dean Jagger's scenes were shot on the Salt Lakes of Nevada.Siegel 2008, p. 30. Super Soul's radio station was filmed in Goldfield, Nevada. All of Cleavon Little's scenes were completed in under three days.
Carey Loftin was the film's stunt coordinator and responsible for setting up and performing the major driving stunts. Loftin's resume at the time included work on Grand Prix (1966), Bullitt (1968), and The French Connection (1971). Barry Newman learned from Loftin and was encouraged by the stunt coordinator to do some of his own stunts. In the scene before Kowalski crashes into the bulldozer, Newman drove and performed a 180-degree turn on the road himself without the director's knowledge.
The 383 car was also used as the tow vehicle in the crash scene at the end of the movie. A quarter-mile cable was attached between the Challenger and an explosives-laden 1967 Chevrolet Camaro with the motor and transmission removed. The tow vehicle was driven by Loftin, who pulled the Camaro into the blades of the bulldozers at high speed. Loftin expected the car to go end over end, but instead it stuck into the bulldozers, which he thought looked better.
Ending