Stuff we love: Vanishing Point (1971)

It was on the box over Christmas, so naturally we had to haul in a few extra crates of suds, snip the phone wires, switch off the mobile, execute the cat, and make ourselves comfortable for the best 98 minutes of the season.

For those still not acquainted with this celluloid gem, Vanishing Point is one of the greatest road movies ever made. It's up there (if not way beyond) the likes of:

Two Lane Blacktop (1971) starring singer James Taylor and the late Beach Boys' drummer, Dennis Wilson

Duel (1971) starring the late Dennis Weaver

Badlands (1973) starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek

Thunderbolt & Lightfoot (1974) starring Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges

Midnight Run (1988) starring Robert DeNiro and Charles Grodin

—and don't even mention Thelma and Louise (1991) or Easy Rider (1969) because we went there once, and we ain't going back.

For many, Vanishing Point is the ultimate existential road movie (which, by definition, all road movies are). It's a tale of a driver named Kowalski (played by actor Barry Newman of later Petrocelli fame) who collects a 1970 Dodge Challenger from a garage in Denver, Colorado and explains to anyone who cares to ask that he has to deliver the vehicle to an address in San Francisco by Monday, and later by "three o'clock tomorrow afternoon".

Kowalski, we discover, is an ex-motorcycle racer, an ex-car racer, an ex-Vietnam Vet, and an ex-police officer psychologically tortured by the successive traumas of his life, not least the death of his girlfriend in a surfing accident.

What follows is an adrenaline-fuelled rush across the US mid-west, with the state police and Highway Patrol in pursuit (for speeding and running a couple of motorcycle cops off the road) while the back story peels away delicious slices of wry, poignant and suspense-filled Americana as the narrative slowly and compellingly reveals the complex nature of the protagonist (who, in more ways than one, is speeding along the dusty, gritty, uncertain blacktop of life).

The characters are often both believably comic, and comically believable. The dialogue switches constantly between corny and profound. The voice-over (such as it is) is provided by Super Soul, a blind black DJ (played by Cleavon Little) who attempts to guide Kowalski through the various state-wide traps and pitfalls as embarrassed and humiliated law enforcement officers desperately attempt to bring his high speed run to a halt.

Nihilistic, probing, puzzling, challenging, and a little disturbing, Vanishing Point is a motorised, V8-powered allegory about ... well, whatever the hell you want it to be about. Or not be about.

The film ends with satisfying inconclusiveness (like life itself) leaving you wondering exactly what happened and why. And what, if anything, comes next.

Look out in particular for a great performance from actor Dean Jagger (the old snake catcher), and there's the odd naked blonde hippy girl riding around on a motorcycle.

Vanishing Point was directed by Richard C Sarafian, who died in September last year at the age of 83, and who handled numerous major US TV shows including, Maverick, Dr Kildare, 77 Sunset Strip, Batman and Gunsmoke.

There are two versions of the movie; the US cut at 98 minutes, and the UK cut at 105 minutes, with actress Charlotte Rampling filling in the extra time and playing a hitch-hiking character that the studio, we understand, felt simply added confusion (which is a bit like worrying about adding a little extra salt to the ocean).

Even if you have seen this film, like all great road movies, it bears repeated viewings. Buy the video. Download it. Steal it. Borrow it. Or stand outside someone else's living room window and watch it if that's the only option available the next time it comes around.

Chances are you'll be too confused/puzzled/uncertain/intrigued to be disappointed. Meanwhile, my "significant other" disagrees with all this and says that Vanishing Point is "total crap", which kinda nicely helps balance opinion.

— Dexxion