Lone road-racer freedom fighter..
"It's not a question of when he will stop, but who will stop him.."

I'm talking about Vanishing Point, a beautifully-shot, exquisitely-soundtracked mentalist road movie in which a man attempts to drive a '71 dodge challenger from Chicago to San Francisco in 24 hours, spurred on by truckstop uppers, a psychic connection with a blind soul DJ, and a devil-may-care attitude born of a jaded outlook as explained by flashbacks to a damaged former life.

Most of the film is just an ongoing car chase, but it never gets boring, thanks to the many themes explored by the film, such as racism, hippydom, loss of love, religion.. there's a lot there. Counteracting the heaviness is the wild adrenaline rush of watching the iconic Kowalski outrun and outwit everyone in effortless style, turning what would seem like a pointless act of bravado into a break for freedom that is almost spiritual; and all to a glorious funk/soul soundtrack. The end is very emotional, with DJ Supersoul beaten up by rednecks and Kowalski driving straight into a roadblock with a grim expression - he has accepted that death is the only option now.

You can watch much of it on youtube, but I recommend getting the DVD, just not the substandard remake please, which everyone seems to know instead of the original.

Trailer: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q71M88B12WA

Edit: it's Denver to San Fran and the timeline is a little more than 24 hours, plus the "psychic connection" bit is ambiguous and implicit - a clever plot device that may or may not exist.
(lost, Fri 18 Jul 2008, 12:28, Reply)