Vanishing Point

Year: 1971

Grade: B+

Country: USA

Director: Sarafian

Review

in the tradition of easy rider – a road film about ‘the last american hero.’ besides being a good story with a good concept, the film is well-executed all around. the flashback sequences and the colorful secondary characters support what is otherwise a sparse plot. the soundtrack drives much of the action and is high energy, but doesn’t include a lot of well known radio songs. as a result the music can stand with the images in the film, rather than some lame macaroni commercial or evoke memories of the time you and your girlfriend got in a fight over who was going to drive. the editing is really good and ahead of its time. a lot of times there is a tendency to make edits after the camera comes to a stand still, but this film edits while the camera is panning, or following action, all the time. the result is more kinetic energy. good stuff during the chase sequences. another thing i liked was the promenence of the street signs and other symbols of authority. i couldn’t count how many times there would be a shot of kowalski fleeing from the cops with a siren or a stop sign in the foreground of the frame. same cinematographer as scarface, norma rae and chinatown to name a few. sure it borrows a bit from easy rider, but i think it stands on its own as a great film of the era.  .