This film from 1970 continues the genre of "existential road movie" that sprung up at around the same time and included such films as TWO-LANE BLACKTOP and EASY RIDER. Generally, they depict an individual or individuals who seem to have freed themselves from societal constraints and pay a high personal sum for their "otherness". Unlike EASY RIDER (1969), VANISHING POINT has hardly aged at all, as Kowalski (Barry Newman) isn't mired in any sort of counter-cultural concern. His history is seen in a series of flashbacks that help us understand his present actions, yet we still question his motivation as the film progresses. The basic premise here is a bet he makes with a friend (a drug dealer) that he can deliver a muscle car (a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum) to California from Colorado in a weekend, and in doing so satisfy some ambiguous personal need. Cleavon Little as "Super Soul", a blind Black DJ follows his journey and speaks directly to him via the car radio as a sort of combination greek chorus and cheer leader. The people (hippies, a snake handler, some gay men, racists, a nude female motorcyclist) Kowalski encounters on his odyssey help illuminate his character and his need for freedom. While some may consider Kowalski's undoing at the film's end a "downer", one could also interpret his charge toward light and eternity in terms of both hope and redemption, something that was about to change drastically as the Seventies limped along.
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