Vanishing Point

media release: USA | 1971 | DCP | 99 min.

Director: Richard Sarafian

Cast: Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger

In director Sarafian’s existential car chase classic, Newman stars as Kowalski, a society dropout recruited to bring a Dodge Challenger R/T from Denver to San Francisco. Hoping to make it in record time, Kowalksi drives at such high speeds that police in three states quickly become obsessed with capturing him. Along the way, the driver is helped to avoid the cops by a network of hippies and outsiders, most notably radio DJ Super Soul (memorably played by a pre-Blazing Saddles Cleavon Little). The camera and driving stunt work in Vanishing Point will take your breath away and the desert scenery is gorgeous. “What I like best about the film…is its depiction of a coast-to-coast network of weirdos, dropouts, and misfits ready to help wayfaring strangers – this was one of the finer aspects of sixties-seventies counterculture” (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).