I'm 18 and think it's a good movie with cool cars. It sure is a hell of a lot better than the shit they put on tv now
Gotta say I love the movie and what it stood for ! You just had to live in that time to really understand what it was all about . That was a great time in history and will never be repeated ! The young guys here that didn't like it , well you miss you of the greatest times in history for the car street racing scene ! BTW I have seen the REAL 55' Chevy in person and is on display in York , Pa. this weekend and yes it will run 10's! Remember we all used good fuel back then , not HP from a blue bottle . There were 3 cars I think in American Graffiti but the one that rolled wasn't it . There were 2 other cars in the movie and the racing one is the real one ! As for American Graffiti , that was the best movie between the 2 of them and were both totally different ! There were some other great car flicks back then too that some don't understand either . You just had to be there ! You just had to live in those time frames to understand those years of fun and racing ! That was when there was HONOR & RESPECT and that we have no more of !
I feel the same ,the cars were cool ,loved hearing the whine in the trans and banging gears in the 55 ,but the movie sucked the ending was straight out of a 1965 acid trip (kinda scary brought back memories)
Woulda been cheaper to wait for it to turn up on TV somewhere - which is where I saw it. Fun to watch the cars, which is kind of the point I guess. The plot is as secondary as the background scenery, though.
I don't think there is a better hot rod/car chasing/racing movie than American Graffitti. I just happened to catch "Vanishing Point" the other day for the first time (I know). It was crap too. The acting was shit. My favorite part was when he is basically doing figure eights in what looks like the Salt flats because he is too tired to drive anymore and this hot-ass Deliverance-looking chic pulls up on a dirt bike in a bikini. So they exchange a few words, go back to her house-with-taillights admidst a large pile of other shit. They discover that he's got a bad oil pan on his '70 Hemi Challenger and this other dude just says that he can go get one at the wrecking yard. And.....sure as shit, he found it. I would like to know where this yard is so I can go get the rest of the Hemi he pulled this oil pan off of. Another piece of crap is "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry". I bought it because my dad was always yacking about it. HORRIBLE! I just kept it around because everytime my wife would start giving me any shit, I would threaten her with making her watch it. And Bullitt for that matter....AWESOME car chase, but the rest of the movie is boring as hell.
The movie is definitely not in the running for an Oscar, but it is a classic car flick...what I have NEVER understood is how all the dudes in that movie all want to get it on with that chick...She's scary looking!
That wasn't the REAL Vanishing Point ! Watch the REAL one , it's a whole lot better , I promise ! Like I said before , you just had to live in that time to understand the whole car scene !
BTW , if anyone wants to see a great car flick , go out and get the FIRST , gone in 60 seconds . Now that is a great car film . That was all done on real rods that he did when the cops were changing shifts and things like that ! Was really neat on how he did that film . His second wasn't as good as the first film but still a good one . But once again you had to live in that time to understand the car scene . There are also some really good car movies from the 50's & 60' too ! You got to see some good drag racing from Lyon's and places like that .
Jim, ever driven or built a 10 sec car, i have and it ain't in no 55 straight axel big block 4spd car, it took a lot to get it there with todays technology, in the 70's the tires were not to good, not a lot of really good flowing heads, cams were so so, yes you could run 13:1 with race gas but the biggest hurdle is the 4spd. if it ran 12.20 i would be impressed. But on another note, all the remakes suck, the originals were great, had to be there it was the best of times!
When the film heats up and starts to burn,it started on the back of his head.I think it meant that he was burnt out and done.Thats my take on it anyways. But what the hell do I know. Also.I believe that they did have names in the movie.I recall the part when they were at the race track and "the mechanic" opened the car door and asked "GTO" where Fred "the driver" was. I also think they said the girls name once too.
If you listen very closely at the Lakeland drag strip scene, the '55 crosses the finish line and the announcer says something to the effect of "runs well into the 12's". Now being an old street racer myself, that run could of easily been a "bait run" to lure in somebody for a money race without showing your true hand, like they actually did against the yellow Corvette. I can actually speak from experience having owned the ex-Braun Bros. '55 Chevy Gasser and it was equipped with LS-6 454, L-88 heads, 5-speed, early Olds axle, and lots of fiberglass. Those cars can be built very light, under 3000 LBS, and I certainly think it could have been a legit 10-second street car. But if it was, it would of have had 4.88's or 5.13's and you ain't driving that thing cross country at no 75 MPH! That's how you lose the edge on a nice motor and turn a 10 second car into a 12 second car.
The director,Monte Hellman,discribed the move as a psychological Drama road movie and the theme was that of Self-Distructive Romance,Obsessive Quest and Generation Gap James Taylor, Warren Oates, Laurie Bird, Dennis Wilson were the main actors,James taylor is the lone surviver,,, BTW,none of Taylors nor Wilsons songs were played in the movie. Variety magazine sumed the movie up like this: The surface story is a quixotic cross country road race between dapper sociopath playboy Warren Oates driving a showroom GTO and ultra-laconic proto-grunge hippie gearheads James Taylor and Dennis Wilson behind the wheel of their primer gray souped-up '55 Chevy. In director Monte Hellman's hands, however, the raw materials of an AIP hot rod flick take on dark mythic overtones while becoming a quintessential document of end-of the '60s millennialism. I looked it you so you don't have too,,Quixotic,,. not sensible about practical matters; idealistic and unrealistic; "as quixotic as a restoration of medieval knighthood"; "a romantic disregard for money"; "a wild-eyed dream of a world state" I will echo what a few others have said,,,I guess you have to be from that period to fully get where the movie is coming from,,the end of a era,,the end of the 60's,,HRP
another good car movie was Macon County Line. It started out with a sweet 55 chevy, bright yellow. Somewhere the three kids ran into the crooked small town law.
It was mostly a "gearhead" movie, I have a vhs copy. My first time seeing this movie was at a late night showing at a local theater and after it was over one of the guys we knew jumped up and asked " If anyone wants to do a little racing tonight meet me in the parking lot". I think that was in "1973" I was a teenager & my car was a 1964 Ford Galaxie 390/4-speed!! "Ahhh the Memories"
IMO Easy Rider is one of the greatest American movies period... What a movie. Lots of interesting trivia about it on the internet.
I had 2lane mixed up with macon county line. hadn't seen either since I was a child. just downloaded the unedited vanishing point 1971 from the internet was pretty good. it was cool to see the old us 40 corridor with i70 being built
Ya man. I like your take on that. And I think the girls name was laurie??? Or was that her real name Laurie bird?? Damn, my memory is going to hell. I'm going to have to watch it again!! Another cool scene of course is when the movie starts and there's all those dudes out there with their street racer jackets with the patches all over them. Good stuff. And damn, that 55 chevy can sure wind it out!!
Yeah the original vanishing started out in denver on washington street. Down in globeville at the blue blaze bar. That is where he got his speed for the trip.
All these car movies mentioned, who's seen the 1979 made for tv movie "Hot Rod"? Guy wrecks his mopar, then puts the hemi in a 41 WILLYS and starts street racing it.
Bought both movies this winter out of boredom. Boy what a fucking waste of time and money. Hot Rod was the worst.
It just sucked. Easy Riders could have been a cool movie, and it sure seemed like it was when I was a kid and saw it when it first came out. I can't even force myslef to watch it these days it is so bad.
Just wondering what the deal is with the name RatSalad? There was a camaro that I used to see at Orange County named Rat Salad, just wondering where the name comes from or what it means.
Seriously, you found Bullitt boring? Dude, I can understand if you didn't like Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry (I loved it, but I was raised around people like them), but to say that Bullitt was boring...man, that shit just makes me feel old. Those sixties into the seventies car movies are the best! Everything was going along smoothly until "Corvette Summer", then the car movie experience took a dump to special effects and "plots". Come to think of it "American Graffiti" probably takes some blame for that too. The end of 2LBT is perfect, because it was a movie that was going nowhere, just like the characters in it, how do you make an ending for that? Vanishing Point (the original-I won't watch the remake, I have learned my lesson) was another meandering movie plotted around a driver and his car, and asides from the car that is seen against the dozer at the ending not being the same as he was driving, it was the shit as far as I am concerned. Gone in 60 seconds, the original, is an awesome movie! Watch it, then find the documentary about the making of the movie. If what he did doesn't impress you, you should go get your blood pressure checked, 'cause your probably dead. American Graffiti is okay to me, but I feel it focused more on the culture than on the cars, but then again, it was before my time. I don't fault the movie, it's great, it just doesn't ring my memory bell. ...and hey, to the original poster: I'd be glad to take that movie off your hands for ya!
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