Probably the most familiar film to car culture fanatics, Vanishing Point is known as "That White Dodge Challenger movie." Here’s a list of the essentials. Some are touching at the cerebral, some are just plain stupid. But no one can call themselves a car nut without seeing all of them:
The pre-digital car movie was never better than in the ’70s. Strange and wonderful films would be released – the kind of cinema that is impossible today in a blockbuster/franchise-obsessed film industry. Detroit’s '70s decline was based in poor design decisions at home as much as anything coming from the Middle East.īut the decade wasn’t only mutton-chops and burgundy leisure suits – Hollywood would never be as independent.
Even AMC was in on the game. Then in ’72 clean-air smog regulations and the OPEC Gas Shock threw a wrench into the global gearbox and nothing was ever the same. Detroit likes to point to those two things to explain abominations like the Pinto and the Pacer and V8 engines choked down to 150 horsepower. The Big Three gloss over crappy design and obvious facts like how Ford wrecked the Mustang and Dodge wrecked the Charger before the OPEC gas-crunch madness kicked everything sideways. GM, Ford and especially Chrysler were making Big Block dreams come true. ’70-71 saw Detroit thundering out some of the best asphalt-eaters, ever. Photo courtesy of Cupid Productions/Twentieth Century Fox | Vanishing Pointīut that’s not to say things didn't start well. Just as the buildings built can’t meet the wrecking ball quick enough, we have to be honest and admit that, with very few exceptions, it’s for the best that cars of the '70s have mostly already met the junkyard crusher. Even '70s nostalgia is winked at, like the joke that it is. Unlike anyone who grew up in the '50s or '60s, no one who was a kid in the '70s is currently scanning eBay for that bitchin’ car that Detroit had unleashed when he was still pedaling his Big Wheel over a rickety plywood ramp, just like Evel Knievel did on TV. As anyone who’s ever peeked into an old family photo album knows, there was a collective insanity when it came to hair style, clothing fashions and.pretty much everything. Eyeglasses, wallpaper – that tasteless aesthetic spilled into everything – graphic design, architecture, music and sadly, automotive design. The Super Seventies were something special. The Savage 7 of the Super '70s: Must-See Car Movies