Let's put together 100 reasons why "Vanishing Point" had to have been set in the 70s instead of today. (yes, apart from the '97 remake)
Here's 2 to start:
1. Kowalski would have to carry around a suitcase full of cash in order to pay for all the fill-ups that gas-guzzling Hemi engine requires.
2. The nude biker chick would be covered from head to toe in cancerous melanomas.
The new Challenger costs $20,000 to $44,000. (10 times what they cost in 1970) And who would want to wreck one? I looked at a red one the other day...great-looking cars.
shareActually, accounting for inflation, the price isn't that different. In 1970 a CADILLAC had a sticker price around $6500, compare to now, $60-90K range.. (I remember because my dad bought a 1970 De Ville that year.)
I like the new Challenger, it looks great in black.
1. Who would want to wreck one of the new Challengers?
2. The narrow highways have all but disappeared, due to construction of the interstate highways. It wouldn't look right for Kowalski to get off the interstate to be chased through a small town, would it?
3. The small towns have been bypassed by the interstate highways. With little or no traffic through them, the small towns have died.
4. It would be too easy to catch Kowalski today.
I got this thing into my head that if i were to ever remake this movie, I would mix the story from this with that of P.K. Dick's book, "The Man in the High Castle"......1960s America, controlled by Nazis and Japanese after WWII, an author who describes a better world to the opressed Americans......and a mysterious, otherworldly figure called Kowalski who's driving across the States, an an enigmatic mission and evading the law wherever he goes.
The car?
Ferrari 250 GTO. Trust me, it'd work.
250 GTO? Not a bad idea!
But I would weep openly if anything happened to that fantastic work of art.
Can't do it without a healthy dose of immediate post-Vietnam (or was the war still raging at the time of the film's release?) alienation. Simply won't work.
shareSame reason scary movies aren't scary anymore... there is no more unknown! With today's technology, they could see exactly where he was from their computers. Same for him, GPS, iPhone, you name it. There is no more mystery like there used to be. It's a good and a bad thing. Knowledge like never before. Life is boring, though. No exploration.
shareSandy wouldn't have let him out the door due to trade practices legislation on driver time limits
I see a man..and I take away reason and accountability..Jack Nicolson..As Good As It Gets.
All of the reasons so far cited are on the money, and the whole discussion is worth an article in national media, which I may write. In my view, the main reason VP could not be made today is that the ultrabrilliant Guillermo Cabrera Infante, who wrote the screenplay, is dead, and his spirit cannot be revived. Andy Garcia and Bill Murray made a terrible version of Cabrera's greatest novel, THREE SAD TIGERS, retitled THE LOST CITY for the screen, in 2005, and all the way through it was obvious that without Cabrera, an irrepressible humorist and especially a Spanish-English-French etc. multilayer pun freak, his work could not be transferred to film. Cabrera was an ex-Castro revolutionary and film critic who left Cuba in the mid-60s, although he could have enjoyed top honors in the communist state. He loved freedom too much, he loved American culture, and everything in VP speaks to that. If the movie were made today it would be about a Cuban exile who decides he loves Castro and has to dodge the U.S. authorities at Gitmo to get to Cuba in a speedboat, or something equally silly -- really, I don't have to suggest any such thing because all those who posted before me covered most of the ground. I knew and greatly admired Cabrera and wrote eulogies for him when he died. But here is a tip for VP freaks that may explain the San Francisco references. I have always thought, since I first saw the picture in 1971, that Cabrera partly intended it as a parody of a pretentious pic by the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, about the 60s youth rebellion, called ZABRISKIE POINT. ZB came out a year before and if you watch the two together -- a tedious task re ZB -- it seems VP has the same basic plot -- young guy tries to escape the boredom of conformity, using a plane in ZB. I, by the way, have never owned a car so I defer to the gearheads when it comes to their enthusiasm for the pic. I know Cabrera would have gotten a great kick out of the pic being featured in MOTOR TREND! He died in 2005 so never got a chance to read the coverage. I think he would have been more pleased with that and the mention in DEATH PROOF than with the antics of Bill Murray in THE LOST CITY. For what it's worth. There should be a VP fan club!
shareHere's one more. The Challenger is fitted with a remote immobilizer. Granted not all vehicles have this yet but it could happen.
shareKowalski would have a cell phone, and his Challenger would have air conditioning. And of course, new country radio stations would play nothing but crap.
shareYeah, the cell phone that would really *beep* it all up no need for Super Soul.
shareYou are all too literal minded. Vanishing Point was a perfect statement about the world in which it was created. A modern Vanishing Point would need to be the same.
Vietnam, Muscle Cars, Hippies, The Man out to get you, Free Love, Experimental Drugs, etc. This is all wrapped up in this movie.
What would need to define today’s world? Texting, Social Networks, War on Terror, encroaching Big Brother, High Unemployment, Breakdown of the Basic Social Structure, Materialism and Greed, etc.
The search for that illusive concept of freedom is mostly gone. Spirituality has taken a back seat to humanism. What is it that people strive for? I doubt if most people even know themselves.
Instead of knowing exactly where he wants to go, and when … a modern Kowalski would have no idea where to go, or how to get there. Sadly, a modern vanishing point for most people would likely be just an abyss rather than a spiritual elevation to a higher plane.
The prospects of finding an ally like Super Soul in this self-centered, opportunistic world is equally bleak. Instead of trying to liberate him, today’s media would be exploiting him real time.
Perhaps a modern Vanishing Point would be about a (failed) suicide bomber trying to take out MSNBC or Facebook? Trying to recapture his soul from the cyber thieves that have stolen his privacy and his uniqueness.
Perhaps a modern Vanishing Point would be about a modern patriot that uses Twitter and Linked In to reshape the American government or media into one that actually cares about the people and not just themselves and their careers?
Or it could be about an Afghan war vet … Medal of Honor winner … that has had one too many personal tragedies … decides that his life is a meaningless void as he drives a 2012 Challenger from Colorado to California … synchronizes his radar detector and GPS to help him elude the cops … gets on-line updates of the police efforts on his I-Phone … jumps through a moving freight train and collides with Dominic Toretto and his Charger.
Great post!
I really think you hit the nail on the head as far as identifying the need to not only point out the technological differences between the 70s and today but also the ideological differences as well, and specifically how those would affect a "Vanishing Point" present day remake.
I love "Vanishing Point"!
the 70s were the last best time for decent Hollywood films.
Marlon, Claudia and Dimby the cats 1989-2005, 2007 and 2010.
It would be totally CGI. No real Challenger would exist!!!
Nude chick would probably be CGI, also.
Check out current movie Warhorse. Nobody to look after the well-being of the horse bacause there is no horse!!!!!
I think probably another factor is that cops don't really go all-out anymore to chase a fleeing criminal. In the name of public safety they just follow at a safe distance, note the license number, and let the criminal get away if he really tries.
I can't actually say that I've seen any roadblocks in the last decade except DUI checkpoints.
Of course, on the other hand, when cops DO decide that they do want to get you at any cost, they bring out 50 cars at a time and 10 choppers.
In this movie, Kowalski only had to beat 1 or 2 cops at a time. Today, he'd either have to beat zero or fifty at a time.
--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?
Bing-57 is so right. And the chase would be covered live on TV. The roadblocks would probably be set up by a TV network, to get an exclusive from Kowalski.
shareVanishing point today would have to be in eye popping 3D, shot on digital cameras at 48 FPS to look "REAL".... not this fake film crapola....haha
All jokes aside....
The film could only be made as a retro remake, meaning...it would have to take place in a different time and place basically similar to the movie in order to have the same feeling of this classic. If it was really made today...even without GPS... with iphones....smartphones.... he could never get far and I highly doubt anyone would be rooting for him or helping him...they'd be recording his every move because he'd be wanted for Felony Speeding among other aspects. The only way it MIGHT work is if he had friends on the outside helping him get away via the same methods that would be good for the cops... Maybe he has hackers tricking the police....fooling the GPS...say we put that plot device back in...then take it out of the car at one point and have them chase down a bad lead..... just grasping at straws here.
Too bad it ended the way it did...I was rooting for him. The end would also probably be a dream if it was remade....and then end happy.
Reminds me of the movie Drive a bit...with a little less flair to it, but more grit and happiness....even though it ended the way it did.
http://www.youtube.com/user/alphazoom
http://www.vimeo.com/1986276