Or for that matter what he was running from in the first place. Maybe the bet he made that he could make it in the short amount of time I guess. But what did the cops want with him? Of course after he ran and crashed those two of course he is in trouble. But why did he run initially like that?
It is an obvious answer, huh?
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I did sixty in five minutes once...
I've always presumed he was speeding, I can't think of any other reason to pull him over can you?
Kowalski said he had to be in Frisco at 3pm Saturday, we don't know why.
Kowalski had a strange love-hate relationship with the law, with no reasonable middle-ground. He had a good military record and was awarded the Medal of Honour until he was discharged dishonorably for reasons that are not revealed. Later he joined the police and served as a cop, being rapidly promoted to Detective First Class. That's when he had his major reversal and was presumably the same time he saved the pot-smoking girl. So up to that point the cops were the Good In The World, and after that point, they were the Evil In The World. In his simplistic binary mode of thinking, once he had identified an evil, he had to reject it on principle and not comply or compromise at all. So he goes on the run for no good reason. He figures that the guy he made the bet with is somehow part of his salvation. If he gets that car there on time, it proves he is functional despite being depressed, on drugs, etc. It's also something to do with a woman (note his last telephone call) he's trying to impress. Weed is central to the whole picture. Kowalski doesn't smoke weed but he's on the side of pot-smokers since he rescued the girl as a cop, and in his simplistic worldview, pot-smokers are the good. The guy he's delivering the car to is preparing to roll a joint. Every underdog who smokes weed is his compadre. All of these things factor into why he didn't stop. He is a strange man but also honorable.
shareThe question was why did the cops want to pull him over, not why didn't he stop.
Its a pretty symbolic aspect, the cops represent the American goverment; and Kowalski, freedom
shareHe was speeding and wondering over the lines...he was kind of zoned out until they surprised him.
sharespeeding is a crime
If road movies typically represent an existential search for meaning, and cinematic depictions of the American West are often used to reflect the overall American mindset at the time a film is made, then Vanishing Point functions more or less as a eulogy for the protest era that ran strong in the late 60's, but by 1971 was already well on its way into failure - and to the generation who lived it, it was the biggest chance of true change America's experienced in a long time, and it's eventual failure was a severe blow to millions who wished to turn the system. He is pulled over for speeding - but speed is often used to represent freedom, and with the true protests now effectively dead, speed is the last freedom Kowalski had, the last chance he had to control his by now miserable state of existence. So he runs. The setting symbolizes the death of the protest era and the long stretches of unbroken road to last chance for him to grasp personal freedom - mixing together the search for personal meaning from one genre with the societal mirror of the other. And it worked - Kowalski's final act of defiance solidified his control once more over the very nature of his existence, much like ancient civilizations viewed determining the manner and time of one's own death as giving them a certain power over even the gods. Kowalski does the same.
share