Sunday, June 14

Misleading Art: Vanishing Point


I just ran across this awful cover for Richard Sarafian's ultra-cool V8-powered trip in lukewarm societal disillusion, Vanishing Point. It's not so much the cover being awful, but the choice of film still. If memory serves me correctly, that shot is in one of the lead character's blurry flashbacks of his happier past. I guess in some odd "after watching" way it could make sense, but as a front cover it's terrible. This shit ain't melodrama. The label this release is under was an outfit named Magnetic Video, one of the very first home VHS/Beta video distributors back in the late '70s. So pictured is the first U.S. home video release of the film.

What a smooth car flick that's got everything; speed both on the asphalt and in pill form, wide expanses, a funky blind DJ/prophet, bumbling cops, an eccentric quasi-religious junk band/traveling "happening", a naked chick ridin' a motorbike in the desert for the hell of it, and of course the bad ass '70 white Dodge Challenger R/T that's too fast for the road, law enforcement, hobbyist gearheads, and Kowalski himself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just watched Vanishing Point for the first time a couple of months ago. It was a great film and I was glad that to hear the original speech at the end of the Guns N' Roses song Breakdown.

I Like Horror Movies said...

Thats awesome, I bet it led many a VHS rental store to file it under Drama

...do you dare tread upon the staircase?

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