#Films

In 1968, Warner Bros-Seven Arts released a film that forever changed the way in which car chases were shot. Directed by Peter Yates, and starring Steve McQueen, Bullitt became the gold standard for how to capture automotive mayhem in a realistic manner that would force an audience to the very edge of its seat. Despite the plot allowing for one, we never got a sequel. However, it looks like Steven Spielberg is producing one of those remakes that’s not really a remake with Bradley Cooper co-producing and assuming the lead role.

Ronnie’s piece yesterday on the Bandit car that couldn’t be got me thinking. But not about famous cars of Hollywood cinema, mind you. Not about an impeccably dressed Steve McQueen tossing and bouncing a Highland Green Mustang over the streets of Jefferson Airplane-era San Fran, nor about a lawless-but-amiable Burt Reynolds running defence for a rig full of suds in his ’77 Trans Am. American Graffiti? Nope. Christine? Forget about that turd. Gone In 60 Seconds, version one or deux? Nada. Not even the schlockfest The Car registered in this tired brain.

My thoughts turned, instead, to movie cars that do not get movie-loving car nuts worked up into a froth. Film stars in their own right that, sadly, don’t get enough credit. You’ve probably got a few of these overlooked, four-wheeled matinee idols rolling around in your mind right now.

In the comments for yesterday’s review of Baby Driver, a few people took umbrage with the excessively stylized nature of the car chases. Although the director took specific pains to avoid the kind of CGI cheese that keeps marring, say, the Fast and Furious franchise, there’s still an obvious and deliberate departure from reality in pretty much all of the film’s action shots.

Reading that comment made me think of another TTAC comment posted recently in which somebody expressed disappointment in Ronin, claiming that the car chases were both too long and too boring. This surprised me because Ronin, to my mind, is the absolute gold standard in automotive action filmmaking. It’s the only movie of that type I’ve ever watched where I agreed with the plotline, the physics of the various vehicular interactions, and the way the cars behaved. My only complaint was that the Citroen XM driven by the fellows with the suitcase seemed to have a whole lot of motor in it.

That’s my feeling, anyway. What’s yours?

Before Twitter and Facebook and all that other social media crap that complicates your life, BMW was hiring legendary (or noted) filmmakers to shoot a series of eight 10-minute short films.

The directors instilled their years of experience into the plot and cinematography of each spot, with big-name actors brought on for flashy star power. Perhaps the last time Madonna was relevant was in one of these flicks. (It was directed by Guy Ritchie — when he was last relevant, too. —Mark) And all of this happened before YouTube! Can you believe how much you’ve aged?

Well, BMW Films is back, and it’s packing a Brit.

Some might tell you that Cheech & Chong’s 1978 movie, Up In Smoke, was about Malaise Era drug culture, or Los Angeles, or California punk rock, but in fact it is one of the greatest car movies in cinematic history. For this reason, I have used my Svengali-like powers to convince the management of the Denver Alamo Drafthouse theater to include this fine automotive film as part of the Murilee Martin Presents series. Yes, on Monday, which just happens to be April 20, we’ll roll Up In Smoke starting at 7:30 PM.

Because the power of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™ is so extreme, the Alamo Drafthouse Theater in Denver has fallen under my spell and allowed me to select and introduce four car films, to be shown each Monday during their “Alamo Takes the Wheel” month of April (actually, it was the endorsement of Repo Man director Alex Cox, who teaches at the University of Colorado, that convinced the Alamo management that this idea wasn’t completely stupid). The first of those films is the amazing Duel, an all-time-great Malaise Era car movie that shouldn’t need any introduction for TTAC readers.