Buzz
Wednesday Fun article on a cult classic that I really love as a Mopar guy, but as a 30 year veteran of film and video production, I’m going to say, Errrrm… nope. You’re a mile off and you’re trying WAY to hard on a low budget flick like Vanishing Point. It’s not as artsy as you want to project. Not everything in a film is there for a reason other than it gets the plot from point A to point B. Yes. There are some things

that do what we call foreshadowing. A little subliminal hint that reoccurs later as a plot vehicle. That black car? Didn’t mean Jack. The camera follows the black car in the opposite direction to make the challenger look like it is FLYING. The sequence with “Death”? It was a poorly executed dream sequence. Clearly he wakes up in an empty car hidden below the roadway where he had bunked for the night. Reason they took that scene out? It was TOO SLOW. This is a car chase movie start to finish. It flat. didn’t. Fit.

Stole the energy and momentum. It hit the cutting room floor for good reason. His character resists temptation? Please. What if I told you that they shot a sex scene with Honda girl that was too racy to make the cut? And what of the opening scene? The director shot an alternate ending to the movie. In post production they decided which ending to use and played a clever plot trick.

They played the ALTERNATE ending at the BEGINNING where he lives to escape police. This sets the audience up for the shock of a surprise ending. You’re waiting for him to veer off the road so we can see what’s next and SMACK! Dead lead character. Startling! Amazing! People ran out of the theater to tell their friends. That was a little editing magic that happened during post production that wasn’t in the script.

Enjoy VP for what it is. A film about an adrenaline junky who takes a dare, drugs it up on speed, drives like lightning, ends up exhausted, high, and tired of running from the cops, and in the end, decides to check out rather than face what surely means prison time.