I’ve never been a “car guy.” Growing up, lots of my friends were “car guys.” My eyes would glaze over as they’d talk about the Whatever model from Whatever year and how its Whatever was so superior to the Some Other model. As I neared the age of 16 and the prospect of getting my own drivers license, many would ask, “What kind of car do you want to get?” My response was always the same, “One that gets me from point A to point B.” And my philosophy for car ownership really hasn’t changed much since then. I never faulted people for their love of cars, everyone has their own interests and that’s great. I just never saw the allure. What am I missing? What is so attractive about a large chunk of metal with wheels? Sometimes I think I’ll just never understand…but then…every once in awhile, I totally get it.
One of the most over the top car chases in modern cinema in Mad Max: Fury Road (2015).
The engine’s roar, the tires squeal, our protagonists grip the steering wheel as they swerve to avoid pedestrians all while their pursuer’s vehicle gains on them from behind. We’ve seen it hundreds of times over and over again, and yet we keep coming back for more. In the second half of our launch month at The Cinematropolis we’re focusing on one of the most common yet reliable stunt sequences in film history, the car chase. What makes the car chase so prevalent is how versatile it is as a storytelling device. Almost any genre can utilize a well crafted car chase. They can be funny like in It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Italian Job, or Grand Theft Auto. They can be serious like in Bullitt, The Driver, or To Live and Die in LA. They can be over the top spectacle like in The Fast and the Furious series or Mad Max: Fury Road. If utilized appropriately, a well executed car chase can elevate a film from great to legendary status. The French Connection was already a great film, but what keeps people talking about it nearly 50 years later? That FREAKING CAR CHASE, MAN.
A shot from the iconic car chase in The French Connection (1971).
I’ll never know anything about spark plugs. I’ll probably never learn to change my oil on my own. If my car ever has trouble on the road, my only option will be to call AAA and wait around till they show up because opening the hood to my car might as well be brain surgery. But get me in a theater, where I can watch the sun glisten off of the windshield and I can feel the engine’s rumble shake the seats, that’s when I get it. That’s when all that indifference and disinterest is stripped away and I am overcome with raw energy and excitement. That’s when I become a “car guy.”
As we near what is being hyped as another one of the great car films of our time with Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver, we’ll be celebrating our love of cars in cinema for the rest of the month. Keep your eyes on The Cinematropolis though the rest of June for more “car guy” talk!
