Why yes, I did indeed choose to watch a motion picture from the late 1970s about a killer, sentient (possibly possessed) vehicle rather than watch the Vice Presidential debate. Are you that surprised?
Due to some unfortunate technical issues, there had to be some random, last minute shuffling of entries for this year's marathon. This isn't something that's uncommon, but seeing as how this decision was made within say, the last four hours, it's still a tad bit irritating to have to do something like this (especially since I do NOT want to spread the entire Texas Chainsaw Massacre franchise throughout the whole month. I'd rather get it done within the first half). Complaints aside, my familiarity with 1977's The Car was only having heard of it via a few random podcasts or YouTube channels. I had never seen anything more than a still image or two, and even then it didn't give me any idea of what to expect other than zaniness or maybe a more subdued version of Maximum Overdrive.
To the surprise of nobody with a working brain, The Car is absolutely, ludicrously dumb. But my goodness is it the right kind of dumb. For as much joy as a couple of the prior entries on this list have brought me, this gave me genuine laughs and had me howling during moments which were no doubt meant to elicit fear rather than chuckles. I haven't made much of an attempt to track down interviews with director Elliot Silverstein (also of Western-comedy Cat Ballou fame) but it wouldn't shock me if he was setting out to make a tongue-in-cheek parody of the wave of "blockbuster" flicks that were becoming the rage during that time period. The Car does have some of the same beats as Jaws and another Spielberg flick Duel, though it lacks some of the finesse of the latter and definitely lacks the budget of the former. This doesn't hamper the enjoyment though!
The acting is pretty hit-or-miss (I would love to know how they roped poor James Brolin into this flick), but the characters are all fairly likable and easy to root for (save for R.G. Armstrong, who they seem intent on brushing aside the fact that his character regularly hits his wife). The star of the picture though is, of course, the titular car. Bearing an unusual likeness to something lifted right out of the "Twisted Metal" games (and humorously "The Honking" from Futurama), it has an undeniably threatening aura to it. As cheesy as this movie may be, all I ask is that you utilize Google image search and visualize something like that chasing you down an open highway. Or see it "staring" at you through your kitchen window. It's no Christine, but it's still pretty darn cool-looking. The moments of vehicular manslaughter aren't nearly as violent as viewers will likely want them to be, but I'd guess that the lower budget and time when it was released are to blame for that. We DO get to see it burst through a house like a god damn slasher villain however, and that is just *chef's kiss*.
I think it's a real bummer that something as enjoyable as The Car was released to a streaming service like Netflix during a global pandemic, as this is a PERFECT in-house party movie. Gathering up a round of beers, pizza, chips, salsa, crystal meth, whatever it is you kids do these days and firing up this bad boy would make for a wonderful experience with your friends. Even still, if you just sit back, relax, turn your brain off for about ninety minutes, and let the dumb fun of The Car take you into its world, you're likely to have a lot of fun with this one.
And if you doubt how "evil" it truly is, you should know that Anton Lavey himself has a credit on this as a "technical advisor." Seriously.
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