Car Videos to Brighten Your Weekend: The Car Chase Oscars Edition

The Academy Awards are tomorrow in the US to honor the best, or at least most liked, films of the year. The concept this week for Car Videos to Brighten Your Weekend is the best movie car chases. Four of the videos this week are superlative examples of how cool cars in movies can be, and the other is just really dumb fun. 

The first video is the first car chase from the 1971 film Vanishing Point. It is among several movies at the time that focus on the serious aspects of long distance driving. If you are curious check out both this movie and Two-Lane Blacktop. Vanishing Point is all car chase. The plot is that a failed NASCAR driver must drive a Dodge Challenger from Denver, Colorado, to San Francisco, California in about 12 hours. The cops catch wind of this speeding Challenger fairly quickly, and the movie becomes one long car chase.  

Bullitt is known for its car chase. It is absolutely one of the best in history. The film and the coolness of Steve McQueen are at least partially responsible for the legacy of the Ford Mustang. The problem is that other than the car chase, Bullitt is not that good of a movie. It is extremely slow paced and quite boring. 

Steve McQueen gets another spot on the list for another one of the great car films every made. Le Mans was  released in 1971 and was a complete failure at the time, but it is a beloved film by sports car enthusiasts today. During most of filming, the film had no real script. McQueen entered a Porsche 908, strapped a camera on it, and entered it into the 1970 24 Hours of Le Mans. The camera car happened to finish the race 9th overall. 

The three movies that we have seen so far are relatively old. The 1998 film Ronin is the newest on the list. Starring Robert de Niro and Jean Renault, there is a fantastic chase scene between a Peugeot 406 and BMW M5. The scenes are unique because in many shots the actors are actually in the cars. The production crew modified the cars to have dummy steering wheels, so the actors could appear to be driving while sitting next to the stunt drivers. 

Finally, here is a real dark horse. It is included here for simple absurdity. it is from the Jackie Chan film Armor of God. He is driving a Mitsubishi concept car in Italy. This chase features a lot of strategically placed cardboard boxes.