Best American car movies?

Barry Newman’s obituary (Barry Newman, Star of the Cult Film ‘Vanishing Point,’ Dies at 92 - The New York Times) expatiated on ‘Vanishing point’, initially poorly-received, that became a cult favorite, made lists of best car movies: The 38 Best Car Movies Ever Made, Ranked

Smokey and the Bandit.

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Bullitt (Steve McQueen)

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Grand Prix and LeMans

Most car wrecks…Blues Brothers

The Cannonball Run didn’t make the list.

How can a movie about cars with Adrienne Barbeau in it not make the list ?

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I looked at the list and I have a few questions . . .

What constitutes a “car movie” . . . does the car have to play a central theme?

And does it have to take place here?

Anyways, here’s some more to consider . . .

Ronin had a great car chase scene, imo . . . but it didn’t take place here

The French Connection

Escape from New York had a fun scene on the bridge . . . Adrienne Barbeau :wink:

As for Bullitt . . . while the car chase scene is fun, I find the rest of the movie difficult to watch, because I personally find it boring :yawning_face:

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Pixar “Cars”.

Best is such a subjective term, and over the decades there have been many movies that were about cars, or had a number of cars that were part of the plotline but not the main feature.

“Cars”, with our own Tom and Ray in supporting roles
“Thunder Road”, in which cars played an important part
“The Italian Job”, full of Mini Coopers
“Chitty Chitty Bang Bang”, well…
“It’s a Mad Mad Mad Mad World”, not about cars but full of them
“The Love Bug” and the rest of the Herbie movies

My favorites are of various genres: some for drama, some for action, some for thriller/horror, some for humor, some just for the actors… Except for “Bullet” the list is no particular order…

Bullet…; The Transporter…; Smokey and the Bandit…; Mad Max: Fury Road…; Christine…; Thelma & Louise…; Collateral…; Duel…; Fast Five…; Death Proof…; Tucker – The Man and His Dream…; Gone in 60 Seconds…; and if “Secretariat” had more than “one-horse power” that one would also be on the list…

But Bullet is special on the list! I and my “Bardahl Friends” (At least 6 of us with oil stains on our jeans and smelled of hypoid oil…) went back to the movies to watch Bullet several times to “study” Steve’s driving techniques…

I saw this at the student union my first semester of college. We were all laughing when he used his turn signal to come back on the road from the median.

Here’s another one that just came to mind . . .

Gumball Rally :smiling_imp:

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I do not remember this one, it came out in 1971; I entered the Air Force that year and did not have much time for TV then… I reviewed several YouTube excerpts and do not remember even seeing it in re-runs. In the beginning of the trailer, it says he was a “Medal of Honor Winner”, a “former cop”, and the trailer also says, “Dishonorably Discharged…” I do not know if that is referring to his military service or as a policeman… So that’s confusing… But again it was the '70s and the military was not held in high esteem… No one thanked us for our service back then…

Also, I believe Hand Signals were still on the driver’s written test… When I took my road test in 1966, the tester told me I had the option to use the hand signals or the directionals…

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Thanks for posting the trailer. Didn’t see it and now don’t have to. I get the boring plot. Gotta deliver a car by driving and not on a transport. Manage to upset law enforcement all along the way. Then throw in a naked woman or two. Writers, please do us all a favor and stay on strike. Some hope though if Hollywood moves to Nevada. Trying to remember the last movie I went to. Pretty sure it had a car in it.

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The wraith is good. I like the part where the garage blows up.

Duel is my favorite. I also quite liked Rush, and Ford vs Ferrari. I’ve never seen no 1 ranked Taxi Driver, reviews sort of scare me … lol …

Contrary the the person compiling the list, I thought the 1974 original version of Gone in 60 Seconds, while admittedly a little amateurish, still has a lot of exciting scenes, worth a watch.

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If I remember correctly, in the movie Vanishing Point at the end when he crashes the challenger. they actually used a white Camaro in its place.

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Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry.
Mother, Jugs and Speed.
Killdozer does not count and why they made a movie out of it is unclear. Think of it as Jurassic Caterpillar.

Christine comes to mind but was mentioned already.
Talledega Nights.
Drive Angry.
The Yellow Rolls Royce.
Ready Player One had some good races.
The worst TV show was My Mother, the Car.

Thunder Road tops my list. Rush and Ford vs Ferrari, I have not seen but people I know have said they were excellent.

Tucker was just fiction, he was woefully under capitalized and used surplus helicopter engines that would have bee ruinously expensive to produce new.

Henry Kaiser saw the handwriting on the wall for small independents and took his tooling to Argentina where there was a protected market.

Anybody remember “Johnny Dark” it was not a great movie but at least as good as half the list. Ir was aboyt a sports car racer sponsoer but a factory whose ficticious name escapes me but the cars the people from the spnser drove Were what looked like Willis Aero Aces. Quite distinctive with their square tail fins.

I had forgotten all about that one and it’s surprise ending… Like “they”, I did not see that ending coming… I still snicker when I think about the scene when one of them take off in the car, ripping someone’s car door off and the bystanders are arguing whether the engine was a 440 or a 428 Hemi…

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Used Cars (1980) where Kurt Russell and a cast of drivers bring enough cars to the lot to measure up at 1mi total in length.