Richard C.Sarafian
Vanishing Point (Punto Zero)

THE REVIEW

"What is Vanishing Point?" ... "It's one of the greatest American movies of all time" (from Grindhouse - Death Proof by Quentin Tarantino)

The heat of the sun-baked asphalt distorts the shapes of police cars arriving in a small Californian border town to set up a roadblock with two large bulldozers. The sirens and the roar of the helicopter breaking the silence bring old stone-faced cowboys rushing to the windows of the ramshackle huts.

They need to stop Kowalski, the last lone rider who, aboard a white Dodge Challenger with a 440 engine boasting 375 horsepower, has crossed three states breaking all speed limits. High on Benzedrine, the night before in Denver, he bet he could deliver the souped-up car by 3 PM the next day in San Francisco. Like all respectable road movies, he is the classic outlier living on the edges of society. Several flashbacks tell us he was in Vietnam, left the police because he disagreed with their methods, and is an ex-racer of motorcycle and car races. And now he is behind the wheel of the Dodge and will not stop because the freedom of the soul lies in moving. He is the last possible true American hero, reserved and silent, the heir to the western epic where it is obligatory to stop only to ensure that the one challenging you to a duel (in this case of speed) hasn't died going off-road, and where the only "friends" he meets are outcasts like him—a snake-catching old man in the desert, a hippie, and...... Super Soul (does this nickname ring a bell?), the blind black DJ of a radio station who narrates his exploits and his attempt to assert individual freedom, which is not allowed because it is outside the institutionalized rules.

Hunted and trapped by police cars, Kowalski will have no choice but to drive the Dodge's 375 horsepower against the bulldozers at the roadblock. He does it with a smile.