Vanishing Point

Vanishing Point is an incredibly strange and cryptic film to me. Not necessarily because of its style or plot but because of it’s overall lack (at least on the surface) of meaning or purpose. The film’s pacing is unusual; almost entirely slow with the exception of a few chase scenes that are edited together at a rapid speed. However, these sequences build up to a moment which should be and somewhat is climactic but is missing all of the emotion and intensity one would want or expect. That being said, after the second time viewing this film, I am beginning to see that Vanishing Point is not necessarily a film about plot or character, or one that even addresses these conventional elements of storytelling. Rather it is a snapshot of late 1960’s/ early 1970’s American society and how the troubled and existentialist thoughts and behaviors of the time period reflect ideas of both story and heroism.

Vanishing Point is almost entirely filled with both driving and chase scenes. We rarely see the main character not driving and after about an hour of the film we as viewers feel as if we’re taking this road trip as well, constantly being shown the interior of the car as well as the western landscape and the vehicle’s relation to these surroundings. As the film progresses, we begin to connect more with the car and the setting than we do with the main character, a mysterious man named Kowalski played by Barry Newman. The car, a white 1970 Dodge Challenger, with its speed and presence, has more personality than Kowalski. Furthermore, what we remember most about the film is not the closed off and rather stale main character, but the Challenger and the landscape, which become both a symbol of Kowalski’s interior energy as well as his yearn to, as many people wanted to do at this time, escape as fast as possible.

To be honest, I haven’t seen very many films from the 1960’s and 1970’s especially classics like Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde, ones that are known for reflecting American counterculture movements of the 60’s. However one film that was shown to me last year was the revisionist western High Plains Drifter, which pretty much introduced me to this idea of the antihero and why this character became so prevalent in films of that time period. Kowalski, while lacking the presence and attitude of Clint Eastwood’s character, might as well be a “man with no name”. While representing many of the ideas that Eastwood began to represent in Leone’s spaghetti westerns and later on in his own revisionist westerns, Newman does manage to portray a slightly different kind of antihero. Unlike Eastwood’s “man with no name” character, Kowalski is not entirely morally ambiguous. Throughout the film, while injuring and putting police officers in harms way, he never kills another person, something that Eastwood’s character has no problem doing throughout High Plains Drifter. Also, in Drifter, Eastwood is portrayed as this antihero that we as an audience root for not necessarily because he is any better than the “bad guys” (he harms just as much if not more people throughout) but because he is more charismatic and appealing. In Vanishing Point on the other hand, Kowalski represents an overall moral character that has been forced into a position by a corrupt and immoral system.

In John Beck’s article “Resistance Becomes Ballistic: Vanishing Point And The End Of The Road”, he mentions this idea that interstate highways (as well as all road building) is owned, managed and controlled by the government, something we discussed heavily in class. Beck states, “More than any other film of the genre, Vanishing Point seeks to make visible the “transparent overlay” of militarized landscape and the militarized consciousness produced by the inhabitation and traversal of it.” While highways and open roads have, as Beck says, “always functioned as a signifier of liberty and possibility”, in actuality they represent false hope. Roadway systems are disguised as free terrain, for they often suggest the pathway to that freedom (How many films end with the hero or heroes driving down a long stretch of road into the sunset?). Vanishing Point plays with this symbol, turning it on its head by placing as many barriers and blockades in front of it, taking away all freedom that the “open” road has come to represent.

From the start Kowalski is fighting a battle he cannot win because no matter how fast he travels he can never escape the government’s control. This element of pessimism is often found in films of this time period for it directly reflected the mindset of American society. The Vietnam War was coming to an end and was considered the lowest point in American history in terms of military efficiency as well as the people’s support and trust in their government. As details of events such as My Lai were being revealed to the American people, the morals of the United States were being questioned. This idea of questionable morality is directly addressed in Vanishing Point when Kowalski is revealed to have at one time been a police officer that ended up being discharged for stopping an officer of higher ranking from raping a young woman. Kowalski’s character represents a specific but popular response to authority’s immoral behavior, which was to find any way possible to “escape” and close off all association with the country’s evil behavior.

While I haven’t discussed much of the filmmakers’ aesthetic choices, the film’s landscape photography is gorgeous. With its overwhelming amount of warm earth tones, the cinematography was able to accurately capture the feeling of the desert-filled and mountainous western landscape. While many of the brown, gray and light blue colors of the film often blend together (the officers wear light brown uniforms which further disguise their connection and control over the “free” terrain) the bright white of the Challenger is what our eye is continually drawn to; A dynamic and urgent symbol of hope in a despairing world.