After EASY RIDER, hitting the open road became an often-used metaphor for regaining one’s freedom. RIDER was revolutionary, however some parts have dated it. Many films copied the concept to varying degrees of success — 1971’s TWO-LANE BLACKTOP took the concept to great heights. In the same year came VANISHING POINT, a shallower take on its era, but with a lot more kick ass action.

Kowalski (Barry Newman, BOWFINGER) drives custom cars across country to their owners. He’s just gotten back from a long trip when he makes the bet that he can head out right away and get from Denver to San Fran in 15 hours. (To do so he’d have to average 85 mph, but whatever.) Right before he heads out, he takes some speed to stay awake. Racing down the highway, two motorcycle cops try to pull him over, but he keeps on going.

For the rest of the running time, he is trying to out run the cops. Periodically we get flashbacks, revealing details about his past. One nice set-up has him stopping for gas where the female attendant reminds him of a girl from his past as a cop. Despite, discovering Kowalski’s laundry list of previous careers, we don’t get a lot of meaningful development of the character. He’s more of an archetypical marginal man type; a person caught between two cultures, but doesn’t really fit into either.

A blind DJ called Super Soul (Cleavon Little, BLAZING SADDLES) picks up on the cross-country police chase via the police radio and starts helping Kowalski avoid the cops over the airwaves. Super Soul believes Kowalski is the only truly free American soul left. As Kowalski continues to run, he begins to attain a kind of cult status, thanks to Super Soul.

I can buy why Kowalski would want to run, but Super Soul’s devotion I don’t. Why is this guy, who is really just on the world’s longest police chase, such a hero? Because he wants to drive fast and Da Man won’t let him? We vaguely learn some information about the end of Kowalski’s police career that could have made him a righteous outlaw, but it’s too vague to really care about and comes too late in the story.

My memory of TWO-LANE BLACKTOP really hurts this film, because that movie was an existential ride into the culture of the early 1970s. This film is photographed in the same artistically beautiful and provocative way, but it’s really just a “stick it to the man” action flick at heart. Strangely enough, the film also reminded me of another 1971 flick, SWEET SWEETBACK’S BAAD ASSSSS SONG, another film where a man is on the run from corrupt cops. However, this film makes me appreciate SWEETBACK much more, because that film had real pathos, making VANISHING POINT seem like a poor white man’s version of the same story, only he’s fighting the man cuz he doesn’t want to pay a speeding ticket.

It’s not that VANISHING POINT is terrible; it’s just pretending to be something that it doesn’t deliver. The cinematography is great. The action sequences are top-notch. One can really feel the speed of the cars. It made the Dodge Challenger a must have muscle car. It contains great parts that do not add up to a satisfying whole though. Taken simply as an action flick, the film can be enjoyed, but if you’re looking for a similar story that has more to say seek out TWO-LANE BLACKTOP or EASY RIDER instead.