Vanishing Point (1997)

the audience applauded

A Masterpiece!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Pictures that usually glorify a hero have meaning. As an example, Bonnie and Clyde glorified the dynamic bank robbers and you actually felt sympathy for them despite their evil deeds. Why? They were two people caught up in the depression when people were desperate to survive.This film has absolutely no substance. The Viggo Mortensen character soon emerges as a folk hero. Why? He speeds along an Idaho highway on the way to the hospital where his stricken wife has been taking. No one bothers to understand why he is trying to flee everyone. Even worse, when the realization becomes apparent that he is not a red-neck terrorist, no one in government wants to help him as they try to save their rear ends.Jason Priestley co-stars as a radio emcee who builds upon the story in support of our hero.The ending is absolutely unbelievable.

Oh, dear lord.... They've turned what was a fairly thought provoking movie into a swaggering testosterone fest.The original 1971 version of this movie was beautifully vague about our hero Kowalski. He was a man trying to drive from Denver to San Fransisco to win a bet. Why was he willing to risk his life for the price of a handful of uppers? We're not really sure.We had a few flashbacks that gave us the picture that he was an adrenaline junkie, and presumably he had led his entire life trying to make it to the vanishing point. That point you see off in the distance where the left and right shoulders of the road come together, and the road itself vanishes. He lives only to be free, and means no ill on anyone. We saw several times when there were accidents he stopped to make sure the other driver was okay before moving on, even the cops that were chasing him.When he saw the futility of his quest he took his life rather than be arrested and live a life of captivity. He died like he lived, running wide open.In the remake Kowalski has a whole history (including a first name, even.) He's trying to get to the hospital where his wife is suffering from complications to her pregnancy. He is a devoted husband, and excited expectant father. He comes to the decision to take his life after hearing his wife died in delivery, but they even leave THAT in question when they suggest that he may have jumped out of the car before it ran into the bulldozers. They even gave the part of "super soul," the blind DJ (brilliantly portrayed by Clevon Little in the original) to JASON PRIESTLY?!?!?!?!?!? Give me a break.

I know this was a made for TV Movie, I've seen lots of them. This movie is all right. Not the greatest one, but very watchable to say the least. Trying to be by your wife's side when she goes into labor is grueling, but when total misunderstanding goes around, a media circus has erupted. Jimmy Kowalski(Viggo Mortensen) goes out on a race to see the birth of his first child. The state police and the FBI end up being on his tail when the chase starts. The FBI wants him bad. For what? Jimmy admits his innocence. Accusing him of being a right-wing militia man? I DON'T THINK SO! When he had that blowout, the snake handler helps him out with the rattler. And these other tribesmen let him expand his mind on life and help him elude the law. And that handshake was awesome. After that, his oil pan ruptures and he sees a woman on a motorcycle wearing a bikini top. He says, "Are you insane?" when he sees her like that. She asks the same thing. Looks who's talk now. The good news that he got to be with his daughter, the bad news that his wife dies while he gets to her. Either way or the other, one way leads to another, and it's not worth killing yourself after the spouse passes. He was the real good guy, the bad guys were the FBI. And this movie here is OK to watch, could have used a little more work done to it, but Oh Well. Rating 2 out of 5 stars.

Yuck! And again I say...YUCK! The original version of this movie was a well directed story of a man who was already dead and driving through purgatory. The original movie had a lot to say and didn't go out of its way to say it. And, it had a naked chick on a motorcycle.This version strikes me as something that a producer bought the rights to and then abandoned out of disinterest. It looks as if a group of individuals consciously decided to fit it to the nineties and changed ethnicities and genders just to be cute. The movie is not about a burnout about to commit suicide in a last act of defiance. It is about a man trying to get to a hospital to see his wife.There was no reason for this movie to have been made other than to make me angry...