Burning Rubber: Reflections on the Car Chase movie

"What's behind me is not important." - Franco (Raul Julia) explains the first rule of Italian driving, whilst tearing off his rear view mirror in The Gumball Rally (1978)

Gene Hackman behind the scenes shooting the
groundbreaking car chase in William Friedkin's
The French Connection (1971)

Hollywood has been burning rubber almost as long as it has been burning celluloid.  Cars and car chases not only provide a fundamental cinematic ingredient for thrillseeking moviegoers, but also represent one of the most culturally significant tropes of the medium.

To understand this significance, we must first recognise the specific cultural shift that is marked by the appearance of this supercharged, automotive brand of cinematic carnage.

 

Retrospectively, all creative art forms undergo a similar series of cultural transitions and the movies are no exception.  Broadly, we can group broad social and ideological transitions through our history, each of these reflected by a dominant Cultural phase.  These phases are identified as Primitivism, Classicism, Modernism and Post-Modernism. Whilst historians often apply these as a clear linear progression, all four phases are occurring simultaneously on a smaller scale all the time, both socially in different geographical regions and formally through different media.  It is by applying this model to cinema that we uncover the startling and pivotal cultural role taken by the Car Chase within this bubbling cultural soup.

The Lumiere Brothers thrill audiences 

with their amazing train

The infancy of any new medium first begins with a Primitive period.  Primitivism is generally identified with the discovery of a particular medium.  This is a phase of formal development, when work is generally sensualist or decorative, designed to demonstrate the potential of that medium.  In the fine arts, this is often related to cave-painting and other ancient decorative crafts.  The pioneering moving pictures of the Lumière Brothers mark the Primitive period of cinema, when the simple thrill of seeing short moving images was enough to pack theatres night after night. 

As technical skills improve in a medium, we enter a Classical period.  This is where a craft is developed and refined.  In many ways the utilisation of the medium stays similar to the Primitive period, but the Classical period marks a peak of technical excellence. 

To again use the fine arts as an analogue, the most obvious and recognisable example of this would be the 16th century Renaissance.  This period marked the beginning of the modern age.  In painting and sculpture of this time, artists began using perspective and proportion to achieve increasingly lifelike effects.  The achievements of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Giorgione and Titian mark a peak of painterly craftsmanship still unparalleled in our time. 

In long established formal media, it would appear each cultural shift occurred simultaneously in reaction to a contemporary social shift.  However, every formal medium still passes through all prior phases of development until it reaches the dominant social phase of its time.  Thus, in a much more recent medium - developed at a more culturally sophisticated time  - the speed of these transitions is accelerated accordingly, as the form needs to catch up with its audience.  This is the case with cinema.

The established Classical period of Cultural development extends roughly from the 16th century until the late 19th century.  It was during the latter point that the exploration of Modernism was just beginning across the fields of the established arts and literature.  It is also around this time that cinema was first developed: a newborn Primitive artform in a Modernist world.  One may surmise that the development of photography, then cinematography, at this point also played a role in rendering the major Classical purposes of art obsolete.

Nevertheless, as Modernism began in earnest, Cinema was just starting out on its Cultural journey and, through necessity, quickly evolved into its Classical phase.  No matter how ground breaking the experience might initially be, audiences soon tired of seeing the same silent scene of a steam train leaving its station.  Within just a few years, Méliès set up the first film studio and began to further exploit this fledgling medium, drawing from the language of the existing structures of its nearest formal relatives – those of photography, literature and theatre.

The Keystone Kops (circa 1915)

Forerunners of the action sequence can be found in many genres of the 1920's, 30's and 40's, from film-noir to westerns and early serial pictures.  These sequences, however, were rooted in drama rather than spectacle and still took their dramatic conventions from other media - in particular, drawing their inspiration from pulp literature and comic books.   Interestingly, the clearest silent movie antecedents can be found in slapstick shorts, like the anarchic shenanigans of the Keystone Kops.   These prototype action set pieces were an extension of Vaudville performance acts and restrained in length, scope and quality by technical limitations, but this very physical comedy provided inspiration for what could be accomplished with the medium. 

As the Classical period marks the greatest period of refinement in craft and technique, it is not surprising that all media are dominated by a cadre of revered individuals from their Classical periods.  From Shakespeare, to Mozart, to Carravaggio – the Classical exponents of a media set the standard by which all those who follow will be judged.   In cinema, the Classical period of technical development stretches from Méliès through to such diverse figures as Hitchcock, Welles, Eisenstein, Kurosawa, even extending into the 70s with the work of directors such as Altman and Scorcese.

As with any Classical period of formal development, these achievements establish the critical and formal language for a medium, yet once a peak of excellence has been achieved, it cannot by definition be excelled.  Thus a medium needs to expand into new territory to continue to survive.  We identify this next shift as Modernism.  The Modernist period occurs where a medium appears to have been formally fully formed.  The shift to Modernism is often - but not always - marked by an initial fear of redundancy, since the medium appears to have exhausted its potential. It is following this transition that the formal medium now advances contextually as new and unique applications are discovered and the medium can be finally established as an independent art form.

In conventional Art History, this phase is more commonly associated with the post-war shift from figurative painting and sculpture to abstraction and conceptual art, although this transition really begun in early 19th Century Europe as Classical Art and Culture searched for a new purpose as the Classical social structure collapsed.

The Modernist shift in cinema actually overlaps the critically acclaimed work of these Classicists and spans from the late 50s, peaking in the mid-70s, continuing on into the present day.  This is a shift that properly consolidates with the groundbreaking formal development of the Car Chase.

Cinema had been embraced as a new art of a new world and 
the automobile was naturally the most appropriate of subjects. 
Representing freedom and modernity, the car chase (in fiction 
and reality) is at it's heart a most American art form

From this point, North American cinema dominates and it should be noted that this gearshift into Modernism was first initiated by a number of domestic social factors.


It is during the 1950's, that we find a new breed of affluent, post-war youth, eager to assert a distinct and individual cultural identity.  It is in this era that the Rock and Roll counterculture would be born and many of the foundations were being laid for the later social and political upheavals of the 1960s.  The effect on cinema was to be equally dramatic.

This audience was eager for excitement and thrills and demanded a constant stream of new movies to satisfy them.  Chase scenes were already a staple of the Classical period of cinema, but in order to fill out the running time of these B-grade productions they were drawn out to become the focus of the movie.

With improved equipment, but working with relatively small budgets, B-movie filmmakers recognised the potential for placing the actual focus of a movie on its spectacle.  This would mean that the plot became subordinate to providing a constant stream of action and thrills.  This astute decision would later lead to exploitation filmmaking – a cinema of excess – which relied on the unholy trinity of sex, violence and action, designed to stir up thrills, teenage libidos and wallets in equal measure.  However, at this point in history, strict codes of guidance still restricted what could be shown onscreen in mainstream features.  This effectively meant that the filmmaker could only tease with hints of violence and allusions to sex.

With their options limited, filmmakers had to concentrate on action sequences to provide mass entertainment.  This new youthful audience demanded contemporary movies that they could identify with and so the earliest manifestations of the classic action sequence centred around the popular sport of illegal hot rodding with crazy young hipsters racing '32 Ford Highboys and '29 Track Ts with flat head V8s.

Hot Rod Girl (1956) offered "speed crazy thrills
as wild youths tear up the streets!"

As a result, 50s films such as Teenage Thunder, Hot Rod Gang, Thunder Road and Devil on Wheels were amongst the slew of low-budget movies churned out by studios to satisfy the demands of the youthful drive-in movies audiences.

These particular movies still only featured Car-Chase scenes as a modest part of a loose narrative still rooted in a Classical cinematic structure, but the emphasis on the extended chase scenes was beginning to explore a new language unique to cinema.  The visceral thrills of these action sequences could not have existed in any previous storytelling medium.

In a sense, the compostion of these films is comparable to the early Modernist compositions of Futurism.  As with Futurism, there is a similar immediacy and an obsession with modern images and narrative.  These movies retain the framing of classical composition, yet techniques unique to the medium were being emphasised within this structure. This leads to a subtle, but noticeable, abstraction of form. More importantly, with this change in attitude towards filmmaking, cinema was evolving again and - despite the existing formal arts having more than a 500 year head start – making its first tentative steps towards Modernism a mere 60 years after its invention.

By the time the chequered flag of 1960s was waved, an increasing liberalisation of the industry allowed more exploitative B-movies, opening the floodgates for studios to attract their audiences with the much cheaper thrills of sex and violence.

Thus, the cycle of 50s Car-Chase movies were no longer necessary in their original context – slowly being replaced by a greater variety of extreme content.  Nevertheless, this was not enough to stop the rise of the seemingly unstoppable Car-Chase phenomenon.  As Modernism is generally marked by a change in the context of a media and a deconstruction of its fundamental qualities, a key component is a medium drawing its formal and contextual language from its own history rather than from other media.  This leads to an increasing process of self-referentiality.   As the popularity of the Car-Chase made it a common and recognisable cinematic archetype, it was now increasingly visible in more mainstream films.

Steve McQueen catches some 'lift' on the mean
streets of San Fransisco in Bullitt (1968)

During that decade, increasingly elaborate Car Chases began appearing in every possible genre; from popular horror flicks, such as The Spider and The Giant Gila Monster, to the centrepiece of big budget thrillers. The most notable of these later entries including Bullitt (1968) and The French Connection (1971).


Despite being of only moderate significance to the narrative of these movies, it is worth recognising that the Car Chase sequences form perhaps the most iconic and enduring images of these productions.  The climactic chase scene of Bullitt is a deft mix of some exquisite on-location stunt driving, dramatic cinematography and subtle effects work that result in what is often considered to be the first true car chase sequence in modern cinema.   A few years later, William Friedkin's The French Connection would raise the stakes again with a wild supersonic, pedestrian worrying, gravity defying car chase.

As the 60s progressed, there was a renewed period of experimentation, as both technical and social advances allowed cinema a much broader scope.  Whilst there were many Modernist experiments within cinema during this period, the increased technical potential of the medium prolonged – to some extent – Classical dominance.

By the time we reach the 70s, cinema has properly entered its Modernist period, evidenced by the distillation and exploitation of the peculiar qualities of its own formal legacy.  This deconstruction initially occurs using the formal elements of the Car-Chase, which becomes the first singularly cinematic archetype to become a new separate and very distinct genre in its own right.

Dennis Weaver gets "trucked off" in Spielberg's Duel (1971)

The decade was dominated by mainstream movies taking the Car-Chase as their subject.  In 1971, an unknown director named Steven Spielberg crafted his entire debut feature around a single predatory car chase in the TV movie Duel.  From the The California Kid (1973), which revolved around a psychotic sheriff who ran speeders off the road, to Greased Lightning (1977), featuring Richard Prior as a real life rum-runner turned racer, these films centred their narratives around Car-Chase action and maintained the genre throughout the decade, straying very little from the established format. 

The genre was driven by several recognisable elements.  During the sixties and seventies, youth culture was largely centred around an anti-authoritarianism and a distrust of establishment figures.

Reflecting this, the central characters of many movies during this period were often sympathetic individuals outside the law.  The trend towards the anti-hero easily filtered through into the Car-Chase genre, providing filmmakers with the opportunity to throw the combined might of the police department motorpool against our hapless heroes. 

To further polarise our sympathies, there was often an individual authority figure with a grudge, representing as many bigoted prejudices associated with the establishment as possible and whose primary purpose was to be humiliated a variety of wacky slapstick ways during the course of the feature.  The archetypal “Fat Redneck Sheriff”, epitomised by Jackie Gleason in the three Bandit movies, even managed to make an unexpected cameo appearance in the 1974 James Bond flick Live And Let Die (1973). 

"...and there goes the Challenger, 

being chased by the blue, blue meanies on wheels"

 Vanishing Point (1971)

With such two dimensional characterisation and exaggerated action sequences, few of these films were intended to be taken seriously, the possible exception being Vanishing Point (1971) - which would be a controversial inclusion in that this meditative, existential Road movie includes few actual chases – and the strange and beautiful Two Lane Blacktop (1971).

Quite simply, narrative is stripped to all but that which is necessary to identify the media and legitimise the movie.  A classic example of this type of abstraction can be found in the original obscure cult movie Gone in 60 Seconds – written, starring, directed and produced by stunt driver H.B. Halicki.  That movie famously began as a 40-minute demolition derby car chase, allegedly taking seven months to film in five cities and leaving a grand total of 99 vehicles destroyed in its wake.  The plot is typically minimal - 46 cars must be stolen, including a 1973 Mustang Mach 1.  Only after shooting these sequences did Halicki - who died attempting more extreme stunt driving for the sequel - hastily film the narrative bookends to provide a contextual framing to justify the excessive auto-action.

Burt Reynolds at Bo "Bandit" Darble

Whilst certainly not the first movie of the Car-Chase genre to use the classic template, Smokey and the Bandit (1977) is probably one of the most familiar.  Directed and written by Hal Needham, the films premise is another simple derivation on the classic theme. Bandit and the  Snowman, played by Burt Reynolds and country singer Jerry Reid, must drive a Kenworth semi from Atlanta to Texarkana and back in 28 hours - loaded with 400 cases of bootlegged beer for rich-boys Big and 'Lil Enos Burdett, who make this bet with every aspiring road-racer they can.

Win and our good 'ole boy heroes can buy a new rig with an $80,000 prize. If they Lose, it's off to jail. To make the trip efficiently, Bandit surmises they need a car to divert the attention of the local law enforcement away from the truck and its illegal cargo. This neatly leads to the introduction of the Bandits Pontiac Trans Am. In between the comic-slapstick Car action, Sally Field provided the most irrelevant and implausible love interest in movie history, whilst Jackie Gleason made his movie comeback after 7 years offscreen, as the iconic Buford T Justice, a obese hick Sheriff with a grudge.

Whilst Gone in 60 Seconds is an obscure cult gem, Smokey and the Bandit was a huge hit.  Surprisingly, it grossed over $126 million in the U.S. alone. It ended up second only to Star Wars on 1977s biggest hits list and spawned two sequels, a wave of imitators and a television series.

There were other derivations on the Car-Chase formula, such as the “Great Race” format – taking its name from Blake Edwards’ 1965 caper movie which was based on a turn of the century round-the-world race between a starched, heroic Tony Curtis and a dastardly Jack Lemmon.  This particular format was an extension of movies such as It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World (1963) – itself a re-working of Around the World in 80 Days.

These early “race” movies were really an excuse to present a series of comic, slapstick set-pieces between a large ensemble cast, using the Race format as a type of Vaudeville or Variety show framework to present a series of sketches.

In the 70s, The Gumball Rally and The Cannonball Run similarly revolved around a madcap coast-to-coast race.  Like the prototype 50's B-pictures, both The Cannonball Run and The Gumball Rally were based on the same real life event, an illegal road race known as "The Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Memorial Dash."

 The last truly great Great Race movie

The Cannonball Run (1981)

In these movies, the Great Race format is used to cram in a bewildering crowd of cameo racers.  The Cannonball Run in particular takes a long time to get underway, purely because of the amount of characters it has to introduce.  Among the competitors in eponymous no-holds-barred race to California, Smokey director Hal Needham once again draws on the talents of Burt Reynolds for his lead, this time along with unstable sidekick Dom DeLuise, who periodically switches into his inexplicable alter-ego “Captain Chaos”.  Jamie Farr hams it up as an equally unstable Arab millionaire determined to win no matter what the cost and ratpack crooners Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. play two gambling drunks dressed as priests so “God can be their co-pilot."

Doing their respective bit for international stereotypes, Roger Moore plays a James Bond style racer complete with gadget packet Aston Martin, while Jackie Chan pilots a rocket propelled Subaru.  Also on the starting lineup are seventies sex bombs Farrah Fawcett, Adrienne Barbeau, Tara Buckman and a whole host of supporting characters, each playing various comic archetypes.  Sticking to a winning formula, they are pursued by government agent AF Foyt, a fascistic bureaucrat obsessed with stopping the racers.

The main difference between Cannonball and the earlier ensemble features, was that this was no longer a character driven movie.  Instead the emphasis was clearly on setting up a series of high octane race and comedic chase scenes.  The advantage in using so many well-known actors was so that they could play what was essentially a pastiche of their popular persona. 

This made any cumbersome character development unesscessary and draws on from the formal rules of early Modernist Abstraction by using certain Classical conventions - already familiar to a predominantly Classical audience - in order to make abstract work accessible.  As with the majority of the 70's Car-Chase cycle, the characters are little more than caricatures, generally with a strict moral distinction.  They are either the bad-guys or the good-guys, with the audience made certain they know exactly who they should be rooting for.

Cartoonish villany actually draws its archetypes from early silent shorts - where visual exaggeration was necessary in order to compensate for a lack of sound and the poor quality and relatively short length of the reel.  Here we seen these techniques used merely to ensure there are no lengthy distractions from the action - a wise move considering shocking speed with which the action grinds to a screeching halt during Burt Reynolds obligatory romantic interludes in both The Cannonball Run and Smokey and the Bandit.

Dick Dastardly & sidekick Mutley,
in Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races
(doomed to failure, 1968-71)

Considering this willing two dimensionality, it is appropriate that the Great Race format would find itself preserved in the Wacky Races cartoon, its hapless villain Dick Dastardly practically a clone of the Jack Lemmons moustache-twirling Professor in the original Great Race, both of them doomed to perpetual humiliating failure.

Naturally, once a solid and identifiable formula has been established and proved a success, so that formula is reproduced by others until its popularity is exhausted.  In this respect, there are further parallels to be drawn with other fields of formal Modernism. 

The very experimental and personal form of Cubism developed by Picasso and Braque suddenly found itself a formal genre in its own right.  In a short space of time it was beyond their control and in the hands of a expanding mass of minor Cubists that continues to grow, even today.   Similarly, the Car Chase genre mutated and spawned with ferocity.

As well as follow-ups to Smokey and Cannonball, Needham made the a further string of Car orientated movies - including Hooper and Stroker Ace, both starring Reynolds at the wheel.  Even an autumnal Sam Peckinpah contributed Convoy, which - in a radical move - substituted cars for trucks, but left much of the remaining formula intact.  Across the ocean, the Brits managed to cause just as much destruction, albeit with the rather reduced horsepower of the humble mini, in The Italian Job (1969). 

Ledgendary stunt driver Grant Page at the wheel 
in a scene from Mad Max (1979)

Back in the B-movie soup from which the Car Chase had first emerged, the genre continued to fascinate.  Roger Corman took a particular interest in the Car-Chase phenomenon he had indirectly helped to pioneer.  Among his hastily produced cut-price productions were Gumball, Grand Theft Auto and demented cult favorite Death Race 2000 (1975), which optimistically suggested our obsession with the Car Chase had at least another half century staying power.

In this case, post-apocalyptic drivers took part in a pan-American massacre whereby points were scored for slaughtering innocent bystanders en-route.  Distilling the medium even further, George Miller's Ozploitation classic Mad Max (1979) presented us with a dystopian near future where the car chase was pretty much all we had left.

If we were required to continue the Cubist analogy and identify a Picasso figure amongst the pantheon of gearjammers in this Modernist branch of cinema - being a single and widely recognisable iconic character whose work embodies the movement in its entirety - it would undoubtedly be Bo “Bandit” Darble himself, Burt Reynolds.

The quarter-Cherokee son of a former cowboy provided the lead in two of the most important movies in the genre, Smokey and the Bandit and The Cannonball Run. As a both stuntman and the charismatic and recognisable lead from a number of popular television series, Reynolds was perfect for these roles.   He was required only to be an amiable “everyman” character.  As a glib and humourous antihero-lite, he played a consistent archetype, seemingly a parody of real-life persona.  This allowed the movies he starred in to dispense with any cumbersome character development or complicated plot framing.  All the filmmakers needed was an excuse to get Reynolds into a Trans-am and on the lam.

These movies were a product of their time, but mark an important turning point and, like all Modernist constructions, allowed a revitalisation of the medium.  In retrospect they were crude and irreverent, but once a Classical benchmark has been achieved, the only way to develop is by the stripping of a medium back down to its basics. 

Interestingly, Braque neatly stated his intentions for Cubism in a manner that is neatly applicable to the Car-Chase deconstruction.  Frustrated by the Classicist and Neo-Classicist genre, he stated that it was his intention to “create a new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight."

"A new sort of beauty, the beauty that appears
in terms of volume, of line, of mass, of weight"
Georges Braque

Like the early Modernism of other media, these genre movies mark a complete abstraction of form.   In painting, Braque and Picasso had developed the Cubism form by taking the Classical format of painting and discarding all but the specific qualities unique to that medium.  They were making paintings about paintings.  In these movies, from Gone in 60 Seconds to the Gumball Rally, filmmakers took the format of Classical movie structure, but reduced all but certain unique cinematic qualities of that media.  These qualities are perfectly embodied by the Car Chase, an element in that simply cannot be reproduced in any existing media; not literature, painting, sculpture or even theatre.

Naturally, as with Cubism, critics found this Modernist abstraction difficult to grasp and many were immediately hostile.  For instance, Tim Pulleine wrote that the classic Cannonball Run was “lacking any recognisable plot or characterisation, or indeed incidental invention, it merely offers a parade of inept whimsy and lame intra-mutual reference.”

This kind of critical attack is striking in its similarity to the derogatory comments made by the critics of Modernism in other media.  Any initial break with Classism in a medium is often considered vulgar and shocking - before being eventually embraced.  This was the case with Cubism, Futurism, Impressionism and Car-Chase movies.  

Of course, once any form has been fully popularised and become over familiar, it will quickly lose relevance.  The very success of the Car-chase movie started an unprecedented cycle of hastily produced sequels and inferior imitations, which swiftly stifled the originality and sheer excitement of the pioneering early works.  In tandem with this decline, George Lucas’ 1977 space opera Star Wars had redefined the concept of the thrill movie – with previously unimaginable special effects sequences raising audience expectations far above the simple pleasures of the dirt-track and tarmac demolition derby.  

By 1983, even Reynolds declined to return as the lead for Smokey and the Bandit III, offering only a split-second cameo at the films conclusion.  From the mid-eighties onwards, the phenomenon of the big budget, high-concept “Summer Blockbuster” had superceded the Car-Chase genre almost entirely.  Nevertheless, no popcorn movie of the 80’s was complete without at least one obligatory burst of car chase action. 

Since then, the Car-Chase has remained a staple set-piece of the generic Action movie, making countless cameo appearances in all manner of productions.  During the 80's and 90's, many movies included memorable Car Chase scenes, including The Blues Brothers (1980), Beverly Hills Cops (1984), Lethal Weapon 2 (1989), Days of Thunder (1990), The Chase (1994), Goldeneye (1995) and The Rock (1996).  At the close of the decade, John Frankenheimers Ronin (1998) recalled the gritty style of the 1970s thriller and revisited the mean streets of The French Connection. An honorable mention should also go to the audacious tongue-in-cheek sequence in Way of the Gun (1999), where a two car chase is staged almost entirely at walking pace, but with no less automotive destruction.

This is how Michael Bay arrives at work every morning

Bad Boys II (2003)

First across the line of new millennium was Jerry Bruckheimers surprise hi-octane remake of Gone in 60 Seconds (2000).  In view of his unerring dedication to the Car-Chase sequence throughout his entire career, this movie is a characteristically broad tribute not just to the original movie but to the genre as a whole.  Close behind, The Fast and the Furious (2001) franchise starring the appropriately monikered Vin Diesel, returned the genre to its drag racing roots.

We must also not forget that formal progression continues apace in established media.  As we develop the cultural sensibilities of the Post-Modern – a methodology with growing importance in the fields of art, music and literature - there is an increased self-referentiality within all media coupled with an increased use of the techniques of contextual irony and pastiche.

Zoe Bell clings for life to the hood of a 70 Challenger

as Stuntman Mike tries to run the girls off the road

Death Proof (2007)

There is perhaps evidence of this in Jan De Bonts Taxi (2000), which provided a compact and knowing Gallic wheelspin on the genre.  We've also had Pixar's animated Cars (2006) and Michael Bay's Transformers (2007), in which the titular vehicles actually are the main characters.  In Quentin Tarantino's Death Proof (2007), two separate sets of voluptuous women are stalked at different times by scarred Stuntman Mike (Kurt Russell) who uses his "death proof" cars to execute his murderous plans.

There are sly and overt references to almost every movie mentioned in this article and even though perhaps only a third of the action actually takes place on the asphalt, there is more talking about movie cars and stunt work than any other movie I can think of.  Nevertheless, the climactic high speed chase is one of the most exciting twenty minutes of automotive action to grace the screen in many years. The action and the danger here is real; the centrepiece being real-life stuntwoman Zoe Bell as herself playing “ships mast” on the front of a speeding Challenger as they are rammed repeatedly by the chasing psychopath.

When the girls eventually turn the tables to exact a fitting revenge on Stuntman Mike, it’s an appropriate coda to a movie that is a love letter to a genre so often male-dominated and a timely reminder that women should never again be considered mere ornament amongst the freeway frenzy. 

Death Proof is as close to a pure Post-Modern tilt on the car chase movie as we are going to find for the time being, but glance in the rear view mirror reveals there is a new challenger, close behind and gaining fast.  Whilst the art of cinema evolved very quickly over barely a century, it seems that it is on the verge of being overtaken by a bratty digital cousin with barely 40 years on the clock.

The car is the star
Grand Theft Auto IV (2008)

Home computer and gaming technology has raced through it’s Primitive and into its Classical stage very quickly, becoming increasingly interactive and close to offering sensory experiences the cinema is unable to match.  With new generations of games consoles appearing at an ever-increasing rate, it is of particular note that one of the most popular and enduring Computer Game genres has been the Car Chase.

As we approach the astounding cinematic technology of the Eighth Generation consoles, it should come as little suprise that one of the most popular gaming franchises is Grand Theft Auto, a game that takes great delight in its fetishisation of the golden age of Car Chase cinema.

Meanwhile, popular cinema is still clinging persistently to the hood of Modernism, obsessed by the ever decreasing returns of high-concept formal abstraction. But digital gaming is raising the stakes and the threat of supercedence by new technical developments acts as a catalyst for experimentation and the pushing of boundaries.  As we enter this strange new cinematic landscape, we might just find ourselves across the border, heading toward the next cinematic Renaissance.   The future is a different country.  They do things differently there.  But one reassuring thing is almost for certain: there will still be Car Chases.