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Last week’s question caused some issues for people who suggested newer cars like the Subaru 22B. This week it’s open-ended; there is no date limit although you know which way we skew.
Since the beginning, Hollywood has included cars in cinema. It’s a great combination, and there are dozens of memorable cars in film, ones that have influenced a generation, inspired culture, or became the stuff of your dreams. They can be movies with chases in them like Bullitt. They can be movies that haunted your dreams like Christine. Or they could even be movies that inspired like Le Mans. Everyone has a favorite.
At Petrolicious we like to think that the real talent is the car itself. While many “car movies” feature impressive acting talent, when a car achieves recognition and sometimes is even more memorable than the actors in the film itself, that’s when you know you have a great car movie.
So today’s question, “What is the Best Car Movie” comes with a twist: What are your favorite car movies where the car itself was more memorable than the flesh and blood actors, and shone in its own right?
What is the Best Car Movie?
If you need some help, check out our film reviews, here.
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As a kid growing up, the original “Gone In Sixty Seconds” was the coolest car crash movie ever made, I’m still infatuated with that movie. But my all time fav is “Le Mans”. Just bought it on DVD so I can crank the surround sound and enjoy those wonderful sounds. Plus being a Steve McQueen fan, this movie just fills the bill. Maybe I’ll paint my FIAT in Gulf/Porsche livery
For racing, I like Grand Prix. The cinematography is distinctly different from Le Mans, more dynamic, to create a sensation of being in the car or part of the car, whereas Le Mans left me feeling like a spectator and at times a driver who looks only ahead. To me, Grand Prix is the truer “car movie.”
For street racing and culture, Two Lane Blacktop is as pure a car movie as they come.
For car chase movies, Vanishing Point has to be my favorite. (Ronin has some jaw-dropping chase scenes, but I’d call it a heist movie, not a car movie.)
For me, that award of best car movie goes to Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. It’s the 1st time I was really exposed to any sort of special cars, it was the only musical made by the same people who did James Bond, it was probably one of the best Dick van Dyke movies of all time, and it just portraits cars and drivingin such a fantastic and joyful manner. If the whole movie we the intro sequence, I’d have to say The Italian Job, or the movie Rush is very good.
I’m surprised at how few people have mentioned Lemans. There is no better car movie. It is strictly about the cars and the racing, so much so that the little dialogue that does go on during the movie seems to be intrusive, almost like nails on a chalkboard. Fantastic camera work and amazing soundtrack (the engines) and Steve McQueen is the consummate cool guy. I’ve seen most of the others mentioned, but for me, none compare.
It’s still Grand Prix. I finally got to see it in a theater last week in Monterey and it’s amazing how details jump off the screen and how well the in-car shots work. It must have been a revelation in ’66.
Last American Hero might not be the spectacle that Grand Prix is, but it just might be a better movie.
“C’était un Rendez-vous” (it was a date) made in 1967 by Claude LELOUCHE.
Secrets of the film making (driver / car used etc.) have been kept secret for a loooong time !
I’d dream to cross all Paris to my beloved in the aerly morning with my cabrio !
“climb danse” by Jean-Louis MOUREY (with Ari VATANEN) is also a excellent one to my honest opinion.
JB21 – I was watching ” Rendezvous ” back when VCR’s were the only game in town . Its NOT shot from a Ferrari . The entire film was shot from a Mercedes Benz . There was no ‘ real ‘ traffic . What little there was was being restrained by the Paris police .
And ….. that information has been made available along with the film maker finally admitting to it after all those years . But not after pocketing a hefty chunk of change filling up his pockets
e.g. It was … and obviously still is in light of some folks like yourself still believing the Myth … the single greatest cinematic con job ever pulled off on automotive enthusiasts worldwide … for one ___ of a serious profit I might add
TJ Martin,
Check out the link that I posted prior, the least of a courtesy a decent person could have before mildly insulting others. Just in case, the video link is of how it was made. Practically everybody who watched it knew the sound was dubbed (it doesn’t match), and for all I remember, Lelouch never said it was Ferrari. Regardless, does it really matter, it’s an exciting 9 minutes, I thought that was what it was about. And one more thing, I watched this for the first time when it was shown in a theatre in Japan in 1977, so I beat you on that, too.
I’m going to name a car and movie that’s probably a bit off the more original intentions:
The Audi S8 in Ronin (1998)
You can’t beat Two Lane Blacktop
BOY: Chevy block?
DRIVER: Yeah.
BOY: See you got a roll cage.
GARAGE MECHANIC: Lot of work.
BOY: Is it a 396?
DRIVER: 454.
BOY: No shit.
GARAGE MECHANIC: What kind of transmission?
DRIVER: Four-speed.
GARAGE MECHANIC: You build the headers?
DRIVER: Yeah.
BOY: How fast does she go?
DRIVER (vaguely): Depends on who’s around.
#1 with a bullet ….” Grand Prix ” … by a country mile and then some . Then #2 …. ” Ronin ” … for the best car chase sequences NOT CGI’d
And on the animation side of things . ” Cars ” THE animated car movie though suitable for the kiddies … made by serious GearHeads … for serious GearHeads . If you haven’t seen it … you’ve missed out … if you have and missed all the references [ such as the Cord mountains etc ] … you’re seriously in need of a remedial class in GearHeaditis
As to the mythological ” Rendezvous ” … its fake [ its not even a Ferrari driving ] and overly hyped
I’m actually in the process of starting a podcast with some friends where we watch car movies and discuss them, so this is pretty apropos to my current interests. I’ve been categorizing “car movies” into a few different buckets, though they don’t all have catchy names yet: Car-sploitation: where the cars are plot devices and conspicuous in their presence; movies explicitly about cars and driving (The Fast & The Furious, Le Mans), Car Appeal: movies that aren’t necessarily about cars, but feature some car related set-piece that becomes super memorable (Ronin, Bullitt), Cars as Characters: a movie with a very memorable hero vehicle, often for no reason (Back to the Future, Ghostbusters).
I like movies that are kind of time-capsules for what is going on around them. I think the often forgotten Charlie Sheen film Wraith is a great slice of it’s time and a comical re-skin of High Plains Drifter with cars. Say what you want about The Fast & The Furious, but that first film is the perfect touchstone for the Import Tuner culture it pandered to, right down to the poor car technobabble indicative of somebody with no real understanding of what they are doing.
I really dig “Rendezvous” (1976). “Ronin” had really great driving. “Graduate” had such a right idea casting the Spider – I often wonder if Duetto was the inspiration for the entire movie. I know it may sound a bit weird, but I nominate the “Lupin the Third: the Castle of Cagliostro” (by Hayao Miyazaki) for my introduction to Fiat 500. Though there really isn’t anything memorable about cars in the film, I really liked “Drive.” Finally, “Fast and Furious 6”, for no reason other than just because they had Escort RS1600 in it.