365 Days. 365 Films.

Kowalski (Barry Newman) makes a bet with a friend that he can make it from Colorado to San Francisco in under 15 hours to deliver a 1970 Dodge Challenger. Driving his delivery he makes his way across America, bumping into a lot of ‘characters’ along the way, and a disturbingly large amount of naked women. The police are soon on his tail and after dodging every encounter to complete his bet he is known as a national hero as his story is told through a blind radio DJ, Super Soul (Cleavon Little) to the nation.

Richard C. Sarafian began his directing career in television, directing episodes of The Twilight Zone and even Batman in the 1960s. Vanishing Point was early in his transition between television to movies, yet watching this film you wouldn’t know. At first the film is slow moving and seems to encompass every bad element of 70s Hollywood (although these bad elements were few and far between) although Sarafian really picks it up towards the end with a great soundtrack and feel good attitude.

Without ruining the ending, it is abrupt and unexpected. Normally I might be disappointed by this sort of ending but it seemed to bring a greater meaning to the rest of the film than the expected. Barry Newman’s character isn’t played upon as much as I would have liked and it isn’t until the ending that you get a feel for Kowalski and his motives. Besides this there were a few faults I couldn’t help but pick up on throughout such as the barely passable acting of some minor characters and what seemed like inconsistency in the cinematography. Having said that, it is a cult classic and the unexpected is to be expected in this sort of film and I would say that if you enjoyed Easy Rider, you will definitely love this – although I can’t say I thoroughly enjoyed Easy Rider.

Initially I felt this film deserved three stars at most but because it gradually gets better and, as soon as you start to get a little bored of it, it picks up and fully changes direction.