Summer of Car Chases
Calgary Cinematheque pays homage to the summer road trip with a white-knuckled ride through some 1970’s drive-in classics. Duel, Vanishing Point and The Driver are the films: A really scary big rig, a Dodge Challenger, and a Mercedes Benz 280 S are the vehicles. Put the pedal to the metal to the Globe Theatre this summer, and check out these full throttle legacy trips.
Art by Jae Sterling.
Series Films
Duel (1971)
Directed by Steven Spielberg
JULY 27, 2023
Dennis Weaver plays the ultimate everyman who, on a business trip, meets the ultimate psycho. A crazed, barely glimpsed truck driver driving a demonic, chugging oil tanker. The big rig begins to torment Weaver on the open road, driving the already stressed businessman to the breaking point. Spielberg’s first “monster movie” and even horror film, features all his signature pop Hollywood brilliance.
vANISHING POINT (1971)
Directed by Richard C. Sarafian
aUGUST 10, 2023
Vietnam vet Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a man on a mission in a 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T in the iconic Vanishing Point. Kowalski has made a wager to deliver the car to a dealer in Los Angeles in under 15 hours in exchange for pills. But, the cops are hot on his trail across the harsh and surreal deserts of Nevada, and will stop at nothing to catch him.
tHE dRIVER (1978)
DIRECTED by WALTER HILL
AUGUST 24, 2023
The Driver, The Detective, The Player, The Connection: The characters in Walter Hill’s neo-noir cult classic, The Driver, have no names. French minimalist Le Samourai stylings meet muscular American action in Hill’s atmospheric film, his biggest cult hit along with The Warriors. Ryan O Neal (Barry Lyndon) plays The Driver, all business and superhuman driving skill. Bruce Dern (Nebraska) is The Detective, a perverse bureaucrat obsessed with arresting the uncatchable “Cowboy” Driver. Isabelle Adjani (Possession) is The Player, a gambler with a film noir goddess past. The Connection (Nashville’s Ronee Blakley) organizes the schemes.
