Old School Car Chase Movies

This thread is to discuss all the awesome car chase movies of the 60s and 70s (and early 80s). IMHO, car chase movies today (Fast & Furious, new Gone In 60 Seconds, etc) just don't measure up, for a few reasons.

1) Today's cars just aren't as cool. No way can a Honda Civic match up to a Charger, Camero, Challenger, or Mustang.

2) Computer effects. Too many movies today just throw in some crappy computer effects to make a car do the impossible (ie, Nic Cage's jump at the end of the new GI60S)

3) Stunt drivers. These days, no movie star will do his own driving. Did Steve McQueen use a stunt driver in Bullitt? Nope. Haliki in the original Gone In 60 Seconds? Nope. Gene Hackman in French Connection? Nope. These guys were so hardcore that they did all their own driving.

Some of my fave chase movies from this era include:

Gone in 60 Seconds
Vanishing Point
Bullitt
French Connection
Convoy
Cannonball Run (comedy, but still damn cool)
Dirty Mary Crazy Larry
Easy Rider

That's it off the top of my head, but growing up with my dad, I was exposed to all of these great movies (and cars) and I just hate seeing what kids what to put up with these days.

 

1) Today's cars just aren't as cool. No way can a Honda Civic match up to a Charger, Camero, Challenger, or Mustang.

Right on. I've always thought that the Charger was the only real car in the Fast and the Furious.

Don't forget about Death Race 2000, man that movie was hilarious.

 

"Bullitt" is still by far the greatest of the car chase movies. You can't beat a Charger(my favorite car) and an old fastback Mustang going at it.

"Corvette Summer" is another one of my favorites.

"TFATF" had its moments. I almost cried though when they wrecked the Charger. They couldn't wreck one of the 2 billion Mitsubishi's in the world, they had to wreck a vintage MOPAR!!!! What a travesty.

 

Spielbergs Duel is a classic.

 

Blues Brothers. Great car chase; they wore sunglasses.

 

Blues Brothers falls into the same category as Cannonball Run. Good chase, but in a goofy way.


And the only good parts in TFATF and 2F2F were the old cars. I liked in 2F2F that they at least admitted that there's no way they could win that race without cheating. Hopefully they have more old cars in the 3rd (and at least it'll be Vin and not Paul "I'm the whitest guy in the universe" Walker)

 

Gene Hackman in French Connection

This movie was awsome and when i saw the title of the thread i hoped someone mentioned it.

This chase was awseom becuase they were behind schedual and the budget was low. They got there stunt driver as well as hackman and just shot the sceen. If you watch all the first person shots of the car, its all unscripted and just off the fly.

Its funny becuase its very good and there are some close calls as well.

 

Weren't most of the bystanders real, as in not extras?

 

yeah, they actually got in a wreck with someone pulling out of the driveway and they got permission from the guy they hit to put it in the movie.

There is also a foot chase that they just went out and shot. People are truly surpised when they see a man running with a gun.

 

Blues Brothers falls into the same category as Cannonball Run. Good chase, but in a goofy way.

It's funny, but I even learned something new about the chase only a couple of weeks ago.

I was watching the restored version with a couple of the deleted scenes added back in, and my buddy told me that there's yet ANOTHER deleted scene that they decided to not include for some reason.

When Elwood keeps repeating "We're on a mission from G-d," he's not kidding; one of the scenes had the Bluesmobile actually getting struck my holy lightning from above and blessing it, thus allowing it to perform the stunts in the final car chase...

 

New chase movies are total BS. Too many CG effects. The classic muscle car chase scene cannot be matched. Vanishing Point is great, but my dad (the British car enthusiast) cringed when the guy in the Jag rolled it into the river! My dad's a big Duel fan, too.

Other greats include:
Mad Max
The Road Warrior
Two-Lane Blacktop
American Graffitti *SEE NOTE*
The Great Escape (McQueen on the motorcycle)
Smokey and the Bandit

Modern goodies:
Ronin
Dazed and Confused *SEE NOTE*

*NOTE* While technically they have no CHASES, these movies do have some pretty hot cars!

 

Modern car chases have a lot more CG and less actor/stunt man driving than the older chases, but I still think there are good ones in modern films:

The Matrix Reloaded: Not realistic in the least, nor is it's intent; I thought it was incredible.

The Italian Job (2003): Great chase sequence; I liked how they used unlikely chase cars for the scene.

Terminator 3: The chase scene in this film is mostly about destruction, but it's fun regardless.

 

i forgot to add that the Mad MAx Sceens and the Ones in Road warrior are just cool.

MAtrix car chase was fun to watch.

 

How could I forget about Mad Max and Smokey?!?!

I never saw Two Lane Balcktop myself, but it's on my dad's list of "movies to buy if you ever see them"

 

The Blues Brothers car chases are classics.

The Sugerland Express is also another great car chase film (the chase is almost the whole movie, although not really like full speed chase).

Raiders of the Lost Ark when Indy has the truck and the Nazis are trying to quell him but he keeps knocking them off. From the moment he jumps from the horse to the car all the way up to losing the car is a great chase.

I do agree that American Graffiti does have some nice cars and little races, but nothing to be called a chase.

Also, while not really cars or even early 80s, but still a great motor chase is Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade with the motorcycles. Complete with John William's score, the scene is a joy to watch over and over again.

 

Two Lane Blacktop is great, but depressing.
Stars James Taylor as The Driver, Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys as his mechanic, Laurie Bird as the hitchhiker, Warren Oates as GTO.

Taylor and Wilson are drag racers with a '55 Chevy, who just drift around the country racing for money. Warren Oates is the guy with the GTO who drives around picking up hitchhikers and making up elaborite stories about how cool he is. He challenges them to a race to DC, winner takes the cars. Very introspective movie. Great stuff!

The cast had their share of tragedies! Taylor's girlfriend died somehow, Laurie Bird committed suicide while living with Art Garfunkle, Dennis Wilson drowned while trying to retrieve possessions from his sunken boat while pissed to the gills.

And I just remembered, Dazed and Confused DOES have a chase scene! Remember O'Bannion, Benny, and Melvin in their pickup chasing down Mitch Kramer and the rest of the freshmen in their giant Lincoln (or whatever it was)? Good stuff!

 

..."The Blues Brothers" had two terrific chases..


The one thru the mall is CLASSIC..

"The new Oldsmobiles are in early, this year!"


All movies mentioned in this thread are grade A..

One of the reasons i enjoyed "The Bourne Identity" (Matt Damon edition), and am looking forward to the "Bourne Supremacy" is because they've got some old school car chases...


"The Transporter" had a fairly decent car chase at the beginning, too..(i don't THINK it had any CGI, but i could be wrong..)

 

Ronin's car chases were awesome.


Edit: bored, i guess

 

It's not old-school, and technically not a "car" chase, but I was watching Goldeneye for a bit last night, and I forgot how much I enjoyed the tank chase scene. Complete with the General taking belts out of his flask.

 

Car chases bore me. The Road Warrior? Yawwwwn. Terminator 3: I could barely keep my eyes open. Italian Job: Was there actually a car chase in that film?

Actually, there is one car chase sequence which didn't leave me bored to tears: The Rock. Sean Connery on a rampage through San Francisco, that was classic cinema. Moviemakers should look to that to find out how to keep a car chase from being absolutely boring. On top of that, there was absolutely no CGI used in the making of the sequence. It was all old-fashioned propane tanks, junkpile cars, and lots of water bottles.

 

No CGI in Road WArrior or Mad MAx.

 

It may not have any CGI, which is good, but the close-ups of Connery and Cage driving are horrible. They consist of Connery and Cage seated in cars on a sound stage with Michael Bay or his camera guy doing that furious shaky cam thing, which sucks. Takes a lot away from that chase.

How could you be bored by The Road Warrior's chase? No CGI there, and it's fantastic.

 

Road Warrior is one of those movies that I simply can't get tired of. The end chase scene is so raw and in your face that I often wonder how many people got hurt in it's production.

It's awesome that someone brought up Death Race 2000. It's so hard NOT to find any enjoyment value in that movie. That's 70's car cheese at it's finest.

 

Smoky and the Bandit. There's some good chase scenes.