For Those About to Drive--Cool Cars in Cinema

America is a car culture. We love our cars. And not only do we love our cars we’re so immersed in our cars, they become extensions of our very lives. We eat in our cars, talk in our cars, sit in traffic in our cars, copulate in our cars, fight in our cars. We watch movies in our cars. We even watch movies about cars in our cars.

Which is really quite fitting since movies have always held an adoring place for the automobile within its revved up frames. Like uber glamorous versions of the cars we drive to work in, they become characters we know or people we want to possess. From beautiful visions of envy (check,

Vin Diesel’s 1967 Pontiac GTO in xXx) or demonic wheels of doom (like Christine’s apt make and model—a 1958 Plymouth Fury), cars elicit an exciting, sometimes emotional response. Who doesn’t get goose bumps when Steve McQueen’s speeding up and down the streets of San Francisco in that gorgeous custom 1968 Mustang GT? I do—and I’m not even a Mustang fan. I’m a Torino girl.

Yes, cars are continual aesthetic wonders movies love to photograph—fast and furiously. And current films show only an increase in ardor. With those puny speedy jobs in 2 Fast 2 Furious, the pimped-out rides in xXX: State of the Union and now, the revival of The General Lee (or rather, the 1969 Dodge Charger) in The Dukes of Hazard and the return of that quick little VW, Herbie, in Herbie: Fully Loaded, cars sometimes hold more “It” factor than the stars who drive them. So to honor all these “fine four fendered friends,” I’m listing (in no particular order) my favorite cars in film. And amping things up, this list goes to eleven.

Bullitt (1968)

Car: 1968 Mustang GT 390

Driver: Lt. Frank Bullitt (Steve McQueen)

Key to Cool: Well, there’s the vision of McQueen, perhaps one of the coolest actors to grace cinema, simply driving that beautiful piece of machinery. And then there’s his pursuit up and down the streets of San Francisco, one of film’s greatest car chase scenes bar none.

Goldfinger (1964)

Car: 1964 Aston Martin DB5

Driver: James Bond (Sean Connery)

Key to Cool: First seen in Goldfinger, we have to go with the “optional extras” that tricked out this swanky vehicle beyond a simple spiking of nitrous. Ejector seats? Rockets? This would be a nice little addition in gridlocked LA for sure.

Batman: The Movie (1966)

Car: The Batmobile

Driver: Bruce Wayne/Batman (Adam West)

Key to Cool: This 1955 Lincoln Futura concept car was created by “The King of Kustomizers” George Barris (who worked on many movie and TV cars—including The Trans Am in Smokey and the Bandit and the Gothed out ride on The Munsters) and was super-powered by a 429 Ford Full Race engine. What kid/big did didn’t think this was the marvel of modern mechanics? And who wouldn’t slide down a pole to jump into it? Really, why did crimes even have to be occurring for Batman to slither into that beast? I’d be content to amble that thing cross country. Holy Road Trip!

Smokey and the Bandit (1977)

Car: 1977 Pontiac Trans Am

Driver: 'Bandit'/Bo Darville (Burt Reynolds)

Key to Cool: Between destroying that Citron in The Longest Yard to stock car racing in Stoker Ace, Burt always looked cool in cars. But the great Smokey and the Bandit is his auto-pinnacle. The black Trans Am (given a nod in Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill Volume 2 with the leggy Daryl Hannah behind the wheel) is sweet, but I love the CB action—especially between Smokey and Sheriff Buford Justice (the brilliant Jackie Gleason): “Breaker Breaker to the Bandit..." And who can forget Jerry Reid’s theme song—“We got a long way to go and a short time to get there, I’m East bound, just watch ole’ Bandit run!” I know that song by heart and yes, it often plays in my car.

Two Lane Blacktop (1971)

Car(s): 1955 Chevy and 1970 Pontiac GTO

Driver(s): Driver (James Taylor) GTO (Warren Oates)

Key to Cool: OK—just one of my favorite movies of all time. That must be stated. There’s so much to list in this existential road movie that I can’t cover it all so I’ll just get to the cars and the racing, I love it when challenged to a drag race, Taylor says with twangy bravado, “Make it three yards Motherfucker and we’ll have an auto-mo-beel race” but then, there’s not a single frame in Monte Hellman’s cult classic (and greatest car movie ever made) that doesn’t revel in the primer painted grandeur of Taylor’s ’55 Chevy and the shocking yellow of the great Oates' off-the-line GTO. And you gotta love a movie where the cars have better communication skills than the protagonists. But why should they talk so much? And by the way, men…if you dress and act like Dennis Wilson in this film, you will get girls.

The Love Bug (1968)

Car: Herbie—a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle Ragtop Sedan

Driver: Jim Douglas/Van Hippy (Dean Jones)

Key to Cool: Yes, I’m including Herbie, only because I’ve got a soft spot for the lovebug. It was the first car I learned to drive--a light blue, vintage 1970 job. It was also my first wreck—I smashed my head through a windshield after smacking into an enormous Lincoln driven by a guy on a respirator (just so you know, he slammed on his breaks unexpecectly so it wasn’t really my fault). Anyway, it was good learning to drive in a bug—if anything went wrong you could take it apart like a tinker toy.

Mad Max (1979)

Car: The Interceptor

Driver: “Mad” Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson)

Key to Cool: Quite simply, The Interceptor was bad-ass. Modified from the exclusively Australian car, a 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT, it included a kick-butt 351 Cleveland, 4-speed manual transmission, and a 9" rear end. And it had that blower switch—the one that caused nitro-like acceleration. Sure, every gear head knows you don’t just click on a blower switch and go, but it looked so darn cool, no one cared.

Christine (1983)

Car: 1958 Plymouth Fury

Driver: Arnie Cunningham (Keith Gordon)

Key to Cool: Any car that can re-generate itself— no mechanic required— is cool. Even if it’s possessed by its former owner and has to kill people in the process.

Starsky and Hutch (2005)

Car: 1976 Ford Torino

Driver: Always Starsky (Ben Stiller in the movie, Paul Michael Glaser on the show)—always.

Key to Cool: Like Starsky’s hyperactive running style, he drove that red and white striped dream too fast—way too fast. Did he ever consider innocent bystanders? This was sent up with much hilarity during the closing credits of Todd Phillip’s film during which the car is shown in stages of super ludicrous speed. And yes, I own a Torino—a black, 1971 job that I love with the kind of ardor that the nut jobs in Cronenberg’s Crash possess. But I don’t have sex with it. Really.

xXx (2002)

Car: 1967 Pontiac GTO

Driver: Super agent Xander Cage (Vin Diesel)

Key to Cool: It’s pimped out all over the place, but the extra touch for a movie this ridiculously over the top was that his GTO had to be purple. I wouldn’t opt for purple, but I was more than happy to see the GTO back on screen just to show how cars used to be cool and not like anonymous suppositories.

The Dukes of Hazard (2005)

Car: The General Lee—1969 Dodge Charger

Driver(s): Bo (Seann William Scott on film John Schneider on TV) and Luke (Johnny Knoxville on film Tom Wopat on TV) Duke

Key to Cool: For the Duke Boys, doors are useless. So much so, that they soldered those pesky things shut making their NASCAR/cowboy entrance of jumping through the windows the envy of every kid attempting this at home. My sister and I used to do this in the VW Bug, which wasn’t quite the same. It did work nicely, however, on my dad’s old, powder blue Caprice Classic.

Honorable Mentions: The Driver, Le Mans, The Vanishing Point, American Graffiti, The Italian Job, The Transporter, Get Carter.

*This was tweaked and extended from an original piece I wrote for Fandango.com.

Comments

[Bob]

what? no Delorean, Blues-Mobile, or Ecto-1?????!?!?!?!

[Bob]

what? no Delorean, Blues-Mobile, or Ecto-1?????!?!?!?!

[robrob]

You forgot the Durango 95 from "A Clockwork Orange" " The Durango 95 purred away real horrorshow - a nice warm vibraty feeling through your gutty wuts. Soon it was trees and dark my brothers, real country dark"

[Bobo]

Not way too knowledgeable on the auto front,but I've always found the three-wheeled autos pretty cool(Hrundi in The Party had one.).I've heard they were pieces of junk,and I've never seen one running;just seen them permanently parked some places.Just think their interesting cause their so different.I bet if you had hydrolics on one of those suckers,you could get the thing to totally flip over!

[rob]

the minis in the original Italian Job were pretty cool. How about the GTO in Vanishing Point?

[rob]

GTO in Vanishing Point, T Bird in Thelma and Louise.

[Deke Rivers]

what GTO? thats was a Dodge Challnger in Vanishing Point and it was mentioned in the article

[Bobo]

I'll admit I liked the Duke Boys ,when I was a kid ,but when I see footage for the new movie remake,I just think,"Oh boy,a movie that is trying to make the confederate flag hip again!".What kind of car was the Munster Mobile?

[mark]

I don't think Milner's Ford in American Graffiti deserves an honorable mention but to be in the list proper. Short of that (and squashing the love bug) the list was very good, but the Interceptor in Mad Max looked an aweful lot like a Mustang II (shudder.... the black sheep of the mustang family, mention it no further) with a fox-body (79-93) mustang front end. The website "The Last Interceptor" (www.lastinterceptor.com) says that the falcon XB GT is an entirely australian car but seems to borrow heavily from the mustang II (ugh).

[ryann]

i know this isnt a movie but the van from the a-team should be in that list and the car from the 1986 movie cobra, and
the road train from George.A.Romero's new movie land of the dead "dead reckoning"

[Bobby]

Agreed--no Delorean?
How about the Ferrari in Ferris Bueller's Day Off (oh man, that beautiful garage). Knight Rider deserves a nod. And the Plymouth Valiant in Duel.

[Tom]

Who painted the 1967 GTO in the movie "XXX - State Of The Union" ?

[Christophe]

Great list! We plan to do some live action at Le Mans in 2006 in a 1972 Dodge Charger! The whole story of the McGriff's expedition to Le Mans in 1976 would deserve a movie too!