1971 – A Great Year For Car Films

When I was 16 it was the biggest thrill to get my driver's license and be able to borrow the family car. A rite of passage for most boys, a badge of honour. And naturally my love of cars and my love of films sometimes cross over. 1971 was a great year for car films, although I missed out on the big screen appearances being only 6 at the time. Films that have not only car chases but a bit more. These 3 road movies are each quite singular and original.

Duel directed by Steven Spielberg

A made-for-tv movie starring Dennis Weaver as a businessman on his way to an appointment who gets on the bad side of a mysterious truck driver. Weaver is pursued down a lonely California highway by this rusted, ugly, polluting monster of a tanker truck whose driver tries to run Weaver off the road. A real suspense thriller, this has many overtones of a horror film. The villain is never shown, and thus given an almost supernatural aura, and Weaver's character feels alienated from all the people he meets along the road. At one point Weaver asks, 'How can he go so fast?', showing the unnatural abilities of this truck. Indeed, we wonder if the truck in fact has a driver at all!



An odd facet of DUEL is the lack of traditional dialogue. Most of the film shows Weaver on the road, and only a few times during the film does he interact with others and actually talk with people. Most of the 'dialogue' is actually his internal monologue, his thoughts, that we are allowed to hear. I don't think that this would be allowed very often on network television, and the fact that they did it in 1971 is quite stunning. I probably have a weak spot for this film because of the car: Weaver drives an orange Plymouth Valiant, and my family had a red Dodge Dart, practically the same car. So every shot with the dash and interior brings back fond memories.


Two-Lane Blacktop directed by Monte Hellman

Who cast James Taylor and Dennis Wilson (of the Beach Boys) in a road movie? An orthodox choice, certainly, but most fitting. Taylor plays The Driver and Wilson The Mechanic in this story of two guys who drive around the US in a plain grey 1955 Chevy looking for street races. Their car is stripped of every luxury to make it as light as possible, its engine stroked and bored, its occupants laconic and brooding. Actually The Driver doesn't talk when he drives and The Mechanic doesn't talk when he works, and since they are almost always on the road or prepping for a race, there is very little dialogue. We know nothing about the background of these guys, nothing at all. Their counterpoint is GTO, an unnamed man (played by the always great Warren Oates) who drives ... you guessed it, a GTO. He picks up hitchhikers seemingly due to a need to babble incessantly, but nothing he says is reliable. We get at least 3 different versions of what he is doing and where he got the car. GTO's talk is the flip side of Taylor and Wilson's silence.



Eventually the two cars meet (along with their occupants) and a cross-country race is established. There is also The Girl, who just climbs into the Chevy at some restaurant along they way and who eventually switches to the GTO. But that's the limit of any narrative structure that this film has. It is much more a contemplation of the road and of driving, alluding to the alienation that we might feel in our society and what tenuous ties bring us together. The film has no ending, and really it has no beginning or middle: the characters are part of an endless cycle that they are powerless to break out of. This film would never be done today.


Vanishing Point directed by Richard Sarafian

Go Kowalski! This is THE cult car chase/ road movie. Kowalski, played by Barry Newman (who?), must drive that classic white 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco for some reason that doesn't really matter, and he has to do it as quickly as possible. This means total disregard for speed limits and the law, and he incurs the wrath of cops during his journey. He does have his supporters, spurred on by a blind DJ (played by Cleavon Little). But this road flick is about a chance for Kowalski to ruminate on his life, and mostly on his life's various failures, so much so that he (and the film) end with the Kowlaski and car running full speed into some parked bulldozers.



So, skimpy plots, so-so acting. Why do I love these movies? Maybe because I see them as all about driving, even more than being about cars. Some people love to drive, some people see it as a necessary part of getting from point A to point B, and some people hate driving. I'm in that first category. These films feature the sound of car engines much more than dialogue, and burning up the asphalt takes precedent over any narrative development. It is totally obvious why these were not commercial hits but also why they are cult classics, as they appeal to a definite niche audience. I appreciate their 'pureness', that driving is the most important part and not any transformation of the characters or standard plot denouement. And they have cool cars!

6 easy ways to waste fewer resources

These things will not solve the problem of resource depletion but they will contribute to minimizing your personal energy and resource consumption, your carbon footprint. That's an important step, truly. As a member of society it is your duty to help safeguard that society for the well-being of all. That social covenant, ya know. Anyway, here are six things that you should be able to do easily that will help:

Drink tap water and stop buying bottled water

You probably already pay taxes to have your water treated so it is potable. So use it! And this will cut down on the waste of plastic bottles which, even though recyclable, are an unnecessary strain on the environment in terms of energy spent fabricating and then recycling them. Skip a step and drink tap water. Many municipalities are promoting the use of tap water; the city in which I live, Matane, has recently banned bottled water from official functions and is instead promoting the use of potable water from our municipal water supply.

Use reusable bags for shopping

These have become de rigeur and, in many cases, almost fashion statements. Keep bags in your car trunk, and get a small, lightweight bag to keep in a pocket so there's always a bag handy for an impromptu stop at the corner store. So easy; what took us so long to adopt such a simple habit?

Keep the thermostat at a reasonable temperature and wear a sweater

I would say 19C is fine but forget a standard, find your own comfort zone. But when you get a chill, change your habit so your first instinct is to put on a sweater instead of bumping up the thermostat a degree or two. Stay comfortable but think about the more energy-efficient solution to keeping warm.


Use mini-fluorescent bulbs

Replace your incandescent bulbs when they burn out by mini-fluorescent bulbs. They even make them to look like the familiar old style.


Walk more, use your car less.

For small errands get in the habit of doing them on foot. Good exercise and no pollution created. A true win-win situation.


Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Try to cut down on wasteful packaging by purchasing bulk items. When you are tired of something (toys, furniture, clothes) don't just throw them out but donate them to an organization that will give them to families in need. Most municipalities have recycling programs. Participate by recycling all possible materials such as paper products and most plastics. It's really easy.

These six things are obviously far from a panacea. The reality is that construction and industrial activities use far more resources than any individual or even community of individuals does. But if everyone takes small measures to create less waste, well, every bit helps!

Forget Global Warming

Is global warming real? Scientists and environmentalists have been talking about the dangers of global warming for many years, about how the ozone layer has gaping holes in it that are letting dangerous ultraviolet rays through, how the arctic ice flows are melting at alarming rates, how the weather is changing due to excessive heat produced by human endeavors, that we are killing our planet. Many people debate the veracity of these claims: this is all simply part of the normal life cycle of a planet, how we are in the midst of a warming period after an ice age, that these are merely alarmist cries from the radical back-to-earthers. And so on, yadda yadda yadda.

Whatever. Forget global warming. Forget all these arguments as they turn the focus away from what is the more significant, obvious, and indisputable fact that humans are devouring the resources of our planet at an unbelievably dangerous, potentially fatal, rate.

There are over six billion humans on this planet. That's 6 000 000 000. Some big number to get your head around. Here's another number to help compare things: that's twice the number of humans as were around in the year of my birth 1965. So the world population has basically doubled in the last forty years. In turn, in 1900 there was only half as many folks around as in 1965.

More people means a greater demand for energy. It's as simple as that.

Energy in the form of food to give our bodies energy for thinking and locomotion; natural resources such as coal and oil to our vehicles for transportation; those same natural resources that are used to produce electricity to give energy to our homes for heating, cooking, and to run other appliances such as televisions and computers...

The sources for this energy are finite. So it's elementary: more people, more needs, less resources to go around, and resources that are being used up at an exponentially faster rate.

So forget arguing about whether global warming is real. Much more important is finding solutions to the energy crisis that is the real threat to our lifestyles. Not a threat to our planet, as the Earth has proven itself quite tough. Even after we exhaust all its fossil fuels, poison all the potable water sources, and create a nuclear winter with radioactive fallout that will kill all humans, the Earth will still be around. Make no mistake, it's really humanity's comfort that is at stake. Maybe, just maybe, by looking at things through such a self-oriented lens more people will participate in reducing our energy consumption. Who knows.