The Birth of the Road Movie
When movie goers watched Steven McQueen doing a reverse burnout in his ’68 Mustang fastback in Bullitt it created a demand for chase scenes. Some of the best car chase scenes and road movies started hitting box offices in the 1970’s and it can all be traced back to a black ’68 Dodge Charger bunny hopping its way through San Francisco. One of the greatest films of the road movie hey-day is 1971’s Vanishing Point directed by Richard C. Sarafian, starring Barry Newman and Cleavon Little.
It’s a film that captures an era in America at its peak, and has more layers than a bag of onions, that revolves around a very simple plot. For anyone that has not seen this movie, or even heard of it, this movie is a Penthouse letter for driving enthusiasts. A movie that will leave you thinking and maybe even fantasizing.
Recently, my best friend purchased the remastered version of Vanishing Point with a deleted scene that was never shown in the US, only in the UK. I scanned the internet to see why I had never heard of this scene since I’m a bit of a movie trivia buff. I saw some blog articles talking about it but nothing on the major sites, so I wanted to talk about this since it really is a mind blowing scene that gives the movie a whole new depth.
A spoiler alert is in effect.
Vanishing Point -The Plot
The opening monologue from original trailer explains it so beautifully;
“Name. Kowalski. Occupation. Driver. Transporting a supercharged Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Background, metal of honor in Vietnam. Former stock car and bike racer. Former cop, dishonorably discharged. Now he uses speed to get himself up. To get himself – gone.”
That is all you need to know to understand the movie. The whole movie is Kowalski, Barry Newman, cannonballing someone else’s white ’70 Dodge Challenger through the desert after making a bet with his drug dealer that he can’t reach SF in less than 12 hours. Cleavon Little plays a blind radio DJ that can somehow communicate with Kowalski but it is never explained how.
The filler of the movie is what makes it so great. All the characters Kowalski meets on the road and the flashbacks to Kowalski’s past paint a picture that he is just a man trying to stay numb while outrunning his demons. Using methamphetamine pills and adrenaline to stay alert during the whole ordeal. Not to mention the main reason car enthusiasts love this film, the car chase. Seeing the Challenger jump, slide, and race against cops with a classic rock soundtrack checks all the necessary boxes for a good road movie.
A Supercut video of the Challenger’s greatest scenes in the movie.
Flashbacks
The movie cuts to several flashbacks in Kowalski’s past throughout the film. One where he escapes serious injury after crashing his motorcycle at a bike race. The second flashback shows him in a horrific stock-car wreck where he apparently dodged death. In a scene where he sees an attractive blonde woman he is reminded of his time as a police officer when he saved a young woman from being abused by his own partner. His last flashback is the longest one and shows Kowalski’s love interest for the first time in the film. A free spirited woman that really loves him but tragically drowns in a surfing accident. They don’t show the accident, but it is implied. These flashbacks will come into play for the deleted scene.
The UK Deleted Scene – Woman in Black
The deleted scene is a build up to the climatic ending of the film. It shows Kowalski driving through the night in route to San Francisco when he stops to pick up an attractive hitchhiker dressed in black, played by Charlotte Rampling.
As they drive in awkward silence she starts to smoke marijuana and offers Kowalski a drag. Kowalski uses speed during the movie, but this is the first time we see him trying a different drug. This scene was cut from the U.S. release partly because it shows people smoking weed. I guess pill popping was okay back then.
As the scene continues, Kowalski pulls over because he is feeling too stoned to drive. The two start to ask about each other to break the tension of being strangers alone in a parked car in the middle of nowhere. Kowalski asks why she’s going to SF and she responds with, “I’ll tell you later.” When Kowalski refers to his destination as home she responds with, “Home. You make it sound like a good place.”
Kowalski is puzzled by this woman when she turns to confess that she likes him and has been waiting for him. “I’ve been waiting for you for a long time. Oh how I’ve waited for you.” Kowalski, naturally, questions her response by asking where and when. “Everywhere. Everywhere since forever. Patiently. Patiently, that’s the only way to wait for somebody.” Kowalski stares in-all at this mysterious woman before the two share a moment of passion in the night. Cuts to morning to find Kowalski alone in the Challenger with no trace of the woman dressed in black.
The deleted scene not shown in the U.S.
Meaning of the Scene
Watching the scene makes no sense. A random drug fueled one night stand with a stranger? Until you start looking at Kowalski’s past in relation with what the hitchhiker said. Death has been a constant in Kowalski’s life. He has either been around it, during Vietnam and the death of his love, or escaped it while racing. Death waits for all of us from the moment we are born. It is the most patient entity because it is the one guarantee in life. One could even say that time is just patience that is forced upon us.
The scene that follows is the ending where Kowalski has a moment of clarity and decides that the only way he will ever be free is to keep driving, forever. A smile dawns on his face as he pushes the Challenger for everything it’s got as it charges towards a police road block that consists of two bulldozers. The movie ends with Kowalski killing himself by driving into the bulldozers at over a 100 mph. An ending that has been free to interpretation. Some say it was suicide because there was no way he could escape jail. Others say that due to the lack of sleep and drugs, Kowalski believed he could escape through the gap and was going too fast to stop.
I believe that the woman dressed in black was an embodiment of death who was there to visit Kowalski because his time was about to come. That’s why she was waiting for him for so long. That’s what she meant by, “I’ll tell you later.” Kowalski had reached his vanishing point. But that is just my own interpretation. I’m sure someone out there has a different conclusion that I would like to hear.
A Driver’s Fantasy
The reason why I compare this movie to a Penthouse letter for driving enthusiasts is because anyone with a fast car has thought of doing what Kowalski did at least once. Not so much the high speed death, but just throwing caution out the window and driving like it was your last day on earth. Fast cars were built to go fast, but the rules of society keeps them caged up with traffic laws and speed limits. It is easy to ask yourself, “What is the point of selling fast cars if we have nowhere to run them?” Sure we have racetracks but what about those special moments where you get an itch in your right foot, your heart rate revs up to match the idling engine and the need for speed takes hold?
That’s why so many people love Vanishing Point because it’s the ultimate fantasy for a lot of speed freaks and pedal punchers. Who wouldn’t want a hotrod to go tear up American’s highways with nothing to worry about except the next fuel stop? It’s a driver’s fantasy.
The Maximum Trip
If you haven’t seen this movie I highly recommend it. “It’s the maximum trip at maximum speed.” I would say it’s one of the top 5 films an auto enthusiast has to see during their lifetime. Since Hollywood is preoccupied turning comics into movies and rebooting generation X’s childhood, why isn’t there a remake for this movie yet? Yes they tried one in 1997 with Viggo Mortensen, but it did not live up to the original.
We have the Hellcat Challenger, and we have all the same social problems that plagued the early 70’s. Religious cults, police brutality, racial tension, homophobia, drug culture, and war protest are all shown as a video time capsule in this film. Tragically, this film is 45 years old and the same issues shown in 1971 run parallel with what is going on in today’s news. If there was ever a candidate for a cult classic remake I think Vanishing Point would be a great one. Maybe I’ll try writing the screen play if the woman dressed in black can wait awhile.
Jesus Behind the Wheel 
I remember going to see this movie when i was 20. I drove a 67 Camaro, 327, built to the max with a 4:88 rear end and 4 speed. I had my girl and about three friends with me, everyone toked up. We idled through the parking lot with the cam rumbling through the husky sound of the headers. As we crawled out of the car, people in line looked at us like we were martians disembarking from a spaceship, or so it seemed in our favorite state of enjoyment. We settled into our seats and our eyes never once strayed until the end of the movie. We all then looked at each other as if to say, “What just happened?” I’ve thought about that movie many, many times since. For a car guy, its like sayin, “Hell yah”, and stomping the gas pedal through the floorboard!
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Great story!! I own a ’69 Camaro myself, built 350.
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This movie has had a huge impact on my life. In fact it has made me feel like I need to act it out in my rebuilt 67 396 Chevelle SS despite the fact that I am a 65 year old woman.
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Hey, just remember to avoid the Bulldozers at the end. It means a lot that you enjoyed my work. And congrats on the Chevelle! Very Cherry ride.
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Thank you so much for the review…
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You’re a lil mixed up on this section , (“Kowalski asks why she’s going to SF and she responds with, “I’ll tell you later.”) Actually K asks her name and she says ” I’ll tell you later” , Then she asks K why he’s going to SF. I do agree that she represents death. Also I felt like when he woke up, no longer high on anything, and rested, most people would be thinkin about stopping the madness and quit the pursuit. Maybe thats another reason it was deleted.
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It is possible. I appreciate your thoughts on this. Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the read.
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its two years later…and yet i am commenting here, just in case. just watched this movie, finally, for the first time. i googled to see why people thought Kowalksi killed himself and found this article. Anyway, when i saw i had choices of the EU version or the US version i googled to figure out which one to watch. The official reason as to why the scene was deleted was supposedly that they felt that the “allegorical” nature of the scene would confuse US audiences (not sure if this is based on US audience (perceived) lack of sophistication or testing the movie). Would jibe with Allan’s comment, too.
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Great explanation to the movie I always thought the ending didn’t work. But after seeing the remake (very bad remake) there ending made more sense ,until I saw the trailer you posted from the uk edition. And I think your on to something because in his flashbacks there was near death experiences and acts of honor and and remorse. All leading up to death the great escape. Thank you. I have a 70 challenger but its a convertible .always wanted to build a clone and do the run like he did maybe before I meet the woman in black ya never know .
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I only finally got to see the movie when I bought a copy about 20 years ago. It had the deleted scene but at the time I took it to be an apparition of his deceased girl friend. Your explanation that it was “Death”, herself [dressed in black?] caused me to slap myself on the forehead, I should have caught that symbolism. I took her words to be typical of the way many a hitch-hiker would converse back-in-the-day, as an means of wanting to be a bit mysterious and remain anonymous in a tripped-out, all too cosmic, affected manner… and, after-all, she was going to S.F., wasn’t she?
As for Allan’s conclusion, waking up and mot being under the influence and that should have changed Kowalski’s state of mind? I’d have to say that Allan most likely had never taken any pharmaceutical grade amphetamine. It, at one time, was the most prescribed drug in the world, a doctor’s panacea for just about any malady. In the early 1970’s, when I was a college student, they were prevalent in dormitories during mid-terms and finals and I did use them on four occasions. One of those was a four day hitchhike from a campus, about 50 miles North of S..F , to home in L.A. and back again in time for afternoon classes on Monday. I took three the entire journey and didn’t sleep except for a catnap on Sunday. I also smoked my share of cannabis back then, too. While one can “sleep off” a pot buzz, “speed” is an entirely different kind of animal. Yes, screen censorship was heavy when any cannabis use was going to be depicted as relatively harmless . Take the movie “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”. If you read the book then you really got the authors’, Ken Kesey, outrage. The bus outing made no sense without the imbibing beforehand,
I did get an opportunity, back in ’91 to drive like that. It was Westbound on Hwy 50 across the State of Nevada in my ’90 Acura Integra RS. I kept it at around 120 mph average for over two hours, blew out all the cam seals and galley plugs as a result. It was still under warranty at the time and became a headache for the dealer that sold it to me. {I never “red-lined” the tachometer, though. I should have bought the GSR model for a stunt like that] it never would hold oil for very long thereafter. After I watched that movie, I got a copy of another road movie I had wanted to see for as so long a time, “Two Lane Blacktop” starring Dennis Wilson, James Taylor and Warren Oates… I’d love to read your take on that movie too… especially the ending.
Great review, thanks you.
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Thank you so much for this awesome comment! I’ve actually been wanting to review Two Lane Blacktop, I just need to get my hands on a copy of the film. Its on my Buy list. Thank you again for enjoying my essay.
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In 1972 I had just purchased a slight used 1971 White Hemi Cuda and was at the drive in watching Vanishing Point. At some point during the movie I noticed a lot of people looking at my white Cuda, I guess to them it looked like the car in the movie.
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I owned a green ’70 RT Challenger convertible when I saw Vanishing Point for the 1st time in summer of ’72. I had it repainted white soon after because I thought the movie so cool and liked the ‘screw-you’ theme. I changed my opinion when my own brother committed suicide later that same year in November. What it did our family and esp. our Mother makes me not want to hurt anyone. I’ll keep ‘plugging’ away. I’m old now and still have many ‘cool’ cars but I don’t drive them fast.
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I saw this movie as a teenager and not only do I have it on DVD BUT VHS as well. Had never before heard about the deleted scene, until now.(thanks) I also have always thought that the girl in the desert was actually the same girl he saved from his” partner” which is why she kept a scrap book about him (?). Also I have owned many as fast cars.( Still do in fact I have a hellcat charger) and you are right I’ve wished many times over the years that I could just do what he does. Of course in my fantasy I would get away.
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One of my all time favorite movies, a lot is left open to the interpretation of the viewer. the UK version adds an important thread to Kowalski’s story. I think one of the most important scenes in the movie is where Kowalski’s Challenger crosses path with a Black Chrysler, the shot freezes and the Challenger disappears out the left side of the frame, the camera follows the Black car as it speeds down the highway in the opposite direction. The next scene is Kowalski driving the Black Chrysler into a garage at night, is he crossing his own path (past?) This theme is repeated later in the film when Kowalski is driving through the desert and he crosses over his own tracks, the camera briefly stays on the tire tracks as the car drives out of frame. Is Kowalski free? Is he in Purgatory and the only way out is through the roadblock? It’s up to you, and that makes this a great movie.
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That whole movie was genious! I read that a bunch of experiened film makers were on set during production and contributed their expertise.
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One of my favourite movies ever. I recomend buying the version that has the full commentary by Sarafian.Its like watching it with him in his living room really informative. People have alot of different ideas about the meanigs and symbolism, it would proably be a good idea to listen to what the guy who actualy made it had to say, The man John A Alonzo who filmed it never got the credt he should have this movie would not nearly be what it is long pausing type shots. Sarafian is in the film at the end holding a hose on the flaming wreck,i think they used a camaro.
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What I see in that last scene is definitely not a suicidal man, if we go back to the woman in black, it is quite clear that she is death in the flesh, she’s been waiting for Kowalski, patiently, as death awaits for each one of us since the moment we’re born, no matter how long she has to.
If we look at oriental philosophy we come across the concept of illumination, that is leaving all ego behind, having yourself dissolve before the universe and become effectively one with it. Another way to look at this illumination (a more practical one) is to accept and become one with death, which is nothing but the threshold that separates our isolated existence from the rest of the universe.
So, when Kowalski meets death, not only is he not afraid of her (I know, it’s a gorgeous Charlotte Rampling, but still, what she’s saying sounds pretty creepy if you’re not willing to accept what it means), but he ends up making love with her, becoming one with death, that’s the trigger for his illumination.
And then, when he wakes up the next morning, alone, he knows what he has to do.
It’s very interesting looking at the montage in that final scene, as Kowalski accelerates towards the roadblock surrounded by people that came up to see him, Super Soul, the one who played the Oracle part, the guide, almost the Father in some twisted way, is the only one not excited about what’s going to happen.
Severini and Bishop’s “Over Me” fills the whole scene, giving it a strangely happy feeling, Kowalski accelerates, the crowd gets excited, it’s a celebration!!! And yet, when we cut back to Super Soul, there is silence, even as he yells “STOP!” as if Kowalski could hear him, cut back to the Challenger and the crowd, and the music is back again, right where we left it a few seconds ago.
In a way, it’s as if this is the moment where Kowalski begins to truly transcend our existence, and the first thing he does, in an almost Freudian way, is to depart from his guide, his Oracle, who, in turn, doesn’t want to see him leave, as any father would be.
And then the best moment, the one that made cry with joy, Kowalski smiles for the first time, and it’s such a happy smile, a peaceful smile, he has transcended, he has reached illumination, he has gone pass the vanishing point and no one will be able to follow him, not until we are capable of transcending as well.
The crash brings us back to our world, we are still here, isolated, we had a glimpse of Illumination but now we’re back on out feet and things are dark again. And just as we realize what just happened, Richard Sarafian bombards us with “Nobody knows”, reminding us that, whatever the harsh reality shows us, a burned wreck of a car with a charred body inside, that is not the end of things, nor is it any of the concepts that we are taught by churches and gurus, many of which we saw as we accompanied our hero in his journey through the desert.
Did Kowalski die? I don’t know, we first have to ask ourselves what is death?
While the move ends we can hear Kim Carnes answering just this:
Nobody knows (no no no no no no),
Nobody sees,
Till the light of life comes burning
Till another soul goes free.
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I had explained to me that maybe inViet Nam Kawalski had an injury that left him unable to perform sex. In the movie he was a good looking guy & he certainly had a chance to make it with one of the women but he turned it down. I think from the very start if it looked like he might die he would not try to avoid it. I like the movie because it doesn’t explain everything.
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