Best Car Movies
written by: daveAbout this Guide
Great automobile films, both campy and cinematic together.
Step 1: Bullitt
Steve McQueen plays the role of a no glitter, all guts cop named Frank Bullitt. He and two other cops are assigned to what seems like a normal case : to watch a witness for 48 hours before he goes to trial on Monday. When the officers and the witness are killed, Chalmers gets angry at Bullitt. After he chases the hitman that killed them, he vows to catch him, and the mafia boss that hired him.
Step 2: Le Mans
Almost in breadth and depth of a documentary, this movie depicts an auto race during the 70s on the hardest endurance course: Le Mans in France. The race goes over 24 hours on 14.5 kilometers of cordoned country road. Every few hours the two drivers per car alternate - but it isstill a challenge for concentration and material. In the focus is the duel between the German Stahler in Ferrari 512LM and the American Delaney in Gulf Team Porsche 917. Delaney is under extraordinary pressure, because the year before he caused a severe accident, in which a friend was killed.
Step 3: Vanishing Point
Kowalski, the hero of the story, works for a car delivery service. He takes delivery of a 1970 Dodge Challenger to take from Colorado to Frisco, California. Shortly after pickup, he takes a bet to get the car there in less than 15 hours. After a few run-ins with motorcycle cops and highway patrol they start a chase to bring him into custody. Along the way, Kowalski is guided by Supersoul - a blind DJ with a police radio scanner. Throw in lots of chase scenes, gay hitchhikers, a naked woman riding a motorbike, lots of Mopar and you've got a great cult hit from the early 70s.
Step 4: Grand Prix
American Grand Prix driver Pete Aron is fired by his Jordan-BRM racing team after a crash at Monaco that injures his British teammate, Scott Stoddard. While Stoddard struggles to recover, Aron begins to drive for the Japanese Yamura team, and becomes romantically involved with Stoddards estranged wife.
Step 5: Death Race 2000
In the near future the ultimate sporting event is the deathrace. Contestants get score points for running people down as they speed across the country. The sport has crazed fans who sacrifice themselves to the drivers. An overt agency is trying to bring an end to the immoral deathrace and has infiltrated one of their followers in to the race as a navigator. In the end of the race the lives of the competitors, the President and the deathrace itself are in peril.
Step 6: Cannonball Run
In this movie Burt Reynolds is an adventurer who decides to participate in an illegal car race all over the country. There is an all-star cast of racers (Jackie Chan, Farrah Fawcett, Peter Fonda, Dean Martin, Roger Moore, Sammy Davis Jr. and others) that will do anything to outrun all the difficulties (including the police) and win the race.
Step 7: Ronin
Ronin is the Japanese word used for Samurai without a master. In this case, the Ronin are outcast specialists of every kind, whose services are available to everyone - for money. Dierdre (undoubtedly from Ireland) hires several Ronin to form a team in order to retrieve an important suitcase from a man who is about to sell it to the Russians. After the mission has been completed successfully, the suitcase immediately gets switched by a member of the team who seems to work into his own pocket. The complex net of everyone tricking everyone begins to surface slowly, and deadly...
