Best Musclecar Movie Chases revisited......

I get a lot of mail about stuff I posted two or three years ago. That's ok, I agree with Madonna-any attention is good attention.  Anyhow some people have asked me to go over a couple of old posts again. I aim to please, so here we go. First off-my picks are limited to flicks featuring musclecars, or at least American cars.  This disqualifies "Ronin", the "Transporter", "The Italian Job", and others featuring import cars. Those were great flicks with great action, but were talking about musclecars, not everything ever done.  Anyhow, here's my rankings. # 1. "To Live and Die in L.A."  I can hear purists screaming now that "Bullitt" isn't in the top spot.  Hear me out. "To Live and Die in L.A." starred a pre-CSI  William Peterson as a Secret Service agent obsessed with catching a counterfeiter that murdered his partner. The counterfeiter was played with evil glee by a young Willem Dafoe. Peterson and his partner decide to rip off another criminal to get the front money for Dafoe. The mark turns about to be an underover FBI agent. Shit goes sideways, and Peterson and his buddy flee with many feds in pursuit. The action is great as Petersen ( or his stunt double ) pilots a Chevy Caprice cop car the wrong way down the LA freeway. It's exciting and realistic. Others have copied it over the years-but no one has been able to top William Freidkin's work here-( He also directed "The French Connection" which is on this list too). It tops "Bullitt" for two reasons-as great as it was-it's still fun to watch 50 years later-they pass the same VW multiple times, and the Charger loses 8 hubcaps in the chase if you watch closely and count. And that falls on the film editing dept, not Carey Loftin ( the stunt coordinator ) or Peter Yates ( the director ) or Steve McQueen. ( The Star ).  # 2. "Bullitt" This is the grandaddy of them all, the one that started it. Steve McQueen was an avid auto and motorcycle racer in his spare time. It bolstered his macho image when it was said that he did his own stunt driving in this film. He did some-he overshot a turn, smoked the tires a lot-that's all in the film. However the heavy lifting was done by Carey Loftin in the Mustang and Bill Hickman in the Charger. It still looks good today because they didn't undercrank the camera-( a trick to make cars look like they were going faster than they were ). They tried it and it looked like shit. So McQueen, Loftin and Hickman were going up to 115 mph at times. If you watch closely-besides the Charger losing 8 hubcaps, the gas station actually blows up BEFORE the Charger hits the pumps ( one of the stunt guys who was supposed to detonate the charges-screwed up) but it's incredible considering it's 50 years old, and except for those minor mistakes it's still viable today.  # 3. "Vanishing Point".  This cult classic deserves all it's accolades. Barry Newman was awesome as Kowalski-a sad Vietnam Vet who-as we see in flashbacks-has been a car and motorcycle racer, and a  Cop, who lost his wife in a surfing accident. He bets his drug dealer the tab for some speed that he can make it from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours in his hot rod 1970 Challenger. Much automotive mayhem ensues-( Carey Loftin was stunt coordinator on this one too ) and he's helped by a black,blind,clairvoyant DJ named "Super Soul" ( beautifully done by a young Cleavon Little; this was before he shot to fame in "Blazing Saddles " ) and along the way he meets a snake charmer, two gay guys who try to rob him, and a naked dirt-bike rider.  The police put bulldozers on the highway to stop him and the finale is amazing. Newman's smile as he drive's toward the bulldozers at full speed is ethereal. The car that blows up is actually a junk 1967 Camaro with the engine compartment packed with explosives and an impact-sensitive switch that Loftin towed toward the bulldozers at 80 mph behind the Challenger camera car and pulled over at the last second after releasing a quick-release tow cable. It works spectacularly. It looks like they actually drove a car into the bulldozers. Plus the hero dying in a blaze of glory was a shock. Back then ( 1971 ) hollywood was big on "happy" endings, so this definitely wasn't the norm. I love this movie, no matter how many times I've seen it.  # 4. "White Lightning".  Arguably Burt Reynolds' best movie. A pure southern-fried revenge tale. Burt is Robert "Gator" McCluskey, a moonshiner who's in prison when the film opens. Hearing his younger, college-boy brother was killed under dubious circumstances after being arrested by a corrupt sheriff, he makes a deal to get out of prison if he can prove the sheriff is taking bribes from whiskey runners and other criminals. The Feds supply him with a 1971 Ford Custom sedan that's been customized with a 429 and a 4-speed. ( You have to overlook a scene where he obviously puts an automatic column shifter in park. Maybe there was more than one stunt car ). Great automotive action, a poignant romance between "Gator" and a trailer-park Barbie nicknamed "Shake a Puddin" ( an awesome performance by Jennifer Billingsley ) and of course it comes down to a showdown between "Gator" and the corrupt sheriff ( played sadistically by Ned Beatty, who was the meek businessman raped in "Deliverance". That's range as an actor ). Good story,good acting, good action. Overall a satisfying revenge flick.  The sequel-"Gator" starring Burt and Lauren Hutton was awful. # 5. "The French Connection". Gene Hackman was great as "Popeye" Doyle, a New York detective trying to break up an international narcotics ring. After being shot at by a sniper he pursues the man on foot who jumps onto a subway train, that's going on overhead bridges. Hackman hijacks a Pontiac Tempest and chases the subway train through the streets, sometimes going the wrong way. It's a great scene with great action. The only reason it didn't rank higher is the film is actually kind of boring before the chase, as they show how the dealers operate and Hackman's frustration at the bureucracy of the police department. But it won Oscars and it's certainly worth watching, if for the chase scene alone.  # 6. "The Seven-Ups"  Roy Scheider stars as the leader of an elite police unit that only investigates serious felonies-that carry a minimum sentence of 7 years or more. Hence-the title. He finds out that someone is kidnapping high-ranking mobsters for ransom, and then killing them even if the organization pays the ransom. There's an awesome chase between two '74 Pontiacs, a black Grand Ville and a silver Ventura. Scheider ( or his stunt double ) is driving the Ventura and Bill Hickman ( who drove the Charger in "Bullitt" ) piloted the Grand Ville. It ends with the Ventura crashing into the rear of a perked semi.  # 7. "Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry". This one had a good plot. Peter Fonda is an ex-race car driver who plans to fund his return to NASCAR by robbing a Wal-Mart type superstore, by kidnapping the manager's wife and kids, and forcing him to give up the weekend's take in exchange for getting his family back.  The kidnapping plot is plausible, and would fly today-you'd just have to change the dollar amounts. Susan George is a one-night stand he takes along. Her major contribution is she spends the entire movie barefoot in a straining halter top and hip-hugger jeans that barely cover her ass-crack. There's some good automotive action early on in a '66 Caprice, which they dump in favor of a '69 440 Charger. Then the action really ramps up as Fonda tries to elude not only cop cars but a crazed sheriff in a helicopter played by Vic Morrow. He and Susie trade wise cracks while his mechanic and partner bitches that he's "overdriving" the car.  The fiery crash into a train at the end was used in the opening credits of the Lee Majors TV show "The Fall Guy" for years. Overall an entertaining action flick.  # 8. "Smokey & The Bandit" Burt Reynolds and his pal Hal Needham were basically playing grab-ass on-screen in this light-hearted action-comedy. It ended up out-grossing everything but "Star Wars" in 1977, and sold about a quarter-million Trans-Ams for Pontiac.  Burt's character-"Bandit" bets Big Enos-$80,000 he can bring back 400 cases of Coors beer from Texarkana to Atlanta in 28 hrs.  Burt drives the T/A, Jerry Reed drives the truck and they pick up Sally Field along the way who jilted a hillbilly at the alter. There pursued by the hillbilly and his dad-Sheriff Buford T. Justice. Jackie Gleason almost steals the show as the redneck, foul-mouth sheriff who doesn't care that he's hundreds of miles out of his jurisdiction, he's going to get the Bandit at all cost. Lots of chases with Burt and Hal sliding the T/A around, and a lot of gimme-five humor. For a mindless action-comedy, it's really cute and entertaining.  It spawned two sequels that were just awful. I'm sure a lot of people will gripe that this one didn't rank higher. Don't get me wrong; I liked it when it came out when I was in high school and I still like it. I watch it if it comes on TNT or one of the other cable networks once in a while. But since were also comparing action and storyline-this was fine for what it was-a dipshit comedy. But "Live and Die in L.A.", "Bullitt", even Burt's own-"White Lightning" and the others had serious storylines and better action.  But I agree no list of car-chase flicks would be complete without the "Bandit".  I know I'll hear griping about some of the "Fast&Furious" flicks being left off. Too much CGI and not believable stunts. Using hydraulic jacks and having the Charger smoke the tires and wheelie at the same time?  If your smoking the tires, you don't have enough traction to wheelie!!  Putting lead in the bumper of the Chevelle and Camaro to make them wheelie, and mounting a GN body backwards on the frame to make it look like Vin Diesel was going 70 in reverse was certainly innovative-but regular cars-no matter how much horsepower they had couldn't do that stuff. I'll go to the movies with a certain amount of suspension of disbelief-you have to to watch a James Bond flick-but the F&F movies went from bad to worse. Dropping cars out of planes onto a country road with pinpoint accuracy? Bringing down a 747 with cars?  Jumping the Mclaren or Lamborghini or whatever it was from skyscraper to skyscraper, not once, but twice?  Come on, man!!  I know I left a few favorites out  "Eat My Dust" and "Bobbi Jo and the Outlaw" to name a couple but I felt they didn't measure up to the others. Let me know if I missed any classics. Mastermind