Vanishing Point. 1971. USA. Directed by Richard C. Sarafian. Screenplay by Guillermo Cabrera Infante, Malcolm Hart, Barry Hall. With Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger. 99 min.
One of the greatest existential car chase movies of all time, Vanishing Point was cowritten by the devilishly playful Cuban novelist Guillermo Cabrera Infante (under the pseudonym Guillermo Cain, a nod to the noir mystery writer James M. Cain). We’re celebrating the publication of Vanishing Point Forever, a definitive new book on the film and its cultural impact, by inviting its author, Robert M. Rubin, to introduce the screening on January 14. Vanishing Point Forever is published by Film Desk Books and available exclusively at the MoMA bookstore. “Vanishing Point,” as Rubin observes, “is nominally the saga of a speed-addled Vietnam vet on the lam in a Dodge Challenger. It’s also a modern Western, a dystopian allegory of our surveillance society, and a love letter to the muscle car, all rolled into one. No surprise it’s become a cult classic, adored and paid homage to by Quentin Tarantino, Steven Spielberg, Bruce Springsteen, Richard Prince, Alberto Moravia, Guns N' Roses, Primal Scream, Audioslave, and countless others. In the fifty-plus years since the film’s release, the lore and legends around it have grown like Topsy.”
4K digital restoration by Twentieth Century Fox, with lab work by Cineric; courtesy Walt Disney Studios.