Vanishing Point Appears

I was in the mood to watch 1971's Vanishing Point again after watching Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. I lamented again that there never seemed to be any blu-ray available but then I remembered that I hadn't actually checked in years. I looked on Japanese Amazon and discovered there were plenty of Japanese editions available for 1,020 yen, or about ten bucks. I ordered it and it arrived the next day. Out of curiosity, I checked American Amazon and found the only American edition of the Blu-ray currently sells for 69 dollars. Otherwise, American Amazon is selling the German edition for eleven dollars (plus 4.99 for delivery) and the Japanese edition for 22 dollars. In this case, it really pays to live in Japan. Unlike with Eli Roth's new movie, Thanksgiving, opening this weekend in the U.S. but not until December 29 in Japan. Goddamnit. I know people don't celebrate Thanksgiving in Japan but, come on. The movie's literally called Thanksgiving.

Anyway, I can't find fault with the Japanese blu-ray of Vanishing Point. All those beautiful shots of Kowalski racing across vast American landscape are pristine.

The mystery of Kowalski's motivation to drive recklessly fast across country is the heart of the film. I find I like the character of Super Soul less and less every time I watch the movie. I don't like that he and Kowalski have an explicitly mystical connexion over the radio. It would have been nice to have a DJ interpreting Kowalski's actions but without any hint that it was an accurate interpretation. It would have been nice to hear more interpretations from the cops aside from the one guy musing Kowalski may have killed someone.

I like Kowalski's encounter with the snake trapper. That's much subtler. And of course I love the naked girl on the motorcycle.

I can't say that's a subtle moment, not only because she's a nudist but because she's got a whole poster fan collage of Kowalski. Though the fact that she and her boyfriend exist so conveniently for Kowalski actually works out to be a nice puzzle rather than a plot convenience. They don't really need to be there to get Kowalski further along on his journey. They're almost like Tom Bombadil and Goldberry (you know, when people talk about Tom Bombadil, they usually don't talk about Goldberry) in Lord of the Rings. It's just this happy little chapter that both does and doesn't fit with the whole.

I like how Kowalski declines her invitation to sleep with her. That bit seems like it could've come from The Faerie Queene. He likes her, he's attracted to her, but he's calmly sure of his destiny. Which is just to keep driving.