I’ve been working through Maison d’Être’s existentialist film list, which includes this picture. Tarantino, via Zoë Bell in Death Proof, called Vanishing Point (1970) “one of the best American films ever made”.

The film is a character study of Kowalski, a man who lives completely on his own terms — including a sense of morality and compassion derived from his own experiences.

Kowalski lives to drive — his only remaining passion after everything else is stripped from him by the Vicissitudes. The police — outback Nazi law enforcement — chase him because he rejects social authority. Eventually even his allies amongst the people betray him.

In the end the blue meanies force him to stop, but, spoiler alert, Kowalski lives to drive.

The photography jackknifes between amazing and awful — real plane-of-focus / depth of field issues within staggering shots of peyote country.