Smashing up cars for movie fun

Car chases and crashes can be a guilty pleasure, a colossal waste of time, or even an integral plot device.
As a car fan, however, I always get sick to my stomach when I see an auto I like ruined for a (usually) half-baked movie. I mostly wretch when a nice vintage car gets the ax.
Anyway, here's a fun read from The Denver Post.
Dan C


http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~78~1516097,00.html


Film-car crashes on collision route
By Ricardo Baca, Denver Post Staff Writer

Some recurrences within movies these days, nonsensical though they may be, are so common they seem to be governed: Every action movie shall have either a wham-bam, pyro-fueled car crash sequence or a super-subtle car crash that serves as a metaphor for something.




The car movies have reinvented themselves over and over again. We've gone from standard choreographed scenes involving Smoky chasing the Bandit to CGI-enhanced sideways-turned semis encroaching on any host of characters ("The Matrix's" Trinity, "The Fast and the Furious"' Toretto, et al.). "Bad Boys II," this week's action entree at the megaplexes, has some spectacular car crashes, and the Michael Bay-directed action flick gives us reason to look back at some of the more memorable crashes caught on film.

Holy overkill

Anyone who's seen "The Matrix Reloaded" (2003) knows the nicknames by now. The Agent Smith scene. The Architect scene. And the highway scene. The latter consisted of 14 minutes of footage, all shot on a highway that was built outside of San Francisco specifically for this production, that was exhaustive in its relentlessness. Cars crash. Lots of them. And then a big rig does something wholly unnatural. Similar to Vin Diesel's Ferrari stunt in "XXX" (2002) and the original "Gone in 60 Seconds" (1974), in which a 40-minute chase scene sees the destruction of 93 cars, there is such a thing as overkill - even when you're taking part in an exercise in unabashed excess.

Still-relevant classic

It's impossible to forget the chase 'n' crash sequence in "The French Connection" (1971) where Gene Hackman's character, Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle, chases an elevated train in Brooklyn. Rubber burns. Tires squeal. Cars flail. It's pure metal carnage. (And it was early '70s sedans doing the chasing, none of this Lamborghini stuff.) The scene is often hailed as one of the most groundbreaking in the history of the action movie. And director William Friedkin admitted at an industry gathering earlier this year that many of the car crashes in the legendary scene weren't even planned. No wonder they looked so real.

Sexual perversity in seat belt

David Cronenberg turned the car crash into something strangely erotic with his eerie adaptation of J.G. Ballard's perverse novel "Crash" (1996). The plot involves a small collective of people who get off - sexually - on car crashes. Witnessing a car wreck or even feeling the scars caused by an accident ... now that's hot. Being in an actual crash is beyond ecstasy. The jury at Cannes gave Cronenberg and his creation a special award for "audacity." James Spader and Holly Hunter gave driven, near-psycho performances as crash-obsessed recluses. The crash sequences are captured intimately by cinematographer Peter Suschitzsky.

The killer plot-point

In the brilliant, stunning Mexican film "Amores Perros" (2000), there's a shaking car crash that disturbs the soul in its shattering, realistic portrayal. Two kids, tearing through the streets of Mexico City, run a light and smash into a smaller car carrying a beautiful woman; an unkempt man and his many dogs look on in horror. Not only did director Alexandro Gonzalez Inarritu capture the scene beautifully, if that's possible, but he replayed it from different perspectives and centered the entire story around the crash and the consequences it brought.

The lame plot-point

Filmmakers always need something to turn the page, some action, and too many lazily go with the insert-car-crash-here method of moviemaking. Because of a weak little fender-bender, Jerry Welbach (Brad Pitt) ends up owing the Mafia an unfavorable favor in "The Mexican" (2001). The minicrash comes at the beginning, and while it's nothing to write home about, neither was the movie. When writing the pseudo-Capra-esque "The Majestic" (2001), screenwriter/director/producer Frank Darabont needed a way for Pete (Jim Carrey) to lose his memory. Amid the turmoil of his life, Pete gets drunk and drives the California coast, eventually driving off a bridge and waking up on a beach.

The afterthought

While the credits are rolling after "Old School" (2003), a mini-denouement plays to the stragglers. Mark (Craig Kilborn), Nicole's (Ellen Pompeo) deceitful philandering boyfriend, is driving in his convertible when he loses control of the car and crashes off a bridge, "The Majestic"-style, only to fall upon a fly-fishing Gordon Pritchard (Jeremy Piven), the conniving college dean who attempted to thwart all of the boys' fun.

The goofball

Buford T. Justice, aka Smoky, left a lasting imprint in our collective memory. So did the Bandit. As did J.J. McClure, the charismatic leading man from "The Cannonball Run." Those movies had what it took to make box-office gold throughout the '70s and '80s - Burt Reynolds, cute girls and cheesy car crashes. These crashes are of the goofy, slapstick variety, but it didn't stop "Smoky and the Bandit" (1977) (and a tepid sequel three years later) and "Cannonball Run" (1981) (and its tepid sequel three years later) from becoming important pop-culture fixtures.