> In "Vanishing Point", the hero is an empty, emotionless driver trying
to get
> through the West at high speed. He approaches a town where the local
traffic
> dops have erected concrete barriers to stop him (seen in flash-forward
> throughout the film). He pulls up, sees that it's impossible for him
to pass - and
> drives full-speed into the wall.
Ooh, and to think that Kowalski is locked into an event with no future;
he travels along the infinite speed of the event horizon signalled by
the 'crossing over' scene in the beginning of the film. That is, he
exists _within_ the vanishing point of his own abolition. I have always
thought of Vanishing Point as filmic representation of an
automobilised 'war machine' (in D&G's sense). He is defined almost
entirely by his 'speed' - the speed of his car and the 'speed' he
consumes. Passing through the desert on a line of flight that (begins!)
ends with total abolition.
Using john's definition of nihilism: 1) struggle and strive to realize
ideals that ultimately come to nothing, or a world in which characters
(2) acquiesce in the necessary failure that is involved with living in
this world.
Then Two Lane Blacktop would definitely be an example of the second,
and the Australian film "Metal Skin" (1994, dir. by Geoffrey Wright,
and is the next film he did after Romper Stomper) would be an example
of the first. 'Psycho Joe' (mad max's suburbian alter-ego) is on the
fringes of the Melbourne street racing scene. Throughout the duration
of the film he 'loses his grip and eventually spins out of control'.
Needless to say, Metal Skin is not at all popular amongst car
enthusiasts
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