"The Day of the Jackal" (1973) has an Alfa (with a non-dubbed exhaust sound, I believe) and more Citroens than you can possibly imagine. It's set in 1963, and does an excellent job of excluding cars that wouldn't have been seen at that time. To my knowledge, they only slip up twice: a 1965 Cadillac and a later-generation DS slip into a couple of shots.
herbie goes to monte carlo
grimmelshanks wrote: and something occurred to me. it doesnt seem like there are very many GOOD movies in which a significant part of the substance of the film is about cars.
In my opinion... when anybody tries to make a movie that focuses on the cars, they fail. Specacularly.
When they make a movie that happens to have a bunch of cars in it, then it can work okay.
Mad Max is like that. It's about a police officer stuck in a E36 M3ty system that ends up driving him to go on a serious revenge bender. And there's a lot of cool cars and motorcycles in the background. Not "Hollywood cool", like F&F or American Graffiti where you can tell they're just dolled up crap. No, they're cool just because they are there. Like the Rockatanskys' Holden wagon - WANT. (I will not comment on the Falcon's supercharger.)
Bullitt, again, is really a cop movie with some awesome chases in it and real driving.
Gone in Sixty Seconds is kind-of about the cars but not really. It's about an auto theft ring, and we see the nuts and bolts of the VIN-switch game, but really the first 45 minutes was just to build the premise for the second half of the movie. I didn't like the '71-73 Mustang very much until I saw this movie. 
the falcons supercharger was awesome! i just straight up want that car. i actually agree with you about the car-part-of-the-plot idea, i was just hoping that there were some good ones i hadnt heard about.
Not one mention of the Great Race, chitty chitty bang bang (come on, Truly Scrumptious=Win for a name) Speed Zone (does that count as Cannon Ball Run 3?)
OF those already mentioned,
Italian Job (both) Bullitt Rendezvous (who cares if the sound is dubbed) that fast through Paris is awesome. Ronin Cannon Ball Run 1 and 2
Need to see to vote Gone in 60 seconds (original) Keep seeing Remake and it is OK LE Mans
I think "Love the Beast" is a great story about a guy and his car.IMHO one of the best car guy movies, up there with "The World's Fastest Indian".
I have a few movies, some already mentioned. The Hollywood Knights, King of the Mountain, Catch Me if you Can (not the Leo version), Born to Run etc.
Nok4 wrote: Thanks for this question, I remember The Last Chase(1981) This is taken from imdb site It is the future. Evil fascists have forced everyone to recycle and drive electric cars, and have oppressed all those poor people who want to drive Ferraris and smoke cigarettes. Redline(2007) its bad
Is The Last Chase on DVD? I thought that was a very cool movie for it's time (I was younger then).
The Delorean plays a big role in the Back to the Future series.
lol, good point
Ronin isn't so much about the cars but it has EPIC car chases.
"The Last Run" (1971). George C. Scott is a retired mob getaway driver now retired in Europe. He's recruited for one last job-picking up some recently sprung young punk. He discovers it's a double-cross, and hauls his angst-ridden middle-aged backside across Europe in a 1956 BMW 503 (same V8 as the legendary 507).
"Eat my Dust" is right up there with "Aloha Bobby and Rose" - there were a lot of "B" movies made in the mid 70's. Watched most of them in Drive Ins in north Alabama....
I can't remember the movie with James Taylor and someone else and a girl, and they drive a 56 Chevy or something close to it across the country to DC to race. Its a long movie, has some real good parts, though. Also, Thunderbolt & Lightfoot has some good car moments.
Impossible to beat Mad Max, though. "I can't see the Interceptor...!"
mattmacklind wrote: I can't remember the movie with James Taylor and someone else and a girl, and they drive a 56 Chevy or something close to it across the country to DC to race. Its a long movie, has some real good parts, though.
Two Lane Blacktop
DaveEstey wrote: Ronin isn't so much about the cars but it has EPIC car chases.
+1. It's a good movie as well
Best "car" movie has got to be "A Man and a Woman".
My that brings back memories. I saw it with my 1st ex-wife in '67 or so on our 2nd date.
Nobody has mentioned The Blues Brothers yet. Great music, the car is a major point of the story, and just an awesome movie.
For the record, only the original Blues Brothes counts.
-Rob
Rob_Mopar wrote: Nobody has mentioned The Blues Brothers yet. Great music, the car is a major point of the story, and just an awesome movie. For the record, only the original Blues Brothes counts. -Rob
This single reminder of our previous failure as a group is reason enough to get more Mopar guys posting here.
"It's got a cop motor, a 440 cubic inch plant, it's got cop tires, cop suspension, cop shocks. It's a model made before catalytic converters so it'll run good on regular gas." Amen.
Bond car scenes are typically good.
^agreed
Tom_Spangler wrote: I've said it before, and I'll say it again, the only good (fictional) movie about racing is "Grand Prix". "Le Mans" is worth watching for the racing footage, but plot-wise, it barely qualifies as a movie.
Tom, I've got to "stick up" for Le Mans here...the movie was supposed to be about the race. The plot is (or should have been 
)..a professional American sportscar racer returns to the greatest Sportscar race in the world, after failing to win it in his other attempts (including the previous year, when another driver spun in front of him with "nowhere to go", resulting in a fatality when he hit the thing). Being burdened with this, he also has the pressure of knowing his current rival has beaten him in the previous round of the Championship, and that he must beat the man to keep his job. At Le Mans, he runs well, and is beating his new rival until he makes the mistake of taking his eyes off the road (glances at Aurac's Ferrari exploding up through the trees), even though he's far past the place on the circuit where that accident happened. When he finally looks back at the road, he's coming up on a slower car without a plan to get around it. He crashes out of the lead of the race. He survives a major impact, returns to admit his mistake to the team owner, and resigns himself to being a "loser" once again.
Until the team car in the lead suffers suspension problems, and has a long pitstop to get it repaired...
The team owner, even though discouraged at the earlier mistake, knows that this man is much faster than the driver scheduled to take over the broken car (someone who is contemplating retirement from the sport), and decides to make a driver substitution. The car, after repair, is running fourth. The first place car suffers a tire problem..and now the other remaining team car takes the lead! But there's a problem. His rival was third before his own team car folded, and is gaining on the new leader, and fast. But Our Hero gets back "into the zone", catches & passes his rival, and pushes his younger team-mate driving the other car through the finish line in 1st place. Even though he didn't win it himself...he's satisfied, because he beat his rival, and he put his employer into the winner's circle.
High Drama, to an ol' WEC fan like me. 
I tell people watching it for the first time to ignore any scene with the girl...that BMW E36 was just to put some Hollywood where there shouldn't be any.
Don't wanna disrespect "Grand Prix", because I love it...but sometimes I think it's a fantastic 90min racing movie spliced together with a horrid 90min soap opera ("..is this what you want? IS THIS WHAT YOU WANT?!?.." -Eva Marie Saint). 
Tom_Spangler wrote: The rest are crap, though "Days of Thunder" has some camp value. "Driven" is so bad as to be hilarious.
Yeah. I was sucker enough to buy a tic for "Driven", because I'd heard they'd followed the Indycars around for a season to do research. Walked out halfway through. And Linda Sharp (ex-IMSA "Kelly Girl"/Trans-Am/Busch series) told me back then that even NASCAR wouldn't let people hit each other as much as they did in DoT.
Tom_Spangler wrote: But there are plenty of good documentaries.
Yup!
http://www.flixster.com/movie/circuit-1985
Good Job Fried Green ... Last Run is Awesome!
I've taken heat on this and other boards for suggesting Two Lane Blacktop ... but I think it's steller. Beware 'two lane' is an artsy film ... those not able to sit and listen to sections with no dialog and enjoy the sounds of the cars need not apply.
Also A Man and A Woman ... and King of the Mountain ... two films that may be hard to find but totally worth it.
Here's a couple of others that you may not have seen, but I think are worth it. Heart like a wheel (Bio-pic of Shirley Muldowney), Moonrunners (the semi-serious movie the dukes of Hazard was based on) , and I can't belive no one has mentioned it ... but Used Cars is on my list everytime someone asks!
Stealthtercel wrote: It's set in 1963...To my knowledge, they only slip up twice: a 1965 Cadillac and a later-generation DS slip into a couple of shots.
You know you're a hopeless car nerd, when...
I understand there is a plot in LeMans, it just is too thin to cover the movie. Not that I'm complaining, I enjoy watching it repeatedly, but tend to fast forward the dialogue. What there is of it.
Grand Prix, on the other hand, has more plot and drama, it's just dated. Fantastic racing scenes.
I'll vote for The Fast and the Furious. No, wait. The ORIGINAL 1955 version with John Ireland and Dorothy Malone. Lots of Jaguar XK120 shots and many, many cool 50's sports cars in the scenes where Ireland joins a California Sports Car Club race while running from the cops. It is 50's drive-in movie campy material, but a neat time capsule and good for a laugh. I found a copy of this movie in the $1 bin at the local Walgreens!
Any of the old Herbie movies, Thiunder Road. There is also a movie, I do not remeber the title, set in south America someplace. A group of people are payed to deliver some dynomite to a mine that is over a mountain with a crapy road over it. The people that take the job are set loose in a junkyard to build a truck and then set off. I saw it late one night on one of the movie channels and it was good. Anyway the movie is mostly about the cobbles together trucks these guys build.
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