25 Cult Movies You Must See Before You Die
19. Vanishing Point
The film so good, it inspired a Primal Scream album! That might not be much of a selling point, but stick with Vanishing Point regardless. After all, that was one of the better Primal Scream albums. And Vanishing Point is one of the better counter-culture seventies road movies, way more interesting than American “classics” Two Lane Blacktop and Easy Rider.
The problem with the other two is that they're really boring. Like, hopelessly so. Nothing happens. In Vanishing Point, you don't really get a lot of explanation for why Barry Newman is driving an a Dodge Challenger across the country. It doesn't matter. All that matters is he's doing it, and he's a rebel, and there's Cleavon Little as a pirate radio broadcaster narrating the whole thing.
It's all very dark end of the hippie era in its cop-bashing, criminal-celebrating tone, but it's also full of really cool car chases that would put Bullitt to shame, filmed across the huge expanse of desert that makes up much of the American south with gorgeous cinematography from John A Alonzo. Also, c'mon, “Kowalski” is a good song at the very least.