This is kind of an odd little movie, featuring the relatively obscure Barry Newman as the driver of a 1970 Dodge Challenger, who has made a bet that he can deliver this vehicle from Denver to San Francisco in 15 hours. Naturally, the various local highway patrols take exception to him accomplishing this feat, and ... the chase is on! We have a little bit of Easy Rider and a little bit of Sugarland Express mixed here with a sprinkle of Bullit and 'Bandit' for seasoning.
Flashbacks that are way too short are inserted to give us some insight into the character of Kowalski (Newman), and they serve to explain little. Newman displays the acting skill of a stick, and encounters characters who are all stereotypes: 'Cranky Old Wilderness Guy' (see Jeremiah Johnson), sexually liberated naked flower child, white racist country music types, sympathetic blind black guy, bumbling cops, etc. Particularly annoying is the usually enjoyable Cleavon Little as the blind DJ trying to help Kowalski.
In the end, in the UK version, Charlotte Rampling is employed to play a cadaverous hitch hiker (Death?), who Kowalski makes love to and then, of course, must race to a blazing suicidal crash.
Is this movie harmful? No. It passes its 97 minutes (UK) mildly entertaining. But the let down at the end has you asking, "What was that all about?"
Flashbacks that are way too short are inserted to give us some insight into the character of Kowalski (Newman), and they serve to explain little. Newman displays the acting skill of a stick, and encounters characters who are all stereotypes: 'Cranky Old Wilderness Guy' (see Jeremiah Johnson), sexually liberated naked flower child, white racist country music types, sympathetic blind black guy, bumbling cops, etc. Particularly annoying is the usually enjoyable Cleavon Little as the blind DJ trying to help Kowalski.
In the end, in the UK version, Charlotte Rampling is employed to play a cadaverous hitch hiker (Death?), who Kowalski makes love to and then, of course, must race to a blazing suicidal crash.
Is this movie harmful? No. It passes its 97 minutes (UK) mildly entertaining. But the let down at the end has you asking, "What was that all about?"