ABSTRACT
According to Randy Leffingwell, Barry Newman did not in fact star in Richard Sarafian’s Vanishing Point. 1 Instead, “he actually costarred,” because “the real star was a Dodge Challenger coupe.” 2 Leffingwell’s observation is by no means that of a film critic; his beautifully illustrated album is clearly directed at muscle car lovers and American motoring history enthusiasts, but his catchy reflection nevertheless seems to grasp the gist of the connection between cars and movies as approached in this chapter. At first sight Leffingwell’s comment is obvious: out of the list of nonhuman characters inhabiting popular cinema, only machines (and perhaps animals) seem of equal importance for the development of the plot or even the construction of the story. But unlike animals, which are often treated as fully-fledged characters, motor vehicles are hardly ever given any deeper recognition than that of a metaphor or a symbol. This is not to say that they are insignificant. However, treating cars as metaphors occasionally produces the wrong impression that they are endowed with some form of identity, whereas upon closer look that identity is reduced to a mere icon, be it of technological oppression, class division, teenage dreams, or escapist fantasies.
