I was rewatching Fargo recently (as in the 1996 Cohen Brothers film, as opposed to the also-very-good TV series), and I couldn’t help thinking about how terrific a car movie it is.
It’s certainly not a cool-car movie if you’re looking for cool in the Cannonball Run mode with a plethora of commonly-accepted-to-be-cool cars, but as a movie with a bounty of perfectly-cast cars, each an interesting choice for the character behind the wheel, its role in the film, and the North Dakota setting? Fargo is pretty much a masterpiece.
The bulletproof and stalwart Panther Ford cop car is an ideal choice for equally unflappable Police Chief Marge Gunderson, while the hapless victims of the hitman’s first bullets in the movie just had to be driving a gutless Ford Tempo.
Desperation and desolation are the themes for much of the movie in depressing wintertime Minnesota, and the rather pathetic cars reflect it. Partial payment for a mock kidnapping comes in the form of one of the blandest cars of all time: a brand-new beige Cutlass Ciera.
Even the setting of a dealership full of 1987 Oldsmobiles was perfect; personality-free General Motors cars that create the fabric of a boring living hell for the protagonists.
The scene portraying the closing of a car purchase doesn’t just illustrate what the main character’s pitiful daily life is like. This might be one of the finest car-related scenes ever to appear in a film, and by far the best illustration of a car purchase. It’s spot-on and reinforces why, unlike many Autopians, I’d be happy if I never had to buy or trade another car for the rest of my life and try to do so only once a decade at most:
I was still thinking about Fargo when I caught White Noise while flipping channels a few days later, and once again I found myself musing about the well-cast cars and how they help shape the comedy-drama and its 1985 setting.
If your family didn’t have a Caprice Classic wagon like the primary characters in the film, you almost certainly had friends who did. Supposedly procuring malaise-era cars for movies today is a tough task since absolutely nobody preserved these things.
Truth be told, the eccentric family of Adam Driver’s professor character should have been cast with a beat-up orange Volvo 245DL wagon or rusting white 1977 Peugeot 504 three-row wagon. Still, the big GM wagon is perfect.
So what are your favorite “car movies” that are not-about-cars movies? Let’s talk about it!
Wasn’t there a movie series about a British spy who always drove the coolest cars?
That.
The Saint? His car (at least at one point) was a Volvo P1800 which was equipped a very early mobile phone with a very distinctive ringer. I sampled it and made a custom ring tone for my iPHONE 3. I’m so old, or the show wasn’t that popular, but few people in the States recognized it.
I still watch it. Tubi has the complete run. Roger Moore actually liked it even more than Bond.
Johnny English?
The 1981 French film Diva. That Citroën Traction Avant Normale. Plus a moped chase through the Paris Metro.
Harold and Maude. I preferred the stock ’59 Caddy hearse, but the Jag conversion is one of my favorite Franken-cars ever.
Watch the Brazilian movie, “I’m Still Here” on Netflix. Not only is the cinematography absolutely beautil (it truly feels like you’re in 1970, Rio de Janeiro), but the forbidden fruit is fantastic to ogle during the movie!
I guess it’s time for me to fire up the Netflix subscription again. I loved the car-casting in Cidade de Deus. This sounds excellent as well!
And it’s a true story, so make sure you watch the credits until the end!
Thanks! I just glanced at Wiki – it looks like this would be great to watch with my MIL, and hear her take on it along with any commentary. She was right there living in Rio in 1970, in fact my wife was born there around that time.
Repo man. I’d argue it’s not a car movie even though it’s car heavy.
Look for the air freshener.
In Drowning Mona, every car in town is a Yugo, except for a few trucks and the police cruisers, which are Plymouth Horizons
The series Kleo set in Berlin just after reunification has great cars. Also spectacular wallpaper. Totally mind-boggling bonkers wallpaper.
The cars in Drowning Mona are like another character. I swear that movie gets funnier every time I watch it! Stacked cast too. Pre-mega fame Melissa McCarthy has like 3 lines and I crack up every time.
The wonderful teenage romcom Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist features awesome indie music, but just as cool, Michael Cera driving the automotive version of himself, an orange Yugo.
I have to start with “Argentina 1985”. The car cast is 98,45% perfect. I sent you a draft article on it, didn’t I?
A Man and a Woman , the one by Claude Lelouch, not the Korean film of the same name. You wouldn’t know it until you see it but turns out it’s a racing movie. Also very beautiful.
Hmm, Weekend by Jean-Luc Godard
The Yellow Rolls Royce
It Started with a Kiss 1959 with the Batmobile before it was the Batmobile
Un Homme et une Femme. I saw it (with subtitles) and I barely remember what it was about, but I do remember enjoying it immensely. Kind of wish I had been on a date that night.
It is a stretch I cal gung ho it is a movie about business and cars but the blandest cars with Michael Keaton and George Wendt.
It was referenced here the other day, in the Dustbuster article: Get Shorty (1995). Besides the minivans, you have several period sports cars (Viper, 308, flatnose 911), Zimm’s Mercedes convertible, Karen’s BMW, an assortment of classic Town Car limousines, and–not seen but prominently referenced–“Rabbit convertibles.”
This one’s on the fence, but…To Live and Die in LA.
A fantastic movie, but with the added bonus of some cool 80s iron, including a rare 80s non-Magnum Ferrari 308.
I was going to go with Against All Odds, for similar reasons (red Porsche vs black 308 street race).
Great deep cut!
I’ll do you one better and go there: Commando.
Matrix’s full size Blazer, Cindy’s Sunbeam Alpine, and of course, Sully’s hard yellow 911 Targa (which Arnold single handedly flips right side up after a chase and not killing Sully last).
I’ve said this before but I’ll say it again, Twister. Every car (truck) is great. The Dodge Ram 2500 of course is the star but there’s also the short lived J-10, the old Chevy short bus, the dually Suburban, the Ford station wagon, the Ford Bull-Nose truck with the camper, even the convoy of black Dodge Caravans. Every car is fantastic.
Jackie Brown. Not only does it have Tarantino’s ever-present white Honda Civic, driven by the titular character, but the other car choices are great as well. Ordell’s blacked-out R107 and “wet work” Oldsmobile 98, Max Cherry’s Cadillac Seville, and Melanie’s VW van that stalls during its big getaway scene (no idea if that was scripted or not, but it’s perfect) are all inspired choices.
I’ll also give honorable mention to the not-a-car-movie and not-a-Christmas-movie Go. That Datsun B210 is perfect, as is the yellow Miata. And where else are you going to see a car chase between a Ramcharger and a boat-tail Riviera?
Titane.
That’s a deep cut. Fantastic film.
I keep telling that to my friends, but most of them won’t watch further than the bathroom scene…
A shame, because there’s so much more in this film. Glad you like it.
It’s like a combination of Crash (another hard to watch movie) and a Sartre story. The sense of foreboding as it moves toward the end is really good.
The Evil Dead series. There is basically only one car (plus a handful of others with minor appearances). Ash’s 1973 Olds Delta 88 is iconic, and can be steam powered to kill off the Deadites.
The Oldsmobile appeared in many of Sam Raimi’s movies.
https://screenrant.com/sam-raimi-movies-delta-88-car-easter-egg-where/
The Pursuit of Happiness – with appearances from: Alfa Romeo Spider, AMC Pacer wagon, Ferrari 308 GTS,VW T2 camper van, Beetle and Thing convertibles, Datson 280Z, C3 Corvette, and a lot of 70’s land yachts.
How about the Mad Max series?Except Beyond Thunderdome which is the only bad Mad Max movie.
Let’s talk serial TV. Ya gotta include Severance in that list, with its odd mix of analog and digital era tech, cars included.
No Country for Old Men. Nice vehicle selection in that one.
Except they blew it on Tommy Lee Jones’ cop car. The movie was set in 1980 but they used a 1987+ Caprice and then tried to make it look like an earlier car by faking sealed beam headlights with some electrical tape.
https://www.imcdb.org/vehicle.php?id=117259
Hahah nice one – I didnt notice that one, but I am 0% surprised you did. That looks awful.
I’ll give them partial credit for at least trying to backdate it. They actually removed the CHMSL.
https://www.imcdb.org/i117256.jpg
We got into Dark Winds and I lost my mind raving out over the incorrect 90s steering column in Chief Leaphorns Suburban. https://pics.imcdb.org/23667/23/screenshot20563.jpg
I don’t know how easy it is to find these days—for a while there, at least, it was pretty obscure—but Brewster McCloud is a great non-car car movie (assuming it can still be considered a non-car movie if it has a chase scene, which was in large part spoofing Bullitt). Sally Kellerman in a Gremlin making suspiciously rumbly V8 noises and having no problems keeping up with a Camaro Z/28 and a Road Runner…perfect! It was Shelley Duvall’s first movie, and Robert Altman’s middle finger to Hollywood, making the weirdest movie he possibly could to follow up his big success with M*A*S*H.
Another non-car movie with a great central chase scene (also kind of a Bullitt spoof, now that I think of it, right down to the nonsensical route through San Francisco) is What’s Up, Doc?
Both highly recommended, though be warned that both are on the quirkier side, Brewster McCloud perhaps too much so for some.
Goldfinger
Thunderball
Diamonds are Forever
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service
View To A Kill
It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World
Bachelor in Paradise
Foul Play
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
Totally agree on IAMMMMW. Those fugly-ass Mopars were so cool.
Have you seen the awful 1961 Mopars in BiP?
A top-line convertible from each surviving division – Oohhh Myyy!
Good Burger has some Nissans prominently featured in it, like a 300ZX and a J30.
Apparently, they only bought one J30 and needed to get the scene where its crushed in one take
Here’s a few – The Italian Job, Weird Science and My Cousin Vinnie
My Cousin Vinny is a great one.
The two Utes
But weren’t the 928 and 328 just imaginary? Apparitions created by Lisa’s magic powers?
But not Chet’s Bronco! Huhuhuhuh…
(Peter Griffin voice) Roadhouse. From the car he chose as a sacrificial lamb for drunks to whale on, to the Benz, to freaking Bigfoot, this has cool cars, but is a movie about kicking ass.
And I love it.
Hardigree’s ears must be burning! Who’s Clueless now?!