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!
One car that jumped out the most is the yellow Citroën 2CV driven by James Bond’s “mistress” in For Your Eyes Only. It was probably the world’s most underpowered get-away car that succeed in escaping from the nemesis and villains.
I would say the choice of vehicles is excellent in Ronin, especially Audi A8, Jeep Cherokee (XJ), and Mercedes-Benz 450 SEL 6.9.
Summer of Sam has a small but mighty cast of cars. The movie captures the time and place it portrays so beautifully.
https://youtu.be/d9NJIy6NPNM
The recent Mindhunter show also showed terrific choices. The main characters are FBI agents who drive whatever american government employees could afford, and the series goes on for several years in history throughout the malaise era. Great, great cars.
Donnie Darko and Uncle Buck
Three pages of comments, and nobody said Sixteen Candles? Jake Ryan’s red Porsche 944? Grandpa’s Olds wagon that The Donger put into “lake – big lake”? The football goons’ big black Lincoln Continental land yacht with a trunk big enough for Bryce and Weez to get a ride home in? Mom’s Town & Country wagon and Dad’s Buick Century? “THIS IS A MOTHERF– This is a Rolls Royce, Jake”?
You are all penalized ten GenX points. Oh well, whatever, never mind.
Probably thought of as a car movie, but Bobby Deerfield, with Al Pacino and Marthe Keller, was quite fine. Lots of racing, but a lot of other stuff going on besides that.
“Are you still driving around in circles, Bobby Deerfield?”
That line cracked me up and has somehow stuck in my head nearly 50 years later.
I should see if there’s a way for me to stream it and see how it’s held up over the years.
GoodFellas. Henry’s Grand Prix with a deer paw stuck in the grill.
Ha! Reminds me of the original Godfather. “Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.” One of the least-expected lines in my movie-going life.
Ok I read a lot of comments looking for this but no one brought it up.
HBO MAX has a new series called Duster. It centers around a guy who drives for a mob boss (of sorts) and drives… a Plymouth Duster.
I have no idea why his car model is the show title honestly but it’s a period show set in the 70s and is quite good with many period correct (and a few minor incorrect) cars. There is truly scene after scene of great 1970s metal.
If I must choose a movie specifically then fine. How about the late 80s, Corey Haim cheesiness that is Licensed to Drive. I guess it is sort of a cat movie since it is about a coming of age, getting your license movie but so much greatness in that movie.
It’s a bummer they didn’t set Fargo a couple years in the future, I would have loved to see a 98 Touring Sedan amongst the cast.
Easy:
Cars.
The movie isn’t about cars, the characters are simply cars.
Where do we stand on Rainman as a car movie or not? It doesn’t feel like a car movie, but timely grey-market Lambos and the inherited Roadmaster are both major plot points.
I’m going to fudge with a TV Series, Crime Story. It was set in the early to mid sixties and all the cars are gems, starting with the hero 1957 Chrysler 300C. Watch the first 10 minutes of episode one to see car chase heaven. Also, Archer. It’s animated but every car, even the background cars, are real recognizable vehicles. One of my favorite quick takes was a two second shot of a Matador LA police cruiser straight out of Adam-12.
The scene in the mall parking lot in Jackie Brown (Leeeeewwwwissssssss, when you robbed banks, did you forget where your car was then too? ) has a great assortment of cars.
https://youtu.be/bXy8AgE7jBo?feature=shared
Not a movie, but The Americans had a fabulous automotive cast, from Philip and Elizabeth’s Delta 88 to Stan’s government-issue Diplomat (or Fury) and all the ’60s to ’80s iron running around in the background.
So many great suggestions for stuff I now want to watch that I have never seen. Thank you!
In French class back around 1970, the teacher showed us a movie about the Tour de France, and I was entranced by the support cars following the peloton, tires howling around the corners, with the spare bikes mounted on the roofs. (My first introduction to the Peugeot 504.) The title of the movie didn’t stick, and of course the dialog was far above my half-way through the first-year level of trying to learn. And I wouldn’t understand most of it now.
I’ve been through all the comments at this point and one that I haven’t seen yet is The Peacemaker with George Clooney and Nicole Kidman. Not the central point of the movie, but there is a lot of vehicular mayhem in this scene:
The Peacemaker – George Clooney & Nicole Kidman Car Chase Movie Clip – S500 W140