I'm sure there are enough people willing to buy a 265-page book about a car that only sold 253 units when it came out 50 years ago, but it seems to me that the best thing about the "monograph that bears witness to the significance of the BMW 507" is that it might cause some movie fans to see a forgotten film from 1971.
That would be The Last Run, which is a great entry in one of my favorite cinematic categories -- movies that feature scenes of cars driving around Europe.
For the most part, such movies involve car chases or races, but they don't have to, since it's entertaining just to watch cars in beautiful foreign settings.
Here then is a completely personal list, starting with a few that you might not have seen.
-In The Last Run, George C. Scott is an ex-pat Chicago getaway driver living in Portugal who helps a mobster (Tony Musante) elude the cops by hiding in the back of a 507 as they drive toward the French Riviera with Trish Van Devere along for company and complications.
While this movie has some excellent action sequences and images of southern Europe, it's also a character study on the need to belong to some group. It also features clever dialogue, including one of my favorite lines ever. After watching Musante's flamboyant psychopath in action for a while, Scott's character observes to Van Devere that he seems to be pretty smart. She considers this for a moment and then replies, "He's a lot of things before he's smart."
-Cold Sweat came out in 1970 and is more of a thriller, since you don't expect much else when it stars Charles Bronson, even if he is supposed to be married to Liv Ullmann.
There are a lot of action sequences set on the Riviera, highlighted by a race against time to deliver medical aid up the twisty roads into the mountains.
-The Nest (from 2002) is one of the best thrillers I've ever seen, involving the efforts of a European police force to transport a super-villain to trial in France in a special armored car. When they go to ground in a high-tech warehouse and come under attack by the villain's henchmen, it turns into the kind of film either version of Assault on Precinct 13 could only hope to be.
-The best driving through Europe film is of course the legendary Rendezvous, which we would call a reality film today since it involves a car racing through the streets of Paris at dawn, running red lights and dodging traffic and not stopping for anything, all without the benefit of any advance work or police assistance or editing. It only last about eight minutes, but it's worth the most exciting eight minutes of car film you'll ever see.
-In terms of car chases and crashes, the three best staged films have all come out in the last five years. Those would be Ronin, The Bourne Identity, and The Bourne Supremacy. For me, these are best appreciated on a technical level, since they involve incredible driving skill and crew preparation. Except for the scene with Bourne and Marie being chased through Paris by the cops in the first of the films, they're not that involving.
-The original Italian Job has its fans, to be sure, but to me the film is most worth watching mostly for the scenes with Noel Coward playing England's criminal mastermind.
-Though it's primarily thought of as a chick-flick, A Man and a Woman does have a race car driver as its hero and was directed by the man who drove the car in Rendezvous, so it has its moments.
That would be The Last Run, which is a great entry in one of my favorite cinematic categories -- movies that feature scenes of cars driving around Europe.
For the most part, such movies involve car chases or races, but they don't have to, since it's entertaining just to watch cars in beautiful foreign settings.
Here then is a completely personal list, starting with a few that you might not have seen.
-In The Last Run, George C. Scott is an ex-pat Chicago getaway driver living in Portugal who helps a mobster (Tony Musante) elude the cops by hiding in the back of a 507 as they drive toward the French Riviera with Trish Van Devere along for company and complications.
While this movie has some excellent action sequences and images of southern Europe, it's also a character study on the need to belong to some group. It also features clever dialogue, including one of my favorite lines ever. After watching Musante's flamboyant psychopath in action for a while, Scott's character observes to Van Devere that he seems to be pretty smart. She considers this for a moment and then replies, "He's a lot of things before he's smart."
-Cold Sweat came out in 1970 and is more of a thriller, since you don't expect much else when it stars Charles Bronson, even if he is supposed to be married to Liv Ullmann.
There are a lot of action sequences set on the Riviera, highlighted by a race against time to deliver medical aid up the twisty roads into the mountains.
-The Nest (from 2002) is one of the best thrillers I've ever seen, involving the efforts of a European police force to transport a super-villain to trial in France in a special armored car. When they go to ground in a high-tech warehouse and come under attack by the villain's henchmen, it turns into the kind of film either version of Assault on Precinct 13 could only hope to be.
-The best driving through Europe film is of course the legendary Rendezvous, which we would call a reality film today since it involves a car racing through the streets of Paris at dawn, running red lights and dodging traffic and not stopping for anything, all without the benefit of any advance work or police assistance or editing. It only last about eight minutes, but it's worth the most exciting eight minutes of car film you'll ever see.
 |
| A scene from the film The Bourne Supremacy |
-The original Italian Job has its fans, to be sure, but to me the film is most worth watching mostly for the scenes with Noel Coward playing England's criminal mastermind.
-Though it's primarily thought of as a chick-flick, A Man and a Woman does have a race car driver as its hero and was directed by the man who drove the car in Rendezvous, so it has its moments.