Cars in Films - Disappointing.

I have been dropping hints at home that I wanted Santa to bring me this book for Xmas. It's a book about cars in famous movies:

http://www.autobookworld.com/shopexd.asp?id=4535

However I managed to find a copy in Bankstown library. so I've read it. Very disappointing. Surprisingly it's not an American book, it's written by a British fellow named Martin Buckley. He begins his wordy 5-page into by saying, 'Car spotting in films is a skill I acquired many years ago." but then waffles on about social metaphors and particular rationales in overall content.

The great US car films - Vanishing Point, Bullitt (he mis-spells it 'Bullit'), Dirty Mary Crazy Larry, Two Lane Blacktop and so on, are glossed over. He includes a whole chapter on 'British Comedy', and another on 'Euro Drama'. The Love Bug is mentioned, but only gets one paragraph and he says 'lots of desirable machinery can be spotted in the background.'

And he makes a whole lot of mistakes. Such as:

* Peter Fonda does NOT star in the Gumball Rally. The actor is Michael Sarrazin.
* Dennis Wilson (of the Beach Boys) is the mechanic in Two Lane Blacktop, not James Taylor, who was the driver.
* Genevieve is NOT one of the most important car films ever made
* In Duel the truck is NOT a Kenworth. It was a Peterbilt.
* The basis of the death car in 'The Car' was not 'unknown'. It was a Barris-customed 1971 Lincoln Continental.
* The car in Christine is a 1958 Plymouth Belvedere, not a Fury, as '58 Furys were never sold in red. Stephen King made the same mistake in his novel.
* He describes the Thomas Crown Affair as 'too slick for its own good now.' Yeah right - it was the Pierce Brosnan version that was crap. What a wanker.
* The yellow '32 Model A rod in American Graffiti does not 'probably' have a Chevrolet V8 engine - it does. It had a 1966 327 with Feulie heads and 4 Rochester carbs.
* He also didn't know that the '55 Chevy was the same car from Two Lane Blacktop. Its 427 wasn't around in 1962 when Graffiti was set, so the bonnet was kept shut throughout the film.

And this book retails for $59.90 ! Don't buy it.

snap!

Dude you know some scary sh*t

phil, do you think perhaps you're just a touch anal? 😁

but yes, you'd think he check details.

Movie on Foxtel/Austar yesterday
Assignment in Berlin

has flashbacks to the East Berlin/West Berlin
border posts with early beetles parked nearby..

I'm a Movie car watcher - and detail watcher...
I love old War movies - You will see a Jeep with wipers
then they show the same?? jeep without wipers...
or wipers at the top then the bottom... lol

In early James Bond Movies the dot where the rear vision mirror was is usually still on the windscreen...

Lee

Thanks for the nice comments, fellas ! Yes all the trivia comes from many years of watching car movies and reading car magazines - it comes in handy sometimes.

Dunno whether you've seen the link, but years ago I did go through all the Herbie movies, one by one, and looked for all the interesting VW-based things to spot. It's on the Club Veedub Sydney website at:

http://www.clubvw.org.au/love_bug.htm

No I haven't done the Lindsay Lohan one yet - there are so many mistakes in that one it's hard to know where to start.

dude you need to get out more.. 😉

My beetle was in a Hollywood movie this year 🙂

I cant say more but if you want some info PM me.

The movie will be released March 2009 🙂