Cult Labs - Top Ten Tuesdays

CAR CHASES

1. The French Connection – the notorious sequence where Popeye's obsession with his case overrides his concern for his own safety and that of others. The making of this sequence is fascinating and the sense of danger and tension is so palpable because it was real. It is filmmaking like this which makes the Oscars for Best Editing and Direction no surprise because they both, especially the former, are outstanding examples of how to construct a film by building characters, plot, and involving the audience in something of very dubious morality.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TVyJ-51jzc

2. Ronin – the sequence through Paris in which the characters have splintered and it's not just one car chasing another, but the occupants shooting at one another and ramming other vehicles out of the way (some exploding) which makes this astonishing and engrossing viewing. As a former race driver, John Frankenheimer's passion for car racing is evident in every frame of this astonishing sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxxH0lZSYgU

3. Bullitt – Steve McQueen, like John Frankenheimer, was someone who loved fast cars and the 10 minute chase sequence around the hills of San Francisco where Frank Bullitt is pursuing a hitman in his 1968 Ford Mustang GT (after initially being the subject of their attentions) is probably the highlight of a film which isn't short of memorable moments.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Sd-qZNdxc

4. Terminator 2: Judgement Day – in a film which is chock-full with great action sequences, the sequence where Arnie's T-800 is protecting John Connor from the T-1000 is notable because it's one of the few chase sequences to fit into this category which doesn't really involve a car. With the protagonists on a Harley Davidson motorcycle and the antagonist in a lorry as Arnie stylishly reloads his shotgun and the lorry cab bounces off walls after jumping off a bridge, it's impossible to watch this without smiling at how audacious everything is.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o_TNfLpc91M

5. To Live and Die in L.A. – the second William Friedkin-directed film on my list is probably the only one inspired by a real event (Friedkin apparently fell asleep at the wheel and found himself driving on the wrong side of the road and wanted to put that dangerous situation in a film). As he did with Gene Hackman in New York, the sequence involving William Petersen and John Pankow on the run from gangsters and trying to find safety by driving through the flood channels, car parks, and highways of Los Angeles (including going the wrong way) doesn't feel as dangerous as The French Connection, but it is astonishing filmmaking and utterly gripping.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOK9QW21VPo

6. The Matrix Reloaded – if I wanted to watch any sequence from this film it would be the highway chase sequence which shows there is room for CGI in a car chase sequence. With the ghost twins moving from vehicle to vehicle, time slowing down to show Morpheus sticking a Samurai Sword into the side of a lorry, regular drivers being replaced by agents, and thousands of gunshots! This would be prohibitively expensive if you are paying for every single vehicle on the road, so if anyone complains about product placement, this sequence was only possible because approximately all 300 vehicles were provided by GM, and approximately 300 were completely destroyed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8OZpmIWcxg

7. Mad Max: Fury Road – this is no comment on where the film stands compared to the original trilogy, but it seems George Miller has improved his visual storytelling with age, and perhaps with a greater budget than he was allowed for the first films, plus having CGI to change the background and adjust the colours and saturation makes the beauty and violence of this opening chase sequence the vehicular equivalent of Cirque du Soleil, only with drummers and a fire spewing guitar! It's one of the few sequences on this list I've seen in 4K and with 360° sound, both of which really amplify an already stunningly impressive sequence. As much as I love the climactic chase scene in The Road Warrior with Max (apparently) driving a tanker full of petrol, I don't think it's is visually impressive or is awe-inspiring as this sequence.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRBu-FxD5W0

8. The Bourne Supremacy – I liked The Bourne Identity, but the second and third instalments in the trilogy were definitely more intense because of Paul Greengrass's hyper- kinetic vérité filmmaking style, something brilliantly showcased in the final car chase here. With Jason Bourne being chased down by Kirill, a Russian assassin, in Moscow, he steals a taxi (probably the sturdiest vehicle in the whole of Russia) and in this astonishingly violent sequence, which combines the style of Bullitt with the vehicular equivalent of a game of pinball. The abrupt ending doesn't have the explosiveness of T2 or Bullitt, but it does have quite a visceral impact and you can see how much the whole ordeal has taken out of all involved.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzfSLgWkTlY

9. The Blues Brothers – armed with "a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes" and wearing sunglasses at night, these two musicians embark on a chaotic and hilarious money raising scheme, culminating in a quite ridiculous car chase including Nazis, police, and other musicians, and leaving utter devastation in their wake. Whilst other films on this list were engrossing because of their seriousness, this is riotously entertaining because it is so funny and ridiculous. Part of that is because Dan Ackroyd and John Belushi are such great antagonists and the rest is down to the technical brilliance of John Landis and the sheer number of cars and stunt drivers involved as the 1974 Dodge Monaco sedan finds itself destroying nearly police car in Chicago. There are the car chases I could have picked from this film, but the utter devastation in the sequence sets it apart.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMagP52BWG8

10. Baby Driver – setting the tone of what is to come in Edgar Wright's 2017 action-packed heist movie, this opening section shows the skills of Baby, the eponymous getaway driver whose skills are heightened with music, a crucial element of the film. Everything about this is entertaining and dangerous, serious and flippant, real and cinematic, with those extremes and contradictions making it all the more involving and jawdroppingly fun.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XMuUVw7TOM

Just missing out: John Wick – similar to the brute force displayed in The Bourne Supremacy, this isn't so much a car chase as a fight with vehicles, with the titular assassin, the most dangerous man on the planet, building on his already impressive resume of dispensing with those responsible – directly or indirectly – for killing his dog by showing that even without guns, knives, or even fists, knees and other body parts, he can kill some very nasty bodyguards by using his precious Dodge Charger.

The vehicle-based violence brilliantly queues up the final showdown between John Wick and Michael Nyqvist's Russian gangland boss when both on foot and largely devoid of weaponry.

If I want to show someone a film scene which will showcase my 4K TV and Dolby Atmos/DTS X setup, this is one of the first I would select because of the detail in the dark is great for the visuals, the and other atmospherics, the thumping bass, squealing tyres, bullets and broken glass flying across the room to showcase the benefits of 360° object based sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4drATPBLN2M

I would have included C'etait un Rendezvous, the astonishingly dangerous drive through Paris by an unknown driver under the supervision of Claude Lelouch but it didn't really fit my own criteria of a 'car chase'.