It might surprise you to know that your psychotic blogger friend once owned a minivan. A beautiful bucket of bolts in the process of being turned into a wheeled pirate ship, Das But was a Dodge Grand Caravan. That vehicle was not made for speed, but one grand night, near the border of Ohio and Pennsylvania, where there is no speed limit, two friends and I decided that it was time to see what that baby could do. 110mph and a quarter of a gas tank later...
"The need for speed" and "the open road" are two huge American dreams. Everyone wants to drive really, really fast, and everyone wants to get the hell away from everything. So hop in your car and ride. But driving really, really fast and getting the hell away from everything isn't as easy as we might think. After all, the roads are made by the government. But the government does some things to make it seem like you get the open road. According to our article, several versions of the Robert Moses Parkway have been made specifically to seem like it's non-governmental. They're built to exclude trucks and to include lots and lots of trees.
Kowalski wanted nothing more than to drive stupid fast, win a bet, and maybe get high in the process. No tail, no murder, no real mayhem, save driving stupid fast and pissing off the cops. So really, he's not a bad guy. He helps a deranged old snake wrangler get to his coffee supplier, he provides a blind man with some really fantastic radio material, and he makes a naked biker really happy on his trip. And he's been handed the shitty end of the stick a whole damn lot. But to blow himself up rather than go around the bulldozers? What?
Ok, so long story short, I didn't get the point of the movie at all. Every blonde chick looked basically the same. They repeatedly hammered Kowalski's driving experience into our skulls. Somehow, Super Soul had some kind of brilliant psychic connection with Kowalski. Other than showing that Americans want freedom and the ability to drive at eleventy-billion MPH, what was the point? WHARRRRRGARBL!
Is eleventy-Billion really even a number I mean come on. haha Just kidding. Yeah this movie didn't really have a lot to talk about. Naked blonde girls, motorcycles, driving really really fast. That was just about the plot of this movie. Maybe that's why this one is one of my favorites. Just because there was actually a semi story line and it was in english, unlike so many of the movies we have watched. ANd SuperSoul really didn't make much sense to me either. What was that whole ESP thing they had going on?
ReplyDeleteThe snake wrangler was fantastic. "Lots of beans, son, I mean a LOT of beans."
ReplyDeleteWell the point of the movie was to "exploit" what the average American reeeally wants to see in a movie, like naked chicks and omgviolenceanddrugs and black culture and crazy religious cults. Do you think we might get our own slice of freedom from living vicariously through a movie?
Man, did he ever get the shitty end of the stick. I know the flashbacks tell us how shitty he did have it, but it really seemed like he was in his element in the present action. It was a shame that he made that bet and ended up killing himself. I think he could have been a bit smarter about it. I think everyone speeds from time to time, but a little attention and road smarts can avoid having the cops notice. Obviously this doesn't make for a good movie, but he was a pretty likable character who took it to the extreme in a couple of days time and killed himself well before his expiration date. Sad to see.
ReplyDeleteOdd that you say you didn't get the point of the movie, given that this is one of your more truly analytical and insightful blogs.
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