|
|
In a small country village
in the States, strange road accidents start happening. The very odd death
of two cyclists is followed by the death of a strange hitchhiker, an
itinerant musician like Bob Dylan/Cat Stevens (first style). A strange black
car is responsible of the events, it is round shaped in the front part,
like a Morgan, and with a square shaped roof like a ‘Fairlane’, sports
like and elegant, old and modern: at the same time American and European,
as it will be defined by one of the characters. Moreover, without license
plates. |
 |
The young vice-sheriff, Wade
Parent (James Brolin),
together with the whole
police force of the village, will find himself, immediately, on the
tracks of a murder with an unquenchable and growing ferocity. The
first night he kills the sheriff (John Marley) and the
following day, after a raid during the rehearsals of the local
parade, the Black Car makes fun of the cop’s cars. It slows down
in order to be caught up with, the cat and the mouse swap places:
it, intentionally, overturns along the road ‘transforming’
itself in a rolling rock, wrecking, like a bowling ball, the cops’
cars coming from the opposite direction. The second day ends with
the murder of Lauren (Kathleen
Lloyd),
the main character’s girl
friend. The vehicle goes through her house with an impossible
flight… |
|
|
…and in Luke’s words
(Ronny
Cox – we remember him for the
music challenge of 'Deliverance') everything starts having a
meaning, as it already has for the viewer. It was the hallowed ground of
the cemetery that drew children and school teachers to safety during the
rehearsals of the parade, as well as the insults cried out by Lauren to
the driver of the mysterious car that clearly became her death sentence.
Remember the strange wind and the terrible cry of the girl on the bike (Melody
Thomas Scott), but the presence of a
demonical entity underneath that metal shell is confirmed to us in the
breathtaking ending. |
|
Also the unruly Amos
Clements
(R.G.
Armstrong)
puts aside his disagreements
with the native American Chas (Henry
O'Brien)
for the common good. Luke,
an alcoholic, confides his weakness to Wade, who tries to reassure him. |
|
Parent, who has become the
sheriff, plans the ambush of the ending, barely managing by the skin
of his teeth, to avoid being killed in his house by the black car. When the loathsome car is buried in a gorge with
dynamite, we see emerging on the notes of Liszt ‘Totentanz’, a
huge twisting and lively flame that waves a sort of claw, like
wanting to get hold of all those who have set back the powers of the
evil. A horrible blazing mouth strikes out a tongue made of fire.
Reality or illusion? Are they only the games produced by the
dynamite? And those cries, are they simply due to the shattering of
the rocks and to crackling of flames? However, the looks of those
who assist that pandemonium don’t leave space for doubt: the Demon
itself has visited the American desert. |
 |
|
|
REMARKS
|
Come
in ‘Christine’, we find here another rib of
‘Duel’. Probably even more
pronounced. The ‘nature’ of the Black Car is very similar
to the one of the truck in ‘Duel’. The author plays,
anyway, again on the question of never showing the driver (if
not until the end!!!), although an old Indian, in the
police station, ascribes ill omens to the desert
winds and says that there was nobody at the wheel of the
vehicle – when the sheriff was killed – but maybe this is
simply due to the fact that a person from another religion
cannot – not believing in it – see the Satan of Christian
doctrine (at least that’s what I think). |
 |
|
|
|
NOTE!!!
This is an unauthorized site. The copyrights of the images of 'The Car'
belong to Anchor Bay Entertainment pictures. This site is just a movie
page for my personal website. The copyrights of the texts belong to
Lorenzo Costa. Email me at alfadriver@lorenzocosta.com |
|
