Gonein60Seconds

Gone in 60 Seconds (1974)

So I’m a big fan of car movies from the 70s, so it is about time that I get around to reviewing the ultimate car movie. Heck this is the only movie that I’ve ever seen where the car gets top billing before any of the actors! It is also one of the best independent movies that I’ve ever seen with star, director and financier H.B. Halicki being responsible for damn near everything that you see on the screen.

So the story here is that a gang of car thieves gets a contract for 48 vehicles to be stolen and delivered to a warehouse for shipment to Venezuela. The first 47 go pretty smoothly, but the last one a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach I becomes a real problem. See the gang has rules and one of them is that they only steal insured cars, so when the first Eleanor (each car has a code name) isn’t insured they actually return it and steal another. Maindrian Pace, sort of the ringleader for the gang goes to get the car himself. But because of an earlier incident involving some heroin one of the members of his own gang turns him in. This starts the big car chase between Pace and the cops.

This is an independent movie made using friends and family as the cast. This makes for some awkwardly delivered lines and honestly some really poor performances. Hell they didn’t even have a script and adlibbed most of the scenes. But unlike other movies that I’ve ripped up for this, Gone in 60 Seconds gets a free pass. Why you might ask? Well the first 45 minutes of the movie are all plot and dialogue setting up the last 45 minutes, which is one extended car chase! This movie is all about the car crashes (93 cars totaled) and driving fast. There were car movies before this one and some after this one, but no one ever did it better than Gone in 60 Seconds. As far as the cast goes, well a 1973 Ford Mustang Mach I named Eleanor gets top billing. Do I need to say anything else?

The stunts in this movie are incredible and way better than anything that Hollywood had filmed up until this point. I think that is probably because director H.B. Halicki was willing to take risks and do stunts that no one in Hollywood would have been crazy enough to do. These risks do pay off on screen though, as more than thirty years later this is still one of the most exciting movies you will ever watch. While watching this movie pay attention to the scene where the mustang hits a light pole on the highway. This was unintended and actually knocked Halicki, who was driving, unconscious! Halicki was also injured on the big jump at the end, hurting his back and according to friends never walking quite the same again.

These are all great stories, but unfortunately Halicki was killed on set in 1989 while filming the sequel to Gone in 60 Seconds. Still he set out to film the ultimate car chase and successfully did so outside of the Hollywood system. You have to respect that. I really recommend that everyone who loves cars and car movies get their hands on a copy of Gone in 60 Seconds, but make sure it is the original and not the crappy remake with Nicholas Cage.

3 out of 4

reviewed by John Shatzer