Vanishing Point (1971).  Director: Richard C. Sarafian.  Starring: Barry Newman, Cleavon Little, Dean Jagger, Gilda Texter.

There are action films, there are romantic films, there are dramas.  There are comedies, there’s science fiction, there’s camp, and there are tearjerkers.

Then, once every blue moon, appear those films that are almost unclassifiable.

Oh, one could make a stab at classifying them.  They're kinda like...they're sorta like...

But the descriptions don't do the film its proper justice.

Take, for example, 1971's Vanishing Point.  This film features Barry Newman as Kowalski, an enigmatic driver charged with transporting a bone white Challenger from Denver to San Francisco.  He makes a meaningless bet with a friend that he can make the trip in 15 hours, and, soon enough, the police are after him.

Come on, you say, Vanishing Point is a chase film, right?  In many respects, that's exactly what it is.  In many ways, it's not all that different from Smokey and the Bandit.

However, its the differences that make this film so unique and intriguing.

For although the film is indeed presented as an extended car chase, its really a film that reflects its era, a post-hippie, counter-cultural west coast.  Kowalski, we find, is a man with a sad, haunting past.  Vietnam veteran, ex-cop, ex-lover (the love of his life died in mysterious circumstances), and existential man.

Thus, this is a man completely alone on an extended drug trip possibly suffering from hallucinations (how much of what he sees is real, how much isn't?).  He's also possible dead already, on a trip through heaven and hell.  Or perhaps he's a proto-Christ figure, complete with his own Judas (Radio host Super Soul, who is very much on his side but whom the law strong arms to force a betrayal) and last temptation (the enigmatic nude motorcycle woman) before meeting his eventual fate (at which point the smile and light on his face suggests his ascension).

Then again, maybe the film is an extended metaphor about drug use...the beautiful high followed by the inevitable, destructive crash.

When not showing us some very exciting car chases, the film presents achingly beautiful shots of the west coast, where roads extend for miles on end and the personalities Kowalski stumbles upon are alternately unique and strange and very ordinary.

It is one of the personalities Kowalski stumbles upon that offers us the movie's "alternate cut".

When released to DVD (and more recently Blu-Ray) the film was offered in both its U.S. Theatrical Version and the European Cut.  Near as I can tell, both cuts are essentially the same but the European cut features one additional sequence the American theatrical version inexplicably left out.

Towards the very end of the film and while driving at night, Kowalski spots and picks up a female hitchhiker (Charlotte Rampling).  She has no real destination and states she’s been waiting for Kowalski.  They talk, but she doesn’t want to get into what she says is deep conversation.  After a while, she lights up a joint and its smoke gets to Kowalski, eventually forcing him to stop.

Kowalski turns to face the hitchhiker, who appears to have fallen asleep, a removes the by now nearly burnt out joint from between her fingers.  Perhaps Kowalski kisses her...perhaps they make love.  The movie doesn't say, instead cutting to morning.  Kowalski awakens to find his passenger and her luggage are gone.  Kowalski gets out of his car and buttons his shirt and zips up his pants (our only real hint as to possible sexual interaction between Kowalski and the hitchhiker) and is off for the very final leg of his run.

In the director’s commentaries, director Richard C. Sarafian states the hitchhiker could either be Kowalski’s guardian angel or the angel of death.  Either way, given what transpires next, either symbol is appropriate.

It’s difficult to understand why this sequence was edited out of the American version of the film.  My strongest guess is that the explicit use of marijuana was deemed too touchy, although that flies in the face of the fact that for great segments of the rest of the film Kowalski is presented as a serial pill popper.  Another possibility is that the studio simply wanted to get to the film’s end quicker, and felt this side trip slowed things down.   One final possibility is that perhaps the studio felt that the young French actress’ scenes would play better on her home turf rather than in the U.S., where she was an unknown.

I don’t know and, despite going through the extras, couldn’t find a specific explanation as to why this sequence was discarded for American audiences.

Regardless, if you’re going to see Vanishing Point, I suggest checking out the European Cut.  The extra sequence isn’t all that long, clocking in at no more than five minutes, and I admit it may not be absolutely crucial to the film, but it is worthwhile.

Oh, and whatever you do, avoid the 1997 TV version remake featuring Viggo Mortensen.  Talk about a complete misunderstanding of the source material!