When Jaws exploded in theaters in 1975, it started the summer blockbuster – for better or worse. It also spurred the creation of a series of ripoff films, to try and take advantage of Jaws’ success: The Deep, Orca, Barracuda, Mako: The Jaws of Death… All of them were released within months of Jaws. The most unlikely ripoff was not on the sea, but set on the highways of America: The Car.
The film is structured almost exactly like Jaws, and the fact that the studio that released it was the same that put out Spielberg’s film two years earlier (Universal) makes the parallels even more amusing. You can easily picture Universal execs seeing wave after wave of Jaws knock-offs and saying “Why don’t we make one of those too?”
It’s almost a paint-by-numbers remake of Jaws, only instead of a great white shark it’s a menacing car that is driving around killing innocents. James Brolin plays Sheriff Brody… Err, I mean, Deputy Wade Parent who has to track down the killer car after his Sheriff is killed.
The Car is a great case study about how important talent is in Hollywood, both in front of and behind the camera. Jaws was, and is a masterpiece… Because everyone involved brought their best and many were working at the peak of their abilities. But it could have gone horribly wrong, if different decisions were made and lesser talents were involved.
And “lesser talent” is on abundant display in The Car. Characters are stereotypes, dialogue scenes are wooden and the plot is contrived and hackneyed. At no point do you care about anyone on screen, because there are no real people displayed on screen – there are “heroes” and soon-to-be victims.
Brolin does try to do his best with the material, but he has no charisma on screen. Even worse is Ronny Cox as his partner, who overplays his part horribly. But special mention has to go to veteran actor John Marley for the worse performance, as the sheriff of the small Utah town threatened by The Car. He famously played the studio head in The Godfather who ended up with a horse head in his bed, and was quite good in that film. In this film he is just awful. I know you are not supposed to speak ill of the dead, but in this film Marley was made to look ridiculous.
All this being said, there is one real highlight: The Car itself. Designed by George Barris (who also designed the classic Batmobile), The Car looks great on screen and has a very distinctive look. It’s suitably menacing and is the real “star” of the film.
I remember first watching The Car on television and being quite frightened… Of course, I was eleven at the time. Seeing it now, with more than thirty years of movie watching under my belt, I chuckle at what I was once “scary”. And the conclusion, when we find out who the driver of The Car really was… Geez (here’s a hint: the movie started with a quote from Anton Le Vey).
The Car is an interesting revisit that, unfortunately, isn’t atypical… It’s a derivative film that copies an earlier success, with the results ending up being a pale imitation. Hollywood definitely hasn’t learned its lesson.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go read about the upcoming Robocop remake…