“The loosest plot in town with the biggest payout.”
I had never seen the original prior to seeing the remake or this review, so I may do a few comparisons here and there.
H.B. Halicki is the star, driver and owner of all the exotic cars who wanted to make the ultimate car chase film, and succeeded, as the driving was excellent and the stunts were rockin’.
While the 2 films are very similar, they couldn’t be more different in terms of style. For example, the remake was filmed with a very linear plot involving Nick Cage helping his brother. The original, however, was filmed like M*A*S*H with a lot of edits around talking and such, like they didn’t film enough coverage of the actors, and in my opinion, that is fine because, there wasn’t much story involved other than showing how they do a switcheroo on cars.
It also seemed like the plot of stealing the 48 cars was an afterthought because it is mentioned only briefly whereas there were no consequences if they didn’t make the shipment or deliver the cars in perfect condition. Also, there were no cops bearing down on the main character as in the remake. Only 1 cop visits the shop one time and mentions that a bunch of exotic cars are being stolen and for them to keep an eye out if they hear something.
The biggest difference, to me anyways, was Eleanor because she was much cooler in the remake as a sleek 65 Shelby GT, but in the original she was a yellow 74. While still cool, the yellow 74 didn’t have that wow factor of the silver 65 GT.
The film culminates in a 40 minute chase sequence, the longest chase seen ever committed to film, with a ton of crashes and stunts and “the climax jump,” (in the remake it was Nick Cage jumping over 20 cars by using flat bed tow truck as a ramp,) however in the original the main character jumps over some wreckage using a crashed hood as a ramp then uses a lot of slow motion and freeze frames for dramatic effect. This was definitely more believable than the CG packed jump of the remake.
The camera work was phenomenal as all the stunts were captured so perfectly that if you thought there should’ve been more, I don’t know what you were looking for,
If you’re looking for a film with a good, albeit Hollywood plot, the remake is your film, but if you are looking for pure nonstop driving stunts and a crazy long car chase sans CG, then check out the 1974 Gone in 60 Seconds.
7/10
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