I could have sworn that I recently read a thread here about the top ten gearhead movies of all time. I have spent the past half hour searching for it, using both our forum search and Google. If anyone saved a link to that info, I'd appreciate knowing about it. Thanks.
My favorite 10 - yes there are two Burt Reynolds movies......
If I had a Million
Bullitt
Gone in 60 Seconds (Original Version)
Smoky and the Bandit
Vanishing Point
Return to Macon County
American Graffiti
Dirty Mary / Crazy Larry
WW and the Dixie Dance Kings
Grand Prix
if i had a million, one of the best ...road hog!
Lawrence of Arabia is said to be the best movie of all time. It's gotta' be up there: it has Model Ts in the desert.
My favorite movies aren't necessarily of the gearhead type (they show that I was a product of my generation)
1. The Empire Strikes Back
2. Raiders of the Lost Ark
3. Tucker
4. Gettysburg (Matin Sheen)
5. The Final Countdown (Kirk Douglas)
6. Jungle Book (Disney)
7. Nottinghill
8. 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (Kirk Douglas)
9. The Bounty (Mel Gibson)
10. Lord of the Rings - 1978
The soundtrack to "Empire" was one of the influencing factors in me making music my career. The music to "Gettysburg" and Leonard Rosenman's "Lord of the Rings" is awesome!
(maybe not in this exact order)
1: Citizen Kane
2: Casablanca
3: The Wizard of Oz
4: Frankenstein (original)
5: The Thing From Another World (1951)
6: Mary Poppins
7: Das Boot
8: The Great Escape
9: 12 O'clock High
10: Modern Times
There was a recent Hagerty news email that listed a top 10 gearhead movies.
Not all gear head but here are my choices for best movies
Secondhand Lions
A Christmas Story
Mister Roberts
The African Queen
My Fair Lady
Hell Fighters
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
Dr Strangelove
Murphy's Romance
Grumpy Old Men
Bucket List
(Message edited by paulmikeska on October 11, 2014)
The list I referred to had Grand Prix as #1. Bullitt was near the top, I think. Seems like it was within the past 2 or 3 weeks, but I wasn't able to find it.
I like Royce's picks. Not necessarily in the same order but close. I have to add Burt Munro and The Last Indian it it ranks right up on top.
I didn't try to order my picks except the first one.
Two-Lane Blacktop with James Taylor and Warren Oates.
The Great Race with Tony Curtis and Jack Lemmon if you need a laugh. "Push the button, Max!"
The "Radio Station" scenes for the movie Vanishing Point were filmed in the Goldfield Hotel in Goldfield, NV.
Good ones Mike.
John, that is "The World's Fastest Indian", and definitely is one of my favorite movies... great story, great subject matter, very inspirational, and clean enough that I can watch it with my 4 and 6 year old kids (and they loved it too).
There are very few movies I can say all that about...
There are a lot of cool movies here, but in terms of Gearhead Movies, some of my favorites (no specific order) include:
World's fastest Indian
The Great Race
Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (but you have to use the MUTE and FAST FORWARD button often)
Bridge over the River Kwai. (What have I done?)
: ^ )
Thanks to everyone for all the input. Here is a list I found on an internet blog. The link below contains the following movies, with a short synopsis of each.
1. Bullitt
2. Vanishing Point
3. The Road Warrior
4. Smokey and the Bandit
5. American Graffiti
6. Cannonball Run
7. Two-lane Blacktop
8. Gone in 60 Seconds (1974 version)
9. Repo Man
10. Ronin
(I'd have to add "World's Fastest Indian" and "Grand Prix" to the list.)
Here's the link: http://blog.relayrides.com/2013/02/relayrides-oscar-picks-top-ten-movies-for-car -lovers/
A lot of these are ones I haven't seen, so I'll have plenty to add to my Netflix queue.
I haven't seen "Bullitt" for many years, so I need to watch it again. And just for the record, I think "American Graffiti" is one of the best movies of all time. I watch it every couple of years.
Decent list, but a couple I'd take off.
Cannonball Run is very cheesy. I'd replace it on the list with Gumball Rally, which is a similar plot but better movie in every way. Better cars, better driving scenes, and it doesn't have Dom DeLuise in it.
Repo Man is probably the dumbest movie I have ever seen, and belongs nowhere near a list of "gearhead" movies.
'Lilac Time', fantastic movie, and has airplanes in it.
'Wings', even better movie, more and better scenes up close of airplanes, plus a great model T speedster.
'The Kid', Charlie Chaplin's best. It will make you cry, and some of the best scenes follow a TT running down the road.
These three were all made when model Ts were still new. Harold Lloyd made several films centered around automobiles that are wonderful.
Somebody had to put silents onto the lists.
For modern movies (if you can call the '60s modern), I would want to add 'Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines', also in a comedy class.
Keeping in the "gear-head" category, I am glad to see 'American Graffiti' mentioned. But I would add that one of the rare good sequels was 'More American Graffiti'. I have never been into drag racing, but I enjoyed the whole movie in spite of the fact that most of it centered around drag racing. Part of my liking both 'Graffiti' movies is that my mother was born and raised in Modest CA, and we spent a lot of time there when I was growing up. Both movies were based on real people and events from Modesto CA.
I won't try to sort out any more of my favorite movies. There are just too many of them.
Drive carefully, and enjoy, W2
One good true story which now is on Netflix about three brothers and moonshine and has model t's in it is Lawless. A little bloodshed but I like true story movies...I actually purchased it off ebay before it was available on Netflix...
Derek,
That's what happens when you do stuff from memory at my young age. Went down I-90 close by today but I was running so far behind I didn't try and catch up with you. Really want to see last years addition to your collection.
John, let me know next time you're coming through so we can meet up again.
More recent stuff ...
1. Office Space
2. Napolean Dynamite
3. Borat
4. Fast Times at Ridgemont High
5. American Beauty
All these point up the stupid/humorous behavior and quirkiness of humans. I saw enough death and destruction in Afghanistan to not find "action" movies amusing, let alone believable. Same goes for cheesy gearhead movies. Got enough of the overly macho chest-pounding stuff along the way too. It is no wonder we have such chronic "PTSD" these days when our culture operates from a paradigm of "Disneyland".
I like a lot of old movies from before the "epic" era of Ben Hur.
Got to put "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" in there somewhere. Not for the gearhead qualities (though it has a T) but for the music, the fun and the depression era americana
Right on, Roger.
Don't forget "Airplane" and "The Gods Must Be Crazy."
As for Model T, the silent Harold Lloyd "Get Out and Get Under" is the classic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1-kR7o34cA
Then adding my movie favorites;
Other gear head movies, with faster cars, bobbing in traffic
The French Connection (Gene Hackman)
Thunder Road (Robert Mitchum)
Le Mans
Viva Las Vegas (Ann-Margret) and Elvis
these too, my favs, watch them every time they happen to be on the TV and they capture me and keep me tied to the recliner
Smokey and The Bandit
Bonnie & Clyde
Goldfinger
Silver Streak
Young Frankenstein
Vacation
Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Vertigo
You guys have nailed it on the best movies... but it there are also some great movies that fail in the sounds department. Really irks me, and my wife just packs out laughing, but if they don't use the right sound for the car, bike or boat, I just get up and leave or otherwise brand the movie as bad.
Honestly... If the actor jumps on a BMW boxer motor bike, and races away, but its clearly a Jap four banger sound... am I alone here who thinks that is just plain lazy?
Or a boat with an outboard Mercury motor that sounds like a V8 inboard?
Or what about a V8 sound on a nice porsche 911... its really ruined a few otherwise good movies by the way.
Listen to the sounds in The Italian Job (2003)
Why can't it be like the Steve Mcqueen days... Le Mans? the natural sounds are awesome.
Anyway, enough blabbering, have a good day...
Cheers
Justin
p.s Mike Walker - Ronin - Two thumbs up! and the correct engine sounds too...haha
In any order:
American Graffiti
Shawshank Redemption
Glenn Miller Story
Fastest Indian
Big Sleep
39 Steps (1935)
and you have to laugh every time at This Is Spinal Tap!
Jim Kelsey: being an Aviation Ordnanceman My parents took me to see final countdown I laughed all the way through the movie at the mistakes! 8 guy's to load a 250 lb missile Really?
Tucker.
Not specifically a car movie, but TO LIVE AND DIE IN L A has what I think is the greatest car chase scene ever filmed. Even better than BULLITT. It is also solidly R with sex and a lot of very coarse language.
I also love THUNDER ROAD with Robert Mitchum.
Thunder Road! Yes!!
I can't pick just ten so I am requesting 50 categories in black and white and 50 in color. with 25 selected films in each category, then I don't have to be too choosy. There are a lot of them out there.
Roger, you are right on with "Oh brother where art thou" it's a movie that did not get much play time in theaters but it's such a classic picture of 1930s America. And plus it tells a wonderful story
Ok there is only one movie that I watch over and over PORKY'S In particular I love the Lassie segment in the equipment room AHOOOOOOWOOOOOO for the ones too young to have seen PORKY'S
Does everyone forget about It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad,World..... Love it when Paul Mantz flies the twin engined Beech Craft through a Coca Cola sign. Paul also took Milton Berle and Eddie Adams for a ride in a 1917 Curtiss Jenny, gotta be one of the roughest take offs I have ever seen. Jonathan winters losing his temper and tearing the gas station apart! Terry Thomas and Sid Cesear slowly destroying that 1950's Jeep, eventually overturning it in the tunnel after the right front wheel departs company with the rest of the machine... Best movie ever in my mind bar none especially if you like great automobiles and comedians!
1.It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World
2. World's fastest Indian
3. Magnificent Men and There Flying Machines
4. Dual ( Dennis Hopper vs. smokin ol' Peterbilt who tries to run over him
5. Cannonball Run
6. Smokey and the Bandit
7. The original Italian Job
8. American Graffiti
9. The Dukes of Hazzard tv series
10. The Great Escape
Biggest question of all for me, who was more iconic the General Lee or Bandit's 1978 Black Trans Am?