ACTION ‘VEHICLES’

DAMNATION ALLEY

From the vaults at 20th Century Fox comes three cult favorite road movies from the 1970s that center around the protagonists and their modes of transportation: Barry Newman’s Dodge Challenger in Vanishing Point; Peter Fonda & Warren Oates’s camper in Race with the Devil; and George Peppard & Jan Michael Vincent’s radiation-proof recreational vehicle roaming the bombed-out American wasteland in Damnation Alley. Each film will be screened in a new 4K DCP restoration.

  • Fri., Jul. 12 | 7:00 PM
    4070 Vilas Hall

In director Sarafian’s existential car chase classic, Newman stars as Kowalski, a society dropout recruited to bring a Dodge Challenger R/T from Denver to San Francisco. Hoping to make it in record time, Kowalksi drives at such high speeds that police in three states quickly become obsessed with capturing him. Along the way, the driver is helped to avoid the cops by a network of hippies and outsiders, most notably radio DJ Super Soul (memorably played by a pre-Blazing Saddles Cleavon Little). The camera and driving stunt work in Vanishing Point will take your breath away and the desert scenery is gorgeous. “What I like best about the film…is its depiction of a coast-to-coast network of weirdos, dropouts, and misfits ready to help wayfaring strangers – this was one of the finer aspects of sixties-seventies counterculture” (Danny Peary, Guide for the Film Fanatic).

  • Fri., Jul. 19 | 7:00 PM
    4070 Vilas Hall

Fonda and Oates play a couple of pals who take their wives on a roadtrip in a decked-out Winnebago. When the fellas witness what looks like a human sacrifice at their campsite, they find themselves fleeing from a widespread cult of Southern Satan worshippers. Loaded with thrilling chases and steeped in a redneck milieu, this 70s drive-in staple, a mash-up of Deliverance and Rosemary’s Baby, is as fun as it sounds!

  • Fri., Jul. 26 | 7:00 PM
    4070 Vilas Hall

After the U.S. is turned into a wasteland following a nuclear war, five survivors (Peppard, Vincent, Sanda, plus Paul Winfield and Jackie Earle Haley) travel cross country in a souped-up, high tech Winnebago, searching for civilization. Along the way, they battle freak tornadoes, giant desert scorpions, mutated killer cockroaches in Salt Lake City, and gun-toting Midwest rednecks. A campy cult favorite, 20th Century Fox expected Damnation Alley to be their top blockbuster in 1977, not quite recognizing the potential of their other sci-fi fantasy release that year, Star Wars. A restored 4K DCP will be screened.