Sunday, April 29, 2007

Get me to the Church On Time

Well, I dont know if it's because of Grindhouse or just coincidence, but lots of people posting about chase scenes lately. I think Piper at Lazy Eye Theater started it, posting a fine list, from the Blues Brothers, Raising Arizona, Road Warrior and more, with video. Then I saw Moviezzz' response, posting the chase from Bullitt. It's very exciting. And it happens that Grindhouse put me in the mood to watch some car chase movies - I watched Gone in 60 Seconds this weekend, there are more in the queue... The Gone in 60 Seconds Chase is a monster, after all - 40 minutes of it - one thing after another, and a stream of wreckage in the wake... But better than that, it's put together like a silent comedy, almost. A series of obstacles, situations, settings, each set up and paid off for the cars, with pieces circling back around to each other, and the added fun of the radio reporter's interviews on the street ("he hit a boat?"). I was going to comment at Piper's or ZZZ's place, but I was poking around YouTube, and found this - the chase scene from Harold Lloyd's For Heaven's Sake. Plot? Harold meets the daughter of a preacher, falls in love, turns into a better person, and then has to cross town for his wedding, along with a pack of bums from the mission, who have been into the hooch. So - a trolley, bus and dog wagon later, and a great many shenanigans on the way, they make it....

Lloyd, really, was the master of the chase scene - the race against time. This one is superb. And there are probably better - Girl Shy and Speedy, in particular, are absolute aces. But this will do:

3 comments:

PIPER said...

Thanks for the link

No doubt that the chase scene in Death Proof is excellent and the coverage of it is fantastic.

There were many more that I wanted to include but as I said to Moviezzz, I was limited by Youtube.

Michael E. Kerpan Jr. said...

Perhaps as homages to Lloyd, W.C. Fields's films boast a number of awesome harrowing car rides -- chief among these, the ones in "Bank Dick" and ""Never Give a Sucker an Even Break" (a veritable demolition derby).

By the way, the second Fields Box set is, perhaps, an even greater treasure than the first one was.

RC said...

man it's a bummer when you're limited to youtube.

the chase scene is pivitol, do you think it matters where the chase scene occurs in the movie...do like it in that almost at the end climax scene?