Souped-up cinema: Our 10 favorite car movies

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What makes a great car movie? We here at Up to Speed pondered this question while waiting in line for a matinee showing of “Flash of Genius,” the based-on-fact story of one man’s legal battle against the auto industry (opening today at a giga-plex near you).

We decided to put together a list of our 10 favorite car movies, hopefully avoiding the usual recital of road-race smash-’em-ups (although there are, of course, several of those in our tally) to leave room for a few less-obvious choices — films that say more about the role of the automobile in American life than simply speed, mobility or cool quotient.

Here, in alphabetical order, are our picks:

American Graffiti (1973) — Filmed mostly on the mean streets of Petaluma, this ode to cruising, street racing and an America that is all but unrecognizable today is on everyone’s list of great car movies, and deservedly so. The cars are classic — Paul Le Mat’s 1932 Ford coupe, Suzanne Somers’ 1956 Thunderbird, the Pharoahs’ 1951 Mercury — the acting is superb and the whole movie thrums like the well-tuned 454 in Harrison Ford’s ’55 Chevy.

Blue Collar (1978) — This movie isn’t about cars; it’s about the people who build them. Filmed around Detroit and in the old Checker Motors taxi assembly plant in Kalamazoo, Mich., and grounded by a slashing, bluesy soundtrack, “Blue Collar” depicts the auto industry — and, by extension, capitalism — as a soul-crushing fraud. And no one walks away clean. Workers, bosses, union reps, cops — they all exist on the downside of the American dream.

Bonnie and Clyde (1967) — Doesn’t usually make it on to greatest car flick lists, but this classic depicts the earliest entree into modern automobile-fueled criminal behavior (not to mention the template for the Grand Theft Auto Series of video games). For Warren Beatty’s Clyde and Faye Dunaway’s Bonnie, a car means freedom: freedom to rob banks, to attempt primitive drive-by shootings, and to bleed all over the back seat. For the record, the original gun moll and her man met their maker alongside a 1934 Ford.

Bullitt (1968) — A so-so flick, but the car chase through the streets of San Francisco — featuring a ’68 Mustang GT 390 — was so cool that Ford is still trying to make a buck off it 40 years later with its special edition Bullitt ’Stang. And any list of car movies has to name-check Steve McQueen at some point.

Repo Man (1984) — A postmodern paean to the Chevy Malibu, a car that’s collectible now but was a total junker in early ’80s, rundown Los Angeles. The definition of a cult film, it will forever change the way you think about opening the trunk. And teach you how to steal cars: “I never broke into a trunk. I shall not cause harm to any vehicle nor the personal contents thereof, nor through an action let that vehicle or the personal contents thereof come to harm. That’s what I call the Repo Code, kid.”

Road Warrior (1981) —The Devastator from Down Under, this apocalyptic vision of a future without fuel made Mel Gibson a star. More important, it melded punk fashion, mobile mayhem and an old-fashioned hero-saves-the-day sensibility into a violent tale of death and rebirth that still resonates today.

Smokey and the Bandit (1977) — This ain’t a great movie, but it’s a fun one. It delivers Burt Reynolds at his (relative) best and seemingly endless car chases — really, the whole movie is just one big car chase, when you get down to it. True aficionados argue that Jackie Gleason’s sheriff Buford T. Justice is Darth Vader to Reynold’s Han Solo personage, and since the movie came out the same year as ‘Star Wars,’ find themselves rooting for the dark side of the force. Of course, a 1977 Pontiac Firebird Trans Am trumps the long arm of the law every time. Over and out, good buddy.

Two-Lane Blacktop (1971) — Solves the eternal peanut butter-or-chocolate riddle: How do you choose between an existential art film about the unbridgeable gap between human beings and a kick-butt movie about illegal drag racing? With this classic, you don’t have to! James Taylor when he still had hair. Warren Oates when he was still alive. Grit. Lots of engine noise. A ’55 Chevy versus a 1970 Pontiac GTO. Endless road ahead.

Used Cars (1980) — More junkers than classics here (except for a ’57 Chevy driven to literal heart-attack-inducing extremes), but this is hands down the funniest movie ever made about the automobile business. Slimy salesmen? Check. Odometer tampering? Check. Gratuitous nudity? Double-check. And just remember: Fifty bucks never killed anybody.

Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006) — GM, big oil companies, pusillanimous politicians — they all get a share of the blame in this doc about California’s aborted effort to bring power to the people by forcing automakers to produce electric vehicles. It does for the alt-fuel movement what “An Inconvenient Truth” did for the global warming crowd.

-- Ken Bensinger and Martin Zimmerman