Cars are one of the few movie props that can steal the limelight from their acting counterparts and, if you’re like me, you’ll only consider a film to be worth watching if it features at least one nail-biting, asphalt-shredding car chase.
Recent blockbusters such as Mad Max: Fury Road and the latest instalment of the increasingly-bonkers Fast and Furious franchise have reignited Hollywood’s love for roaring engines and squealing tyres. With that in mind, I’m going to present what I believe to be the 10 best car movies of all time.
1. Duel
Something of a cult classic, Steven Spielberg’s first feature film was originally made for TV. Starring mild-mannered business traveller, Dennis Weaver, Duel is perhaps one of the scariest car movies of all time.
Weaver spends the majority of the film being terrorised by a huge truck for seemingly no reason at all, resulting in a monumental road battle, the ferocity and tension of which few films have managed to replicate since.
2. Taxi Driver
Spawning the eternally-quotable line “You lookin’ at me?”, Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver isn’t the most obvious car movie on this list, but it absolutely is just that. Robert De Niro’s Travis Bickle is the ultimate study of a man forming a vision of hell as he makes his way through the city of New York in his yellow cab.
3. Death Proof
Not for the faint of heart, Quentin Tarantino’s exploitation flick features Kurt Russell as a murderous stunt driver who surely passes for one of the scariest drivers in the history of film.
4. The Transporter
Combine hard man Jason Statham with a souped up Audi A8 and a boot full of precious cargo (just don’t ask what it is), and you’re guaranteed a thrilling – if somewhat bonkers – ride packed with just about every type of car stunt you can think of.
5. Drive
A brilliant soundtrack accompanies a deadpan performance from Ryan Gosling who plays a movie stunt driver by day moonlighting as a getaway driver. Hyper-stylised and intensely violent, it isn’t a film you’d show your gran, but Drive features some breathtaking work with cars.
6. Mad Max: Fury Road
Perhaps controversially, I’ve decided to include the most recent Mad Max film as opposed to the original. The reboot, directed by George Miller, proved a hit at the oscars and is a breathtaking modern car action movie which grabs you from the start and doesn’t let go until the end credits.
7. Gone in 60 Seconds
We’re talking the most recent version here – not the original from 1974. And that’s for one very good reason; H.B. Halicki’s story of mass car theft is believed by many critics to be so bad it is barely watchable. The remake from 2000, however, is popcorn car cinema at its very best and features ‘Eleanor’, a Ford Mustang which simply steals the show.
8. Thelma & Louise
What can we say? If you haven’t seen this exploration of female companionship, you haven’t seen one of the best car movies ever made. We won’t give away the jaw-dropping ending (in case you’ve been hiding under a rock), but we will say it features a rather beautiful Ford Thunderbird as the star car.
9. Christine
This adaption of a classic Steven King novel is the last word in possessed cars. Starring a 1958 Plymouth Fury, Christine is deeply eerie. You’ll never look at a car the same way again after watching this one.
10. Bullitt
Believed by many to contain the best car chase scene of all time, Bullitt remains an absolutely classic car movie. Starring the brilliant Steve McQueen, the film features an 11 minute high-speed pursuit which is still yet to be beaten for cinematic impact.
Image credits: https://pixabay.com/en/muscle-car-dodge-charger-ferocious-1155884/
