Pixar's Cars is the hit of the summer. There's a reason for that, and a list of classic films to prove it
The Theory
It's a theory I've had for years. Over that time, people have laughed at me, thought I was joking or developed theories of their own - about me having listened too carefully to the kind of over intellectualization promoted in Film Studies courses.
But I've held true to my thesis and was gratified this week when it was validated, after a long drought, once again, when "Pixar's Cars became the number one box office attraction.
Enough Mae west-style teasing. Here it is: films about cars proliferate whenever there's an oil crisis.
The Evidence
The last such period in my personal history was the late seventies, when America, literally and thus metaphorically, ran out of gas. Those same long lines of frustrated commuters who stood steadfast at the pumps stood just as steadfast at the box office, helping to make Smokey And the Bandit the surprise hit of the era. A slew of well-attended imitators followed, including the small screen's Dukes Of Hazard...and the Duke boys came back, didn't they, last summer, just when Bush's messy oil-nab began to peak.
Classic Car Films
Rumblings about America's dwindling natural resources first sprung up in the socially-conscious sixties, speculation that, to some minor degree, helped fuel a car-crazy silent film revival that included It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, The Great Race, The Love Bug and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. By the last part of the era and the beginning of the next, oil was a bona fide concern; out of this, came the Great Modern Car Chase Age, the time of Bullitt and The French Connection., culminating with the Smokey school.
Will There Be More?
Can we expect more cinematic cylinder smoke in the coming months? Of course; I'm sticking to these guns like a lead foot to a gas pedal. The latest installment in the Too Fast, Too Furious franchise is out, and the upcoming Miami Vice film is certain to have metal aplenty.
Mark my words: when America is hungry for oil, its people are hungry for flights of vicarious fancy where they can rack up the mileage.
