Gone in 60 Seconds - Original Classic review by Jackass Jon

Story Summary

So you're a car thief huh? Well when you came to work for me you stopped being a simple car thief. Now you are a professional...

Can you think of a better way to steal cars? Gone In 60 Seconds takes us into the car theft business like no other movie. Maindrian Pace (H.B. Halicki) is the leader of a car theft ring the cops can only dream about busting. Maindrian uses an insurance company as the front to his extremely successful black market business (they only steal insured cars) but now he wants out. He's just taken a deal from some offshore buyers for 48 rare American vehicles and the price tag is high enough to retire on. But along the way Maindrian runs into a few snags that could ruin his plans for the future. He has to deal with a back stabbing brother in-law, a mistakenly stolen car full of drugs and the prize he's never been able to steal in his lengthy career, Eleanor. Eleanor is a beautiful yellow and black 1973 Mustang Mach 1. She's been eluding Maindrian at every turn on the road but this time he's set on winning the battle and nothing will stand in his way no matter what the cost...

DVD features

This new release of the Original Classic Gone In 60 Seconds is fantastic. The entire movie has been digitally restored and has a new soundtrack added. The soundtrack still offers a slightly dated mood but it's just right for a movie of this type. The restoration has made the movie seem like it was shot yesterday on the best film available. The disc is also filled with too many extra's to list but some are: Poster galleries, behind the scenes photo's, several trailers, audio commentaries, all sorts of extra footage, interviews with Lee Iacocca, Parnelli Jones, J.C. Agajanian Jr. and Bobby Ore.

Analysis

Gone In 60 Seconds... What a catchy title to one of the greatest car chase movies of all time. And no, I'm not talking about the piece of junk Hollywood released in 2000 with Nicolas Cage and Angelina Jolie. The original cut of this film was made by H.B. Halicki. A self made millionaire in the junk business. I believe he had one of the largest private car and toy collections in the world and always dreamed about making his own movies. Thus the birth of Gone In 60 Seconds. The movie was funded entirely by Halicki and most of the cars used in the film were personally owned by him. All action shots were done on the streets of southern California and at actual speeds. All the cops in the movie are real cops, the mayor in the movie was the real mayor, people on the streets were real people on the streets, the dealerships used for the movie were real dealerships owned by his friends, all the actors in the movie (besides Halicki) were his friends and family... Everything about this movie screams independent film! Obviously because you can tell by the bad acting and lack of sets but if you can comprehend the magnitude of making your own film from a simple idea to getting it into the theatres around the country you can definitely appreciate the efforts put into the movie. I think the running time is roughly 98 minutes but the famous car chase scene takes up over 40 minutes of that and is truly fantastic. Hundreds of cars were destroyed making the chase costing millions of dollars. All the plugs were pulled during the creation and we even get to see the longest car jump ever performed and it's captured with some really neat photography and camera angles. Eleanor was the only vehicle to be used in the movie that still exists today and is owned by Halicki's widow (who looks pretty good for her age). Oddly enough Halicki was killed in an accident on a movie set in 1989 while shooting the remake of the original Gone In 60 Seconds. A fate which he narrowly escaped during the filming of the first movie. The scene where Eleanor takes out a light post on the highway wasn't a stunt. The car lost control during the shot, hit the pole and caused serious injury to Halicki.

After it's release the movie became the standard for all Hollywood films made from 1974 up to what we see on the silver screen today. It's also safe to say that a film like this can never be reproduced again but you'll have to see it to understand what I mean. Actually, watch this film then go rent the new Hollywood version and see which one you like better.

Final Thoughts

This movie is very dated but if you think you might be a car buff or a live action addict, you could handle watching this movie several times. I know my analysis seems more like a "behind the scenes" than anything else but in order to appreciate a old 70's movie like this, you need to know the history. After all, the story is just about a guy who steals cars for a living and gets chased around by the cops. But it does have a neat surprise ending too so go see it!




9 out of 10 Jackasses
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