If movies are a reflection of our culture at any given time in history, then the cars in movies are also a reflection of the times when the movie was made. Just as style of dress, manner of speaking and social interaction in the story lines of movies are an indication of what is important to the American culture at the time that the movie was made, the cars that the propels the hero on his quest to resolve the story’s conflict are an equally important indication of how the car relates to the American culture at that time.
In the 1930’s America was in a period of economic turmoil as the country’s economy was ripped asunder by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and the resulting Great Depression. Millions of Americans lost their former livelihood of the family farm and were forced to seek new opportunities away from their homes. No movie told this sad story better than the adaptation of John Steinbeck’s novel “The Grapes of Wrath� starring Henry Fonda as the hero, Tom Joad. The central conflict of the movie is the Joad family’s journey from Oklahoma to California from their failed farm to a new life as itinerant farm workers. Their mode of transport was a battered and creaky truck upon which the family has piled all of their materiel possessions. Throughout the movie the characters are dependant upon the questionable reliability of the truck to deliver the family from starvation in Oklahoma. But in the end, the truck survives the journey that becomes a metaphor for the optimism that the American journey through the Great Depression is perilous, but in the end we will emerge alive if not better off than before we started the journey.
World War II brought a new type of peril from abroad and the iconic transportation movie of the period is a Humphrey Bogart picture called “Sahara,� the story of an American tank and its crew who has been separated from Allied forces in the North African desert and who must now survive the harsh environment and the numerically superior German enemy. The tank is a solid example of American strength and ability, becoming the foundation that holds the disparate crew of arch-types and ethnicities together as they learn to overcome difficult odds.
The post-war Cold War of the 1950’s was a time of enforced social conformity as America looked inward for hidden enemies. Individuality was frowned upon; it was the time of idealized suburban living and the concern that Teenage Delinquency would be the ruin of American Society. James Dean’s starring vehicle “Rebel Without A Cause� reflected the youthful angst and discontent that roiled American families at the time. The Dean character’s chopped and channeled ’48 Mercury Hot Rod is a classic example of the creative outlet and rebellious statement young people were making as they struggled against the repressively narrow confines of societal conformity of the times.
By the 1960’s the yokes of conformity were being thrown off and Authority Figures were being challenged. The Anti-Hero, a non-conformist whose ends justified the means, became a favorite movie theme. Steve McQueen’s “Bullitt� is remembered best for the spectacular car chase through the streets of San Francisco featuring the Bad Guy’s dark green Dodge Charger versus the Good Guy’s dark green Mustang. Cinematically the filmmakers are telling us that there is very little difference between the Good Guys and the Bad Guys with only a subtle difference in the make and model.
The turmoil of the 1960’s gave way to the cynicism of the 1970’s and the Bad Guy had become the hero, as typified by Burt Reynold’s “Smokey and the Bandit� series of car chase movies. The Bandit out maneuvered and outsmarted the police in their dull and conservative sedans with his loud and flashy Pontiac Trans Am.
Oil Embargo’s, Embassy Take-Overs and Lowered Expectations placed America in a deep funk by the early 1980’s. Looking backwards wistfully for happier days, the regret for the mistakes made in the past and hope for better times to come spawned Robert Zemeckis’ “Back to the Future� series of movies. The Fusion Energy–powered Delorean of the movie that travels back in time to correct the errors of the past to insure a brighter future is the embodiment of all that Americans could hope for at the time.
The 1990’s did not produce an iconic car movie unless you count the Keanu Reeves action picture “Speed.� The plot of the movie revolves around the need to maintain velocity in a variety of vehicles because dire consequences would occur if the hero and imperiled heroine should slow down. The movie can be viewed as a metaphor for the feverish stock trading that was driving the nation’s economy during the craze for Technology stocks and the economic crash that occurred when the Internet Bubble burst.
The new millennium dawned with a cautious attitude. Worries about the “Y2K Bug,� the growing revelations of corporate malfeasance, the near collapse of the stock market and the tragic events of September 11th, 2001 put Americans on edge. Suspicion greeted all foreign things, and in the movies the Bad Guys drove foreign cars in “The Fast and The Furious.� Ludicrously inaccurate in every detail, the less said the better about this lousy movie that launched a tide of backwards cap wearing, wannabe street racers in hopped up Japanese cars upon the streets of America.
Hopefully the first decade of the 21st Century will give us a better movie than "F&F" as an example of the movie’s use of the automobile. It would be a great disappointment if future generations will remember our current decade by a movie that glorifies illegal street racing in cars festooned with stripes, stickers and wings.