One of the most legendary George Lucas movies is American Graffiti. Set in the late 60’s, this is a coming of age tale about a group of guys graduating from high school and getting ready for college, real life and Vietnam.
Numerous driving, racing and cruising scenes make this film a car movie classic. It also represents the essence of car culture in small American towns in the 60’s. It will always be a 60’s cult classic and cool car film.
Believe or not there are eight Fast and Furious movies after they released the first one in 2001. This is by far the most successful car movie franchise in terms of box office success, but also in terms of its influence on global car culture.
Although the series is often criticized because of its unrealistic portraits, computer-generated car stunts and product placement, you have to respect the influence and success it has achieved. No one is a fan of computer graphics or aggressive product placement, but the Fast and Furious movies have won a special place in the hearts of younger generation car lovers.
Based on the novel, The Chase, the 1974 classic Dirty Mary Crazy Larry is famous for two things. They are the lime green 1969 Dodge Charger 440 R/T and the epic chase scene at the end of the movie.
Peter Fonda plays the main character. He is another Hollywood legend and car enthusiast who rose to fame after his epic role in Easy Rider in 1969.
Although there is a new movie with the same name and the same plot they released in 2003, the only one you should watch is the 1969 classic starring Michael Caine.
The plot is interesting and involves a group of British bank robbers who go to Italy to steal gold using three specially prepared Minis. The film promises good times and delivers some epic car chase scenes, interesting landscapes and a healthy dose of classic British humor.
The movie Christine is a perfect example of a horror movie that turned out to be a car movie classic thanks to the beautiful 1957 Plymouth Belvedere.
John Carpenter directed this classic movie about a high school nerd who buys a rusted Plymouth and restores it to mint condition, only to learn the car has strange powers.
The Volkswagen Beetle was the bestselling car in the world and a symbol of the hippy movement of the late 60’s. So, it is only natural they featured it in numerous films. It was a series of movies dedicated to a cute VW Beetle they called Herbie.
They released the first movie, The Love Bug, in 1968. It tells the tale of Herbie, a white racing Beetle and its interesting adventures. Since Disney was the studio behind this movie, Herbie was given an almost human character. He had an important role in the plot despite being just a car.
This is the most unusual movie on the list, but it is also the most intense and direct. It is also a true classic that has been hidden from the public for a long time. It is a 1976 short movie by French director Claude Lelouch. This interesting story begins in 1976.
Lelouch used gyro camera mounted on a bumper of a car to film nine minutes of hectic driving in Paris at dawn. There is no dialog in the movie and only one scene. It is the view from the front bumper just inches above the ground.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgyxSAAqCHA
The film was immediately banned by the French police since they thought it promoted reckless driving and breaking laws. For decades, just a few enthusiasts possessed poor copies. Even Lelouch himself didn’t want to talk about it. Finally, in 2005 they released it on DVD and fans quickly regarded it as a true masterpiece of the car movie genre.
Francis Ford Coppola is a famous director and also a Tucker fanatic, owning two examples of the 49 they produced. His father was one of the first investors in the company, too. So, when Francis was a kid, his dad told him about Preston Tucker. Coppola learned about Tucker’s fight against the Big Three and how it destroyed his vision of the perfect family car.
That is why Coppola made this 1988 movie starring Jeff Bridges as Preston Tucker. It is an interesting flick that tells the true story about one of the biggest “what ifs” in the American car industry.
The Back to the Future trilogy is everyone’s favorite film since it captures action, adventure, comedy and sci-fi genre in one movie. For those who don’t know, this is a story about Marty and his friend Doc, a crazy scientist who manages to make a time machine in the form of a highly modified De Lorean DMC12.
The movie wasn’t supposed to be a car flick, but the appearance of DMC 12 and the story surrounding the car was so memorable, it became a classic of the car movie genre.
Did you find your favorite car on this list of the top 20 legendary car movies? Perhaps you are going to binge watch some of the car classics this weekend. These movies and the cars in them are stamped in the annals of car and cinematic history.