Posted by: Ryan Allen on April 25, 2008 at 9:00 am
The Cars That Ate Paris (Peter Weir, 1974)
Poor Arthur Waldo (Terry Camilleri). The painfully soft-spoken man is deathly afraid of driving after accidentally killing a man a year before, and then he has the bad luck to pass through Paris, Australia. There the residents have blocked and booby trapped all of the roads leading in and out of town to kill unsuspecting passersby. The local economy is based on the goods taken from these wrecks, and any possible survivors are handed over to Dr. Midland (Kevin Miles) for his less-than-ethical experiments. Arthur is one of the few exceptions to the medical program. Instead, he’s welcomed to Paris with open arms and adopted by the Mayor (John Meillon) and his wife.
Paris may initially seem peaceful to Arthur, but he soon learns of the uneasy truce between the fine, upstanding citizens of Paris and the rabble, young men with salvaged, highly decorated cars that they enjoy bashing into one another. These punks form “The Cars,” a car club that seems to be grooming future members of The Humongous’s gang in The Road Warrior.
Artfully directed by Peter Weir, The Cars That Ate Paris all comes together through the score by Bruce Smeaton. The music plays against and with the often surreal visuals, emphasizing the poetry of the film. — Mike White
[tags]The Cars That Ate Paris, Peter Weir, Bruce Smeaton, Arthur Waldo, The Road Warrior[/tags]
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