The 1971 movie Vanishing Point managed to become a cult hit, with its story of a Benzedrine-popping driver (Barry Newman) in a race for his life with the police of several states, but somehow the soundtrack managed to remain out-of-print until 2004, when Soundtrack Classics reissued it on CD. The music is surprisingly cohesive, primarily built around different aspects of country-rock as embodied variously by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends,
the Doug Dillard Expedition, and
Jerry Reed, with some gospel tracks by Segarini & Bishop and
Big Mama Thornton, plus
Mountain's "Mississippi Queen." The music is all eminently listenable and then some, and has an earthiness that makes it more than a little bracing -- only the lyrical, string-dominated love theme, provided by Jimmy Bowen and his orchestra, breaks that mood and even it works within its own musical context, and is explainable given the time in which the movie was made. The entire release rather favorably recalls the soundtracks to Easy Rider and Zabriskie Point, but Vanishing Point stands up quite nicely musically on its own. ~ Bruce Eder