The Dodge Charger in Movies
How many times have you seen the Dodge Charger in movies? The motivation for my post today is, I saw the film Drive Angry last night. In a nutshell it’s about a poor excuse for a father that escapes from hell (Nicolas Cage) and with the help of a hot girl named Piper (Amber Heard) chases after the people from a cult organization that killed his estranged Daughter and kidnapped his favorite grandchild.
I was definitely entertained by the movie and overall was pleasantly surprised by some interesting twist and turns (no driving pun intended). Not surprising, when the movie title is drive angry, there was plenty of muscle cars and chase scenes. In my opinion the real star of the movie was a black 1969 Dodge charger with a 440 C.I.D. big block. The beautiful music of the 440 was well done (possibly the actual engine) and more realistic than soundtracks that are added to other movies staring Dodge chargers.
Here’s two informational links that will open a new window. This is the IMDB report on the Movie. If you want see it now you can get it 4 ways (Instant, DVD, Blue Ray, Blue Ray 3d) at Amazon. You can watch Drive Angry right now. After the charger was beaten and destroyed, Nicolas Cage jumped in a 1970 454 Chevelle that was also entertaining. It got me to thinking just how many movies and TV shows have featured the Sixty Nine and 70 2-door Mopar muscle car.
I was also thinking about how often this vehicle has been destroyed on the silver screen for my entertainment. You would think by now they would start running very low on this particular model of muscle car. It also makes you wonder about the value of any remaining Chargers and how it has been affected. I have seen this car go for well over $100,000 in Barrett Jackson auctions. Even in poor condition this car is still fetching 20 or $30,000 on e-bay.
Movies Starring the Dodge Charger
One of the first movies I remember seeing the car in was Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry (available below). Then I saw it again in the 80s classic Christine. Although Christine was a 1957 Plymouth fury the good guy drove a 1970 charger blue in color with a black vinyl top and chrome five spoke Craggier wheels. Even though this car was not the star of the movie in my opinion it was the most attractive.
Of course several of the Fast and Furious movies also featured the Mopar muscle car of the 70s. I was not a big fan of the fast and furious movies mainly because a lot of the footage seemed unrealistic and over edited. The soundtrack also did not seem accurate. Here is a video of the actual Vin Diesel autographed car from the movie that shows how the fake blower was mounted to the hood. I understand the magic of Hollywood but to do this to a big block mopar is sacrilegious (my opinion).
Of course there was the Quentin Tarantino classic Grind House with Kurt Russell in the sub story of Death Proof. Kurt drove a black primer 1969 Dodge Charger that was being pursued by the vanishing point challenger (full of angry women). I can’t remember if the white challenger was a 426 Hemi or 440 but the chase scenes in this movie where extended scenes and very entertaining.
In the film I just saw yesterday (On Demand) Drive Angry, the Charger was in a large percentage of the movie overall as well. It had a black satin finish and this vehicle always looks good in black. In fact it might be the best color for this body style. What do you think is the best color for this car (comment below)? For the Picture Police: the pictures on this page are either old car show photos Taken with a disposable camera 20 years ago or from the wiki page with all rights released.
Are There any Chargers Left
Of course this vehicle was used in the Dukes of Hazard and many of these cars were destroyed in the making of the movies and television episodes. The 69 and 70 were both used throughout various episodes and movies that starred both the original characters from the television show and of course the latest movie with Johnny Knoxville and Jessica Simpson as Daisy Duke.
There were a few other television shows that used this car as the automotive star. I ‘m drawing a blank on a couple of the one season-long shows that used it. Can you help me out and leave some comments at the bottom about the TV shows and movies staring the 68, 69 and 1970 second generation Dodge Charger that I Forgot to talk about?
Yes I wanted a Charger. My first car was a 1974 b-body Chrysler. We (Me and my Dad) went to look at a 1970 R/T that was an original numbers matching 440 4speed car with the pistol grip shifter. The owner took us for a crazy test drive and my Dad said no way. He thought the car would kill me. So I wound up with the 74 that had a 318 cubic inch mouse motor. This post was a little off topic as I usually discuss more technical auto repair information here on the auto repair information blog.