I will second funeefarmer’s mention of “Gone in 60 Seconds.”
…Eleanor…now there was a car.
Ronin!
Audi A8!
dev
Duel.
My .02 cents…
Number 1 with a Bullitt… (however, I have yet to run into an automatic x-mission in a 302 Fastback that I could double clutch. :'0)
2 with French Connection…
3 with Ronin… (done in the classic style)
4 with the 7-Ups …(Roy Scheider by the way)
Ronin, hands down, no contest. Not one, but two excellent chase scenes, the second being the most impressive. It was absolutely spectacular in the theater.
Bullitt was good, but it did kind of annoy me that they replay the same part of the chase (IIRC down the hill, passing the VW bug, turning left) from a different camera angle. Continuity anyone? Probably done intentionally just to extend the scene…
French Connection–OK, I guess, but somehow a car chasing an EL just doesn’t have quite the same appeal. I thought the two Terminator movies had better chases than that. I only saw the To Live and Die in LA chase once, and I know that was a good one, too.
I think it counts, and it’s my favorite. Then again, just about everything about The Great Escape is my favorite. Truly one of the all-time greats, it’s one of a few war movies that everyone must see. The Longest Day is another.
That was one Unholy, unruly, ball-to-the-wall insane Audi!
How about the end chase in Mad Max2 (Road Warrior).
All of these are great. The chases in Ronin were phenomenal, to say the least, and reinvigorated a cliche. A big second to the twenty-minute chase climax in Road Warrior, too.
I’m also going to throw in a good word for the motorcycle vs. car stuff in Jackie Chan’s Armour of God 2. The baby in the carriage is kind of dumb, but everything else rocks.
And speaking of Hong Kong: Did anybody see John Woo’s original Once a Thief, with Chow Yun-Fat? Not a lot of automotive action, but what’s there is pretty nuts. (IIRC, a sports car crashes through the back end of a van. Or something. Gotta see it again.)
But by far the craziest thing I’ve ever seen involving cars and a chase sequence was in the minor Hong Kong classic Righting Wrongs, starring Yuen Biao and Cynthia Rothrock. YB faces a half-dozen bad-guy cars in a parking garage – ON FOOT. YB has to dodge and flee, jumping over cars, hanging onto sprinkler pipes, and at one point, he drops to the floor and lies flat as two cars crash their front ends together DIRECTLY ABOVE HIM. Totally nuts.
Yep, Bullet & Ronin. With a slight edge to Bullet, because of the advantages of modern camera technology.
Peace,
mangeorge
Ah, Duel. Not always balls-to-the-wall, rarely in fact, but a movie-length car chase with tons of tension. Very nice indeed.
Although, I suspect that they wanna know about high-speed chases. In that case, my money goes to Ronin as well; there are two car chases, and both are excellent. Frankenheimer has directed some real dogs lately, but Ronin was a winner.
Ronin!
Audi A8!
Not to pick nits, but it was an Audi S8. Ronin was an entertaining movie, it’s too bad that the plot was entirely clear until several viewings.
The Rock, Jackie Chan’s “Who Am I?”, Bullit, and The Blues Brothers all have good chases. The original Gone in 60 Seconds is also great, if you can find it at the video store.