There were four DMCL cars.

[kikgas01]

Great info. Must be the melting taillights that makes it look funny.

[FastbackJon]

3rd photo- here you see chrome, I see body color (as in poor repair overspray).


How to tell if this is the same or two different SEs? The '440' on the stripe. Pictures 4 and 5 put it in the same spot. Same car, (my #2).


Three cars.

Is it just me or does the black stripe look like it's in two different places in relation to the left rear wheel arch on these two shots of seemingly the same non-RT '69 Charger? We had confirmed earlier that the two vehicles shown have the "440" in the stripe at the same place, whereas the '69 RT has it in a different place.

At one point four or five years ago, I started an excel spreadsheet and I put the Charger scenes on the left in rows, with distinguishing Charger features going across the top in columns. I started watching the movie and whenever a Charger appeared, I would mark the distinguishing features we see for the length of time that vehicle was on screen. I didn't get all the way through the movie, but I did think it was a good way to be able to tell the cars apart from each other, to make sure all cars seen on film fit into one of the three categories or not.

[jwramc]

I'm still sticking to the point that only two were damaged in the front, the RT and the 68 car. I read this was done by backing a truck up into them. I believe the non-RT '69 that was towed into the train in the movie wasn't damaged in the front. Maybe this is why they didn't put a camera on the train looking down at the collision?

More likely the choice was to avoid the other cameras seeing the one on the train.

However, it is interesting that the SE isn't seen from the left side until it is tire-deep into the locomotives. I would think most directors would have wanted the whole moment shown. Yet here's the first frame of that camera angle. The fender sure looks a bit less damaged than the other cars did prior to this.

[404NOTFOUND]

You can see in the pics above how part of the stripe above wheel on the R/T is basically gone yet is fully intact on the train Charger.

[tan top]

some awesome detective going on here 
  just like Ghoste  , i love this film & must of seen it thousands  of times 

http://www.dodgecharger.com/forum/index.php/topic,52052.0.html     nother thread with intresting stuff in !!

think there is a few more somewhere ,

anyone pick up on there is a shot of the R/T Badged charger  & the 68  with a interior mirror ,  different cars  or just been removed for other shots !!
intresting take , on the one with the tall bumper guards being an SE  ,  cause the sale pannel  name plate been removed ,  wonder if its just been painted over instead  , cause in one shot  , when i turned the image to a negitive  etc etc , could of sworn you could make out  SE name plate !! although looking at something for too long  , your eyes can play tricks , i cant save the picture after altering it , when i figure out whats going on i'll post it up 

[Ghoste]

Wife and kids will be out of town this weekend so I plan to have another of those frame by frame reviews of this.  Notebook in hand of course.

[tan top]

Wife and kids will be out of town this weekend so I plan to have another of those frame by frame reviews of this.  Notebook in hand of course.

yeah me too , all this talk , going to have to have a frame by frame session again soon ,  if i knew how to capture screen shots by the computer would post the whole lot of the charger up here   so we all can have a lookie    , but i have to  freeze frame & take a picture with the digital camera   lot of messing about , then have to resize it  

[nvrbdn]

im watching hollywoods greatest car chases and dave kunz-broadcast automotive reporter states during the report on dirty mary crazy larry that they needed a fast car so they stole a 69 dodge charger. did he really see the movie?

[jwramc]

Well, he's on TV, so he's gotta be right. 

[Ghoste]

Maybe it was in the footnotes of the script.

[model maker]

Ghoste, did you get my PM to you ?

[model maker]

I think the first charger they pick up at the swap meet is the same one that went into the train ! There were 2 cars at the swap meet, the first charger had rough damage to the front and the second charger that took off taking the cop car door with it  had the R/T and no damage. Look at that first car under the left side on the frame, there is a large EYE BOLT fastened to the frame, probably to hook the cable to so the train could pull it into it.
Bert

[Kern Dog]

Hey Bert... I think that you've got it!

[jwramc]

I think the first charger they pick up at the swap meet is the same one that went into the train ! There were 2 cars at the swap meet, the first charger had rough damage to the front and the second charger that took off taking the cop car door with it  had the R/T and no damage. Look at that first car under the left side on the frame, there is a large EYE BOLT fastened to the frame, probably to hook the cable to so the train could pull it into it.
Bert

Bert,

You've got it right. The thing folks tend to forget is that a film's various scenes are rarely shot in the order they will appear in the film. By scene, for example, I mean everything that happens at the flea market. Even shot-to-shot, for example the camera looking at Larry saying "There she is." and the very next shot of the (my #2 Charger, with the tall bumperettes), are often filmed weeks apart...and those two shots were.

The flea market portion of the film was shot early in the schedule so that your car (my #1) was in her best condition for close-ups, like the take-off shot and interior scenes here:



(Notice that white Rambler parked next to the Charger. You can see it's front wheel under the Charger as well.)

But what they forgot to shoot during those few days was a distant shot of the car sitting there empty, waiting for the Impala too arrive (they had nothing to show us after Larry says "There she is.") ... so toward the end of the filming schedule, after most other scenes were filmed, they went back for one more day to the flea market to shoot that one distant shot....AND they shot a few more extra moments, like Larry putting the bag of cash and Deke putting the toolbox in the trunk...which then leads into the pitching quarters scene that ended up not used in the film (until it was added back in for TV airing).

Well, when they arrived at the flea market for this re-shoot, the scenery had changed quite a bit. Orange signs were hanging on the wood building, and the white '65 Rambler was gone.

Here are pics from each of the scenes this (#2) car appears in, in the order we see them in the film:



Of course, it seems the car starts out damaged, wearing the box-framed towing rig underneath, then gets repaired off-screen as the film proceeds. But the truth is, the car started out very clean, but slowly built up damage 'til it looked like it did at the flea market, then it was thrown at the train. In reality, the scenes were likely shot more in this kind of order:



Note that I indicated the locations of the TWO eyebolts on the tow frame in most shots. They clearly planned very early in the schedule for this car to be thrown at the train.
Also notice when she hit the train, the tow frame broke loose. It's back portion can be seen dropping down, exposing a thick mounting bolt, before it flexes back up against the floor of the car.

If we go by this order of filming, the car's damage makes more sense.

[404NOTFOUND]

 I noticed in each pic the aluminum trim above the passenger side headlight door is bent downward slightly indicating it is the same car in each shot. The valance panel is in good shape in all those pics except at the flea market where it is banged up thus proving that the flea market scene was done much later after that car had been beaten on. Can anyone here recall a scene that would have caused that valance damage to occur? More than likely, it would have happened in a cut shot where the stuntman screwed up.

[jwramc]

Most likely, yes, and I've got two theories (which are impossible to prove, and are as good & bad as any other theory we can dream up!):

1: When the car pulls away from the gas pumps at the bar,  it passes under the awning of a smaller, unused building (now long-since demolished). It is moving quite fast thru there, and immediately after is the road the cop just appeared from. Shoot across that street and you land in a low field...so the stunt driver could have braked really late to give the director the longest possible shot to use (and it was trimmed in editing later)...and the car shot over the road and down into the field, squishing the valance.

2: Similarly, there may have been a take where the car was used on the dirt siding (as we see the #1 do from the front and from the rear, and the #3 '68 car is shown doing from the side and below) on approach to the bridge dunk sequence. That siding was quite uneven (we see the #1 car bouncing quite a bit from behind, the driver feathering the gas pedal as he goes). I can imagine the #2 car doing the same bounce, the tow frame digging into the dirt and the ass of the car coming up in the air...letting the valance crush against the packed dirt surface.

It can even be a driving sequence partly filmed but abandoned entirely. Heck, it could really be anything. At one point in the production, one of the police cars was stolen from the staging lot at night by a local youth, and taken for a joyride!

There's a shot we DO see in the film, when the interceptor gets hit by the gray Chevy wagon, where the Charger misses the turn completely and drives into a low field. However, that is the #1 car (crushed left fender and quarter panel are obvious, and the #2 car never had quarter damage on the driver side, and we are fairly certain the #2 had no such damage to the fender prior to the train crash either).

[tan top]

   interesting  ideas !! sounds plausible     

[jwramc]

Wouldn't it be awesome to get a Criterion Edition DVD/BD of this film, with both the theatrical and longer TV versions included, and another disc with random unsused footage...boring stuff like the cars being readied for a shot, cast and crew talking about scenes, assorted footage of the cars driving around- whether chases footage or just moving them on the staging lot, etc, etc....the more, the better, and we could investigate and make connections even more. Sigh! 

[Ghoste]

That would be awesome and in my opinion, would sell as much as the dvd version they released a few years ago.  It's a cult film and they know that.  We are the cult and buying this stuff up is what we do.

[model maker]

I worked on movie sets a long while and we had to always film out of sequence with 2 crews in different parts of town. It was while working there that i became aware the car was available as an "extra" fill in vehicle with hundreds of others and it had a black & white picture of it and the stripe is what caught my eye so i was on a mission to try and get it for myself. I had to use my studios influence to get it. I made myself a new avatar and made 4 different versions of it. I can have that made into a real product which i would display along with the new diecast of the car that is coming out.
Bert

[nvrbdn]

on the "bridge dunk" pic. is that the transformed 68 from the rear? did they film it all at once from both directions? i would think that it would be in one take being the amount of damage done to the side of the charger. and it would be cool to have a video "the making of DMCL" with all the out takes and some footage of body men, camera men doing the set ups and what not. just to see what they were hashing out while straightening metal.

[jwramc]

on the "bridge dunk" pic. is that the transformed 68 from the rear? did they film it all at once from both directions? i would think that it would be in one take being the amount of damage done to the side of the charger.

Nope. You can't have a camera car ahead of the Charger looking back and another behind the Charger looking forward....or both cameras would film the other. Kinda like the old joke about a Polish firing squad.  

Looking at the front, we obviously see the '68. From the rear, it's what we've been calling the #2 SE (tho with a black dash, it's most likely a base model like Bert's faux '69 RT #1 car). We know it's a real '69 because it has reverse lights in the valance and it has the Charger/Tri-Color badge between the tail lights (both of which the 68 with the 69 rear panel did not have). The bridge dunk chase sequence is the only time we see all three Chargers used in the same scene....as it's #1 that handles the front and rear views on the dirt siding (the #3 '68 handles the side shot), and #1 handle the moment it returns to asphalt and cuts off the cop. The rest is all #2 and #3.

Then again, it's fun to remember that everytime you are viewing the action from a camera moving along with the Charger, that camera is mounted on another of the Chargers. The most obvious time to see this is when they are approaching the bar (Larry saying "Whaddya know- a landing spot."), you can see another Charger is alongside, reflected in Larry's door mirror. You can even make out the black stripe...  

[nvrbdn]

 

[Kern Dog]

This intense scrutiny is pretty cool. Imagine if the internet existed after the whole "Kennedy"  thing in Dallas!

[jwramc]

Back, and to the left.....back...and to the left.