MovieChat Forums > Hooper (1978) Discussion > my favorite part as a kid has been ruine...

my favorite part as a kid has been ruined as an adult

posted 17 years ago by moviegeek71
14 replies | jump to latest

I haven't seen this in years and years but I remembered when I was a kid how 'neat' it was that the rocket car "flew" away from the police car. Now, as an adult, seeing that they were drunk driving ruins that scene for me. I guess my second favorite scene, the backwards driving "hand-off" is ruined as well, since they were drinking there too. That only leaves the jump scene which was always bogus because the stunt car that made the jump looks nothing like the Trans Am they drove. Well, it's still a good movie, too bad I'm not a kid anymore.

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"If I've never seen it before, it's a new release to me."

[–] london_beyonce 17 years ago

I tend to agree with you. The car at the jumping scene at the end looks almost weightless, plus its hollow (you can see the sky from underneath the car!)
Which led me to believe that this aint no car at all. Probably a very small scale model.
However, the bridge jumping scene in Smokey and the Bandit seems more realistic.
I think they used a real car in this one.

[–] h_michaelkelly 17 years ago

Don't fret....the rocket car was indeed real, if not exactly a "real" Trans Am. It was powered by a hydorgen peroxide rocket engine capable of accelerating the car from a standing start to over 200 mph in something like three seconds (Sorry I'm fuzzy, it's been a long time!). If memory serves, it may have been piloted by Buddy Joe Hooker, but I'd have to check on that.

The landing they depict on the other side, however, was completely for cinematic convenience.......MK

[–] sstovall-1 16 years ago

Everybody relax. First that was the 70's. Back then drinking and driving was just a way to get home not an epidemic. Second, they were actually enjoying the fight at the bar, because once again it was the 70's. That was before every young punk was too afraid to take the occaional A$$ whipping and started spraying bullets hither and yon instead of just getting into a good old fashioned fight where hardly anybody ever got really hurt beyond some bruises and cuts. Did you noticed how at the end in the alley Bradshaw was yelling "Whoooeee lets get back in there" with a big smile on his face. And they all wound up partying together.

Oh....and it was a movie.

[–] Doom 16 years ago

The only bad part about them was they were drinking Coors.

Amen.

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Wait a minute... who am I here?

[–] lroy77 14 years ago

How about that scene when Hooper (who's drunker than a stoned skunk) tries to chat up the bar maid in front of her husband!

[–] siriusradioman-1 17 years ago

The drunk driving scenes were hilarious. The only bad part about them was they were drinking Coors.

The scene that distresses me, now as an adult, is the one where human beings are engaged in physical attacks against one another at the Palomino club. My Sunday school teacher always taught me to never, ever touch another person in anger. Well, it's still a good movie, too bad I'm not a kid anymore.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] millsey72 (9527) 2 years ago

I don't drink any alcohol but my college professor is a big beer drinker. He told me that Coors is the best beer in the world, slightly ahead of Budweiser

[–] RobBase086-1 13 years ago

You have to put aside that they were drinking beer when they decided to pass up the cop in the cop car. Then also driving backwards. I just loved seeing that because back then they did not have strict laws like they do now. I totally understand why they have the strict laws because it cuts down on the drunk driving and killing innocent victims including the driver who is an idiot for getting into the car driving drunk. The thing is that the law that they have in place it sort of ruins the fin for me if I want to go out and have one drink because if I get behind the wheel and for some reason the police pull me over then I can get a DUI. I understand the laws but they ruin it for us who do not get carried away like some people do who do not know when to say, "I have had enough to drink and now I am done!" Then they do not drink anymore.

See this came right after Smokey And The Bandit which is one of my childhood favorite movies to watch!

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[–] Prismark10 11 years ago

Drink driving scenes were common in the 1970s and 1980s and also deemed to be funny and cool!

Just shows are cinematic tastes over time.

Its that man again!!

[–] Dash_Riprock 10 years ago

Re: the drinking/driving-
I remember an episode of the Flintstones where Fred opens the front door to leave and a car comes crashing through the house and out the back. He just said, "Darned drunk drivers!"

[–] judsonkr 9 years ago

Oh FFS. Its a movie.

I thought you said you grew up?

"Nobody wants to admit they ate nine cans of ravioli."

[–] SunCanyonRoad 8 years ago

But you see, that's the life of a Hollywood Stunman - Stuntman - Stuntman.

:)

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

[–] edwchase 7 years ago

Geez what a bunch of snowflakes. The movie was ruined for you only because a fictional character did something in an old movie that by your modern sensibilities is dangerous and irresponsible.

I am not defending drunk driving or bar fights (even though if I am honest I did pleanty of both in my youth) anymore than I would defend the alcohol smuggling and reckless driving in Smokey and the Bandit. But in both cases they are intended as fantasy and not moral a compass.

Please learn to relax a little. Or in the words of a great philosopher, "don't take life so serious son, it ain't no-how permanent".