Week 6: '73 Ford Falcon XB

I knew the Ford Falcon, yet this Hot Wheels model didn't look familiar. Hot looking car, though.

A little research revealed the Ford Falcon XB did not release in the U.S. but in Australia, and, more importantly, the '73 Ford Falcon XB, with a bit of modification, became the mean-looking "Interceptor" from the original 1979 post-apocalyptic adventure movie Mad Max .

If you don't know this movie (could that be possible??),  Mad Max featured a baby-faced Mel Gibson and lots of violence and punk rockeresque-looking bad guys. As a teen, there was nothing to dislike about this cult-classic-in-the-making of a movie. Well, as an adult, is there still anything to dislike? Full-out R-rated, though, and not one my kids will see for a long time, even on television.




Check out http://www.madmaxmovies.com/cars/ for Mad Max trivia and cool car pics

 

The first true R-rated movie I saw in raw form (most movies I saw as a kid were cooked down versions on TV) was another Mel movie, the Mel Brooks comedy Blazing Saddles. I was 11, and my grandmother, who didn't look at ratings, took me to a matinee. That was the most I ever remember her laughing, crying as she leaned over and tried to cover my ears during the raunchy parts (she did a lot of attempted covering), which made her laugh even harder. The best.

Seeing that one at the theater earned me bragging rights at school, even if it took me a few years to understand all the jokes.

The first R-rated movie I chose on my own was 1975's French Connection II. An unlikely choice (I was 13), the movie was one of the only things playing at a small theater in Sarasota, Fla. in walking distance to the condo of my grandmother -- yup, the same one. My family was there on a vacation. I went to the movie myself, and I'm fairly certain nobody ever knew I saw that particular film.

I am extremely conservative in what I let my kids watch, even covering the baby's eyes if something nasty shows up. Comparing R movies of my youth with today's movies is tricky, however, as PGs and PG-13s, as well as movies that play on TV, now have quite a bit of .... Rness, so I don't base decisions on ratings, but content.

A lack of nudity, visual violence or swearing doesn't mean safe -- implications of horrible behavior is worse in my mind than a flash of someone's naughty bits, and I even am cautious of kid's programming filled with snarky sarcasm.

Because of this, however, my kids might not be as desensitized to movies as some. My fifth grader, Racer A, begged me to watch the original Jaws. For the life of me I don't know why he became fixated on that movie, or even how he heard of it, but he asked me for at least a month. Finally, I gave in, and we easily found a copy at the library.

Scared him senseless. Regardless of how many times over the past month I had told him it would be scary, after it was over, he was angry with me for allowing him to watch it. Umm...what??

In fairness to him, it didn't take long for him to realize, and laugh, at the absurdity of that blame. But still...

It is a scary one.

Now, with Halloween approaching, I have to walk that line between allowing him to watch a good scary movie (at his insistence, again) and keeping him away, as long as I can, anyway, from the really twisted stuff. I'll probably go monsters. A monster movie, while scary, is about a non-human menace, as opposed to a monster-like person behaving horribly.

Kind of like Mel Gibson today.

Picture of Ford Falcon XB by Andy Bindernagel.

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