THE LOVE BUG (1968) *** On drunken Zen Irish-Americans and suicidal Volkswagens. The nearly insane optimism of the sixties mixes with animism and Walt Disney and the love of underdogs and the need for speed. I don't know if any footage catches the spirit of the era like the footage here of a VW bug racing past Ferrari's, Lamborghini's, Jaguars and Corvettes. Zeitgeist, man. As if none of this stuff had anything to do with the miracle Mets, or Joe Namath's Jets, or Willis Reed's Knicks. A friendly and invisible dark star was shining man, that it wasn't detected is only an indictment of astronomy. Back when the phrase "only in California" was a complement. Obviously Herbie the car is the star, perhaps best performance ever by an allegedly inanimate object, but Buddy Hackett deserves honorable mention for making an absurd and ridiculous and inane role absurd and ridiculous and inane and attractive and insightful. Insightful? Perhaps I, like the cop who thought the car saved the driver, worked that Haight-Ashbury beat too long. But I know that the reason that Disney studios isn't so good anymore has more than a little bit to do with the fact that Robert Stevenson isn't out there directing.
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