Used Cars

The idea for Used Cars originated from producer John Milius, who pitched it to Gale and Zemeckis while they were writing the script for 1941 (1979), the parody film directed by Steven Spielberg. Milius said that he and Spielberg had hoped to one day write a story about a used car salesman based outside Las Vegas.

They had wanted to cast actor George Hamilton as Kurt.[3] Universal Pictures passed on the film, leading the duo to take it to Columbia Pictures. Frank Price, the studio president at the time, had sold used cars as a young man, and he quickly said yes.[3] According to Bob Gale, Jack Warden had initially passed on the role of Roy Fuchs, but agreed to play the role under the condition that he be able to play Luke Fuchs, since he was interested in playing the role of both brothers.[3]

The movie was filmed in 29 days at the working Darner Chrysler-Plymouth dealership in Mesa, Arizona, from October to November 1979. The dealership served as the setting for "Roy L. Fuchs Pre-owned Automobiles", while a vacant lot across the street served as the setting for "New Deal Used Cars". The vacant lot now has an apartment complex, while the Chrysler bankruptcy of 2009 caused the Darner dealership to lose its Chrysler affiliation.[2] Many local police officers worked in the film in several capacities, including the "cowboy" Shotgun role. Kurt Russell produced some commercials for Darner's, inviting customers to come in and shop while the movie was still being filmed.

In the scene where Rudy and Jeff are burying the Edsel on the lot and are confronted by Roy and Sam over Luke's whereabouts, Gerrit Graham repeated some of Kurt Russell's lines, which was not in the script. Jack Warden was so angered over the impromptu ad-libbing that he ended the scene with his own ad-libbed "What are you, a fuckin' parrot?" directed at Graham. Luke Fuch's old Edsel switches back and forth between 1958 and 1959 model years. When it is on top of the pole as a sign, it is a 1959 model. When it is dropped to the ground to bury Luke, and when it is dug up, started, and drives across the lot with the dead Luke behind the wheel, it is a 1958 model. When it hits the transformer, it is again a 1959 model Edsel, with a turquoise scallop painted on the side to match the 1958 model (only 1958 models have this feature). The judge's props for the music video for Sammy Hagar's song "I Can't Drive 55" were borrowed from Zemeckis (Zemeckis, in turn, used Hagar's song as Marty enters the alternate Hill Valley in Back to the Future Part II).[4] The excerpts of President Carter's televised speech used in the movie were taken from his Oval Office address on his Administration's anti-inflation program, broadcast on October 24, 1978.[5]

Shout! Factory has re-released Used Cars on Blu-ray for the first time on February 26, 2019, through their Shout! Select branch. This movie was previously released from Sony Pictures Home Entertainment on January 1, 2002, on Region 1 DVD with audio commentary by Robert Zemeckis, Kurt Russell, and Bob Gale. The movie was released on Region B Blu-ray by Eureka Entertainment Ltd. as part of their Eureka Classics line on August 12, 2019.[6]

Used Cars grossed $11.7 million in North America.[7]

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 77% approval rating and an average rating of 6.6/10 based on 30 reviews. The website's consensus reads, "Robert Zemeckis' pitch-black satire of American culture doesn't always hit the mark, but it's got enough manic comic energy to warrant a spin."[8] However, early reviews were mixed. The Washington Post's Gary Arnold dubbed it "a mean, spirited farce [...] Director/co-writer Robert Zemeckis has undeniable energy and flair, but it's being misspent on pretexts and situations that seem inexcusably gratuitous and snide."[9] A staff reviewer for Variety wrote that "What might have looked like a great idea on paper has been tackled by filmmakers who haven’t expanded it much beyond the one joke inherent in the premise." They too praised Zemeckis' direction as "undeniable vigor, if insufficient control and discipline."[10] Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film two out of four stars, saying the film is "filled with too many ideas, relationships, and situations with plot overkill."[11]

Among the positive reviews, Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader found it to be a "fierce, cathartically funny celebration of the low, the cheap, the venal—in short, America."[12] Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote, "...a movie that has more laughs in it than any film of the summer except Airplane! It wipes out...just about every other recent comedy aimed, I assume, at an otherwise television-hooked public."[13] Pauline Kael of The New Yorker described Cars as "a classic screwball fantasy — a neglected modern comedy that’s like a more restless and visually high-spirited version of the W. C. Fields pictures."[14]

At the time, Used Cars received the highest ratings in test screenings in Columbia Pictures history. In 2015, film critic and historian Leonard Maltin said, "I loved Used Cars, and I'll never understand really why that didn't become more."[15] Zemeckis and Gale blamed the film's failure on Columbia, who moved the film up a month from its scheduled release date based on the test-screening response. It debuted with little advance marketing and was released only one week after Airplane![3]