This is not exactly news by now, but Roy Scheider recently passed away at age 75 due to cancer.
A brilliant character actor, he can justifiably be remembered for a bunch of great roles.
Doctor Benway in Naked Lunch, Joe Gideon in All That Jazz, Doc’ Levy in Marathon Man, Police Chief Martin Brody in Jaws, Det. Russo in The French Connection, the list is very long.
So what does this have to do with cars and such-like here at Automoblog?
The answer to that lies in the 1973 film, The Seven-Ups which starred Scheider as Buddy Seven-Up.
It’s a cop film that features, to me, hands down, the BEST chase scene ever on celluloid.
Yes, I mean that.
Better then Bullitt, better then Ronin … hell, better then whole chunks of Days of Thunder.
OK, better than all of Days of Thunder (I can’t begin to waste space on the manifold failings of that abomination of cinema).
But seriously, check out the clip, and tell me I’m wrong.
That stuffs just plain crazy.
And it’s long (clocking in at over 10:30). The editing is top notch, the driving spot on, and directing is really superb; lots of long shots, lots of naturalism … you can SEE just how close they were cutting it in far too many of these situations.
But really, the best part of all is Roy Scheider.
Pitch perfect, from start to finish.
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