Movies and the Car Culture
How have movies influenced the car culture and the auto industry? With my research, I hope to find out how these two seemingly different genres are interrelated and what kind of effect they’ve had on each other over the years. To answer this we first must look at the beginning of the last century. Cars and movie grew up together (Volti, 2007, p. 294-296), so naturally, there would be some overlaps between the two cultures. There have been car movies since the early 1900s, almost as early as there was film itself. At the beginning, the “movies” were actually documentaries about the car. These documentaries came mostly came out of America. They attempted to illustrate the vast number of automobiles available in the US. The French and the English, on the other hand, created what they called “trick films” like How it Feels to be Run Over (1900), How to Stop a Motor Car (1902-03), and The Delights of Automobiling (1903). These movies “represent formal extremes that would ultimately prove less appealing to a mass audience than narrative approaches combining and subordinating realistic and expressionistic elements to the demands of telling a story” (Smith, A Runaway Match: The Automobile in the American Film, 1900-1920). The purpose of the trick films were to actually just show off the possibilities of film while the documentaries, unfortunately, highlighted that cars were really just toys for the rich. These two examples of cars in film were essentially two different ways to “get the greatest number of potential customers to buy the vehicle they offered” (Smith, A Runaway Match: The Automobile in the American Film, 1900-1920). After a while, Hollywood and Detroit became partners of sorts.
Then came the 1950s. But during this decade, it wasn’t the movies influencing the auto industry, it was the other way around. In fact, the 1950’s American car culture had an enduring influence on more than just movies. There were many songs written about cars. The Model T, aka “Tin Lizzie”, the very first car, appeared in many songs written about early Fords, such as Henry’s Made a Lady out of Lizzie. In their 1963 song Little Deuce Coupe, The Beach Boys sang about a 1932 Ford Coupe hot rod that also appeared in George Lucas’s film, American Graffiti, a “homage to the cruising culture of the early ‘60s” (Whitall, 2003, p. 19F). In Chuck Berry’s song Mayballene, he mentions a Coup de Ville, a Cadillac, and his V-8 Ford: "As I was motorvatin' over the hill, I saw Maybellene in a Coup de Ville, a Cadillac a-rollin' on the open road, Nothin' will outrun my V-8 Ford ..." (Berry, 1963). By this time, America had become the largest manufacturer of automobiles in the world. Henry Ford’s goal to make a car an affordable asset for any man with a job was finally achieved after 40 years (Weiss, 2003, p. 34). Due to the incredible influx of cars on the road in America, a multitude of service businesses arose. Drive throughs, drive-in restaurants, and drive-in theaters were the result of this new generation of businesses that focused on customers with their automobiles. Without the increase of Americans with cars, there would have also been no interstate system. That’s another thing thing cars did for America. The Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956 “contributed in shaping the United States into a world economic superpower and a highly industrialized nation” (Weingroff, 2000, n.p.). In a continuing domino effect, the increase in cars that led to the need for highways ultimately led to suburbanization. Now that cars were
becoming more available and roads and bridges were being constructed, people could commute to work which allowed them to live outside of major cities. As time went on and cars became “the norm” the direction of influence flipped. No longer were cars a major influence on American pop culture. Nobody was going to write songs about a car anymore because everyone had one now. Drive-in theaters and restaurants were slowly disappearing because people didn’t see the appeal of sitting in their car for so long. The appreciation was gone. And that wasn’t their fault, cars just lost their exclusivity and they weren’t a cool new trend anymore. There are still plenty of car lovers that exist today, but since the 1950’s, that group has dwindled from the general American population to self-proclaimed gearheads. In this new era, movies are influencing the car culture in more ways than you might think. Movies can make a car iconic and a collector's item, they can increase a car’s value significantly, or they could even pull an automaker out of the ground and save a company’s reputation. Back to the Future is definitely one of those movies. All three of them are. The DeLorean Motor Company had one and only one model: the DeLorean DMC-12. The car was only produced for 3 model years from 1981-1983. Unfortunately, the company went bankrupt in 1982, ceasing production of any more DeLoreans. It certainly looked like the end for the small American automaker, they would just disappear and be forgotten, that is until their car was chosen to be the time machine in the 1985 instant-classic trilogy, starring alongside Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, and Lea Thompson. Before Back to the Future, the DeLorean was just a funky, unpopular car that looked too weird for anyone to possibly want. It’s body panels were entirely made out of unpainted aluminum, meaning all of them were identical in
appearance from the factory. The one thing it had going for it was it’s gull-wing doors that gave it an exotic and “high-end” feel. But what the DeLorean lacked in pleasing aesthetics, it still lacked in performance. Take it from Delorean owner, Lauren J. Riley herself, “Its engine, a 2.8-liter V-6 developed jointly by Peugeot, Renault and Volvo (known as the PRV6) was too flaccid to rival any Ferrari...It went from zero to 60 miles an hour in 8.8 seconds, slower than a Mazda RX-7 at the time” (Chang, 2008, p. 5). The DeLorean seemed like a failure in every way. Then, everything changed. Late at night in the vacant Twin Pines Mall parking lot, the back door of his truck opens, and out from the smoke drives Dr. Emmett Brown in his DeLorean time machine. The DeLorean became instantly cool after that even cooler reveal. You don’t even need the two other movies, just that one scene. “Having a DeLorean is like 5 percent being a rock star,” Riley says, “Back to the Future definitely helped the car rise above its merits” (Chang, 2008, p. 6) Movies are great at turning cars into icons but they’re also really great at another thing: greatly increasing the value of a car, both sentimentally and monetarily. Perhaps the best example to illustrate a great increase in monetary value would be the Aston Martin DB5 from several James Bond films. While Bond has driven many cars throughout the series from the Sunbeam Alpine in Dr. No to the Ford Fairlane in Die Another Day, the DB5 is probably to most widely recognized “bond car”. The British Automaker’s infamous DB5 was featured in the 1964 movie, Goldfinger. After that it appeared in 5 more Bond films. It became so famous that people were willing to dish out millions of dollars to own a DB5 like the one in the movies. In 2010, “a 1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond film car...sold for £2,600,000. With the addition of auction fees,
the final figure is expected to be over $4,600,000” (Kinney, 2010, n.p.). Granted, this was the price paid for the actual car driven by Sean Connery in the movie and with the machine gun and ejector seat props. The DB5 was still a highly sought after car. Mckeel Hagerty, chief executive officer of Hagerty Insurance Agency, a company that insures classic cars such as the DB5, agrees that “the association with the franchise gave Aston Martin a halo effect” (Stock, 2015, n.p.) This “halo effect” is evident if you look at the sales figures of DB5’s before and after it was featured in the latest Bond film, Skyfall. Before the film, the price point hovered around $333,000. After the release of the film in 2012, the price more than doubled to $705,000. Even now, you’d be hard-pressed to find one for less than $780,000 (“1965 Aston Martin DB5 - Classic Car Price Guide”, n.d.).
Methods The primary research for this study was conducted entirely online. I used a survey, interviews, and observations as my methods of research. The survey was posted in the Chicagoland Petrolheads and Carspotters (CPCS) Facebook group, a group I am apart of, as well as the r/Cars subreddit on Reddit.com. An interview request was posted in the r/Delorean subreddit to which I had three individuals respond. For my observations, I watched all three Back to the Future movies and time how long the DeLorean time machine was on screen.
Survey
Since my survey was posted to CPCS and the r/Cars subreddit, my research participants were anonymous. I received 20 responses from both groups. I chose to post my survey in these two places because it was easiest way to reach car owners and car enthusiasts. CPCS has a little over 30,000 members and r/Cars has around 157,000. I had hoped to receive more responses given this type of population but unfortunately, with the way Reddit and Facebook work, the higher rated posts get the most attention and my survey did not get nearly enough before it got buried by other posts. The questions I asked in the survey can be found in the Appendix. The second and sixth questions were perhaps the most important (of course, the participant would’ve had to answer “Yes” to the first question). Those two questions deal with the influence of a movie on the purchase of their car and are the most informative when it comes to my research question. I looked mainly at these two questions when analyzing the results. While the other questions’ results were looked at and considered, they were not as crucial to exploring my research question. For example, question 7 asks if they are planning on buying a car from a movie. I didn’t consider this question because planning on buying a car from a movie doesn’t necessarily mean the movie was the reason for them wanting it.
As you can see from the chart to the left, for question two, out of 20 respondents, 6 purchased their car because of the movie it was in while 5 people did not. The 9 other respondents answered “No” to the first question and do not own a car that was in a movie. For question six, of the 6 people that said they bought their car because of the movie, only 2 said they wouldn’t have purchased the car had if it didn’t appear in the movie. In analyzing the survey results, I found that the majority of people who own a car that was in a movie bought it because of the movie. This data is significant to my research question because that means movies make people want to buy a certain type of car, and that is a positive influence on the car culture and auto industry. However, it’s not as strong of an influence as I thought as the amount of people who would’ve bought their car anyway regardless of whether it was in a movie or not was double the amount of people who wouldn’t have. These numbers could be attributed to the small sample size and lack of response I got from the survey.
Interview My interview questions were similar to those of the survey, but allowed for more expansion by the interviewee. These questions as well as the transcripts can be found in the Appendix. The interview request posted in the r/Delorean subreddit. I explicitly
mentioned in my initial post that I was looking to interview DeLorean owners to save time and avoid responses that would be irrelevant to my research. I received three responses from DeLorean owners. I then sent them the questions through private message and received their responses. Another way my interview differed from my survey is that the interview focused on one car (DeLorean) and one movie series (Back to the Future) while the point of the survey was to get responses about any car in any movie in general. All three of my interviewees share a few things in common. First, they are all DeLorean owners. This was expected, though, because they were all from the r/Delorean subreddit. Next, they all were alive when the first Back to the Future came out in 1985. And finally, all three of them bought their DeLoreans because of the movie. Either they knew they wanted it when they saw it as a kid or they never would’ve heard about it had it not been for the movies. All three also mentioned how much attention their car gets when they drive it on the streets or take it to car shows. JJ82DMC says it even “easily holds its own when parked next to other exotics”. The most important thing I took away from these interviews are the responses to last question: what Back to the Future did for the popularity of the DeLorean. Part of my research question in how movies influence the car culture and auto industry is how a movie can make a car “iconic”. This is what I was exploring in the last question. JJ82DMC and LightningTH made me realize that, since they are older films, I need to look at the effect of them on two different generations. The franchise made the car much more popular and iconic to the younger audience than the older ones. As LightningTH explains, “Older people (50+) seem to remember the newspaper articles about John
Delorean and drugs while people my age remember the movies. I don't think my generation would have been aware of the car as much without the movies”. The demise of the DeLorean Motor Company is what gained the car a lot of attention but for those who weren’t alive then, they know it from the three films.
Observations For my observations, I re-watched all three Back to the Future films and timed how long the DeLorean was on screen. My theory was that the DeLorean would get more screen time in each movie than the previous. I recorded how long the car was on screen (whether it was exterior shots, interior shots, or if the car was in frame at all), with a stopwatch and found the total screen time as a percentage of each movie’s run time. In my observations, I discovered that each Back to the Future had more DeLorean screen time than the last. In Back to the Future (1985), the DeLorean had almost 15 minutes of total screen time. That’s 12.6% of the entire movie. Back to the Future Part II (1989) gave the DeLorean an additional 3 minutes of screen time which equated to 15.8% of movie, which in total was a few minutes shorter than the last. In the final film, Back to the Future Part III, the amount of time the DeLorean was on screen was increased again, taking up almost 30 minutes and 18.3% of the movie. These results suggest that the producers of the trilogy had some idea about how popular the DeLorean was and how much audiences loved seeing it so they gave it more and more time in the spotlight. The results also suggest that the notion of cars influencing the movies, like I mentioned earlier and was the case in the 1950’s, is still
very much present in American pop culture. The movies’ releases influenced the car culture which influenced the movies by getting the car more screen time. And the direction of influence isn’t just one way, either. In this case, it’s cyclical.
Limitations In conducting my research, I was limited by the number of people I could use for my survey and interview because while each group I posted in had a large population, the amount of responses, particularly to the survey, were completely out of my control. For the interviews, I was limited by the number of interviewees because there simply aren’t that many people who own a DeLorean. I reached out to several other owners clubs around the country but received no replies. As a result, the sample size for my survey was underwhelming and possibly an inaccurate source of data. Another limitation was finding research that has already been done about my topic because my research question is particularly subjective. How much a movie influences something or someone is entirely up to them. The only exception would be the case with the Aston Martin DB5 in Skyfall where the price point before and after the movie’s release were drastically different.
Conclusion American pop culture and automobiles have gone hand in hand since the start of the 20th century. Those relations became especially apparent in the 1950’s when America fell in love with the car. Songs were written about them, new establishments like drive-thrus were created, and the car allowed for suburbanization and perpetuated
the expansion of society. While the car culture seemed to have influenced movies and pop culture rather than the other way around, some will argue that a few movies in particular have made some cars what they are today. Being a car enthusiast myself, I would agree that the amount of car lovers has dramatically fallen since the 50’s and unfortunately, I don’t know if it’s possible to return the status of the automobile to what it was 60 years ago. But for those who still see cars as more than just as a way to get from Point A to Point B, seeing a car featured in a movie will create associations that will remain for a long time. The next step to follow up this research would be to carefully analyze price trends of cars being featured in movies. Since all of the movies I looked at were made before I was born, it would help to know what car would be in an upcoming movie, and look at the price before and after the movie’s release.
References 1965 Aston Martin DB5. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2015, from https://www.hagerty.com/price-guide/1965-Aston_Martin-DB5
Chang, R. S. (2008, April 6). Ask me about my flux capacitor. New York Times. p. 1. Retrieved from http://0search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/897787151/pageviewPDF/C7F0173 10B5B40EAPQ/1?accountid=14608
Detroit News, T. (2003, Jun 9). Cars woven into American pop culture. Detroit News, The (MI), p. 19F.. Retrieved from http://infoweb.newsbank.com/resources/doc/nb/news/0FB9264E76D44BA9?p=AWNB
Kinney, D. (2010, Oct 31). James bond's aston sells for $4.6 million. New York Times (1923-Current File) Retrieved from http://0search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/1461220620?accountid=14608
Smith, J. (n.d.). A runaway match: The automobile in the American film, 1900-1920. Michigan Quarterly Review, 574-574. Retrieved from http://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/mqrarchive/act2080.0019.004/156:24?g=mqrg;rgn=full text;view=image;xc=1
Stock, K. (2015). 007’s next mission: Saving aston martin. Bloomberg Businessweek, (4410), 21-22. Retrieved from http://businessweekme.com/Bloomberg/newsmid/190/newsid/415
Volti, R. (2007). For the love of cars. The Journal of Transport History, 28(2), 294-296. Retrieved from http://0-search.proquest.com.bianca.penlib.du.edu/docview/196626978? accountid=14608
Weingroff, Richard F. (September–October 2000). "The genie in the bottle: The interstate system and urban problems, 1939–1957". Public Roads (Washington, DC: Federal Highway Administration) 64 (2). ISSN 0033-3735.
Weiss, H. Eugene (2003). Chrysler, ford, durant, and sloan: Founding giants of the American automotive industry. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-1611-0.
Appendix Survey: By completing the following questions, you are also granting consent for this information to be used as part of a research project that I am completing for a course at the University of Denver. Your participation is completely voluntary. The information you provide may be used in a project and may be published online and/or in print, but your identity will remain anonymous. While profile information you volunteer in this survey may be included in my writing project (i.e. your age, sex, class standing, etc.), your name and identity will NOT be used or reported. If at any time you do not want to answer a question, or do not want to complete the questionnaire, you do not have to.
1. Do you own a car that was featured in a movie? If yes, please indicate what car
you have and which movie(s) it was featured in. If no, please skip to question 7. 2. Was the movie the reason for your purchase? 3. How long have you had the car? 4. How long after the movie came out did you buy the car?
5. Do you own any other movie cars? 6. Would you still have purchase the car had it not been in a moive? 7. Are you planning on buying a car that has been in a movie? If so, what car in
which movie? 8. What is your age?
Link to survey: http://goo.gl/forms/6NJTVWpAzs
Interview Questions: 1. Was BTTF the sole influence on your purchase? 2. How old were you when you saw the movie? when you bought the car? 3. How long after the movie came out did you buy the car? 4. How long have you had it? 5. When did you realize you wanted that exact car? 6. How do people react to seeing it on the streets? 7. Do you ever bring it to car shows or car meets? Does it attract a lot of attention? 8. Any regrets about buying the car? 9. What do you think BTTF did for the popularity of the DeLorean? Does it owe
everything to being the star of the movies or would the car still have been able to stand on its own without them?
Transcripts:
(Reddit user JJ82DMC) Was BTTF the sole influence on your purchase? There are a few things that attract me to the car, mainly its styling. That being said, if it wasn't for BTTF, seeing as how production began in '81 (my birth year), I probably would have never known it existed until I perhaps saw it in a museum one day. How old were you when you saw the movie? when you bought the car? I saw the first one in late 1986. It was an 'ABC Sunday Night Movie.' I was 5 years old. I bought the car in 2014, when I was 33. How long after the movie came out did you buy the car? 29 years How long have you had it? I completed the purchase April 7, 2014, so just over a year now. When did you realize you wanted that exact car? When I saw the movie the first time. I was blown away that a car could look that cool. I asked my father "is that a REAL car?" and he essentially said "it is, but there's a lot of extra stuff for the movie on it." I then made-up my mind that I was going to own one someday. How do people react to seeing it on the streets? People tend to go crazy over it. From random thumbs-up from other drivers, to watching people on the road almost wreck their car while messing with their phones to get a picture of it, all the way down to "oh, you own one of those pieces of crap?" It covers the whole gauntlet, but it's overall extremely positive, almost fanatical.
Do you ever bring it to car shows or car meets? Does it attract a lot of attention? Only to one so far, a Fort Worth Cars and Coffee. You'd be surprised how much attention the car can get. And by far and large it's mostly male attention. Ladies tend to skim over it, but that's fine by me. After all I'm sure my wife would be upset if I bought it for the purpose of it being a 'chick magnet.' But overall, it easily holds its own when parked next to other exotics. Any regrets about buying the car? Only that I didn't save more money before-hand to buy one in better condition. While I like working on vehicles, there are some aspects of the car from a maintenance standpoint that are absolutely infuriating. But that's a catch-22 as well. When you work on one, you come to realize why these vehicles sell for high dollar when fully restored. What do you think BTTF did for the popularity of the DeLorean? Does it owe everything to being the star of the movies or would the car still have been able to stand on its own without them? You have to consider the fact that production of the vehicle stopped in 1983, a full two years before the first movie was released. Things were poorly managed (production, finances, pricing points, etc), which led to the company's demise. If the movie had come out during the car's production, there's a chance BTTF could have helped it (it wouldn't have saved it from bankruptcy, but possibly extended production for another year or so). There's certainly a good number of people that would be fans of the car if BTTF was never made, but when you factor in the movie, the numbers are highly disproportionate. Its popularity now though for younger generations is certainly from the movies. When I bought the car the kids in my neighborhood (and other kids when I take it places)
frequently asked me "is that a real car?" What's it called?" and no matter how many questions I answer, they can have a horribly confused look on their face. But every single one I've asked them back "have you seen BTTF?" and something suddenly clicks, and they go crazy. Then I typically have to give the answer "no, it's not THE one from the movie."
(Reddit user LightningTH) Was BTTF the sole influence on your purchase? I think so. I was looking for a sports car and the Pontiac Firebird was very common. I wanted something that wasn't common and I thought about the Delorean "It's 20 years old, it can't be very pricy" was my thought 14 years ago. I wouldn't have known of it without the movie. How old were you when you saw the movie? 7 or 8 How long after the movie came out did you buy the car? 18 years How long have you had it? I've had it for 12 years. When did you realize you wanted that exact car? About 2 years before I bought it when I was 19. I did research on it for about 2 years to know what I was getting into due to it being an older car and knowing it would be up to me to fix it as most mechanics are not familiar with the mechanical fuel injection.
How do people react to seeing it on the streets? Just last week I had a guy stop me on the way to work to get a picture of the car and two different cars take pictures on the way home all on the same day. People love it. The best reaction is opening up the door at a stop light when a young kid is next to me "Mommy! Mommy! Look at that new car!" Do you ever bring it to car shows or car meets? Does it attract a lot of attention? I've never brought mine but I have been to a few car shows. A friend in the city next to mine, when I first got my car, told me "One delorean will turn heads, two deloreans will slow traffic, any more and traffic stops" which seems to hold true. I went to a car show in Memphis, TN years ago, the food areas were across the street from the hotel with a 4 lane road along with a turn lane in the middle (so 5 lanes total). The normal speed on the road had to be at minimum 45mph but in the evenings when everyone was back at the hotel, it was easy to walk across without being hit due to so many people slowing down to look. Any regrets about buying the car? No, I knew what I was getting into as I purposely bought a project car that needed to be restored to get back onto the road. If you want more details take a look at http://dmctalk.org/showthread.php?8825-5096-restoration And finally, what do you think BTTF did for the popularity of the DeLorean? Does it owe everything to being the star of the movies or would the car still have been able to stand on its own without them?
It depends on the age of the person. Older people (50+) seem to remember the newspaper articles about John Delorean and drugs while people my age remember the movies. I don't think my generation would have been aware of the car as much without the movies so then it likely would have passed by like the Bricklin SV-1. It had hydraulic gullwing doors, just had to hope your battery never died.
(Reddit user yellowsubtab) Was BTTF the sole influence on your purchase? Pretty much How old were you when you saw the movie? I really don't remember. I saw it on HBO when I was really young and loved it. Then forgot what the name of the movie was for years and years. I remember asking my friend many years later if they remember what movie had the time traveling car and they were like "omg that's back to the future." How long after the movie came out did you buy the car? Many many years. I wasn't even born when the movie came out. I didn't get one until I was able to drive. My second car was the delorean. How long have you had it? This is my 3rd Delorean the first one I owned was a hunk of junk. Sold it soon after. A few years later I bought another and that's when I decided to be one of the first people to build the movie car replica. Many others followed in me and my friends foot steps after that. Took 3 years to build the first one. Sold it right after that because it was so
over it by the time it was finished I just wanted to see it gone. Few years later I bought my 3rd delorean. Kept it for about 6 years and I still have it. Just this past year I decided to do the back to the future thing again. Took 9 months and I finished it just last march. Kept it this time and decided to rent it for events and parties. So far it's been great and makes butt loads of money When did you realize you wanted that exact car? When I started talking to other delorean owners back when I lived in cali. We talked a ton about doing a replica and many of us banded together and started many years of research in to the car so we could have out own. This was my second delorean. How do people react to seeing it on the streets? People love it. You hear people scream, people break out their phones and cameras and no one is shy to give you a thumbs up, honk or come up and talk to you when you step out of it. One year during SXSW I had a drunk girl see me at a red light, freak out, run up to the car, open the door and get in. It was the weirdest thing that ever happened in the car and that was before it was turned into a replica. Do you ever bring it to car shows or car meets? Does it attract a lot of attention? All the time. I bring it to car meet ups all over austin. We have been part of the SXSW gaming expo, been rented by churches, anime and comic cons, and ball parks. Everyone loves the car and just want it around even if it is just randomly at an event that's not even back to the future related. Any regrets about buying the car?
Nope. My first one yes because it had a lot of issues. My current one is such a stunning car and it's only had a few small issues in its life. And finally, what do you think BTTF did for the popularity of the DeLorean? Does it owe everything to being the star of the movies or would the car still have been able to stand on its own without them? I believe that deloreans would have become an iconic classic car even with out the movie. It likely would not be a popular with the general public as it is now but classic car collectors would have love them and I think that would be because of John Z Deloreans not so great past. Don't get me wrong I believe he got framed but it still ruined him. That alone I believe would be enough for classic car collectors to want them. That and it also it was very much ahead of its time. The car itself can stand alone as being a very interesting car. With very interesting history.
Observations: DeLorean screen time Back to the Future Part 1 (1985): 14:50/116 mins, 12.8% Back to the Future Part 2 (1989): 17:06/108 mins, 15.8% Back to the Future Part 3 (1990): 21:39/118 mins, 18.3%