Cars tarnished on silver screen

It doesn't take a lot of pondering to recall automotive brands that suffered by association with a movie

News of Audi's driverless RS 7 circulating the Hockenheim F1 track – untouched by human hands – brings to mind a film that introduced the concept of self-driving Audis to the world, 'I, Robot'.

That film, which wouldn't have contributed any royalties whatsoever to the estate of the late Dr Isaac Asimov, was not highly regarded by science-fiction fans. It has incurred a very generous rating of 7.1 out of 10 at imdb.com, but there was one thing right about it: Will Smith's Audi RSQ.

Featuring the brand's signature single-frame grille, the Audi was that true rarity in sci-fi cinematography, a plausible car of the future. It was a bit quirky, but looked sleek and futuristic, while presenting as a functional vehicle. The car was let down by the film in which it appeared.

Also impressive as an apparently practical going concern – but without the same brand cohesion of the 'I, Robot' Audi was the Lexus in the Tom Cruise film, 'Minority Report'. The Lexus, a concept designed by the company's California design studio, shared nothing with current models other than the Lexus logo appearing in a badge at the rear. It looked true to what it was – something mocked up in a design studio for a film. Despite that, the film itself was well received and nobody pouts and whinges about the car being out of place in the story. It remains to be seen that it has lifted the Lexus brand image however.

Yet another prestige brand, BMW, was happy to support the 2003 remake/reboot of 'The Italian Job' – a film that in its original iteration failed to fire in the USA, but was well received elsewhere. BMW's then new R50 MINI played a major part in the heist film (imdb rating 7.0), just as its BMC forebears had done in the 1969 film (imdb rating 7.4) with Michael Caine as the top-billed star. It's unlikely BMW has any misgivings about the later film, but Mini enthusiasts and fans of the original film have panned the remake.

BMC, on the other hand, is regularly, ritually, posthumously eviscerated for its management's own lack of imagination in failing to sponsor the 1969 version of 'The Italian Job'. This was amusingly highlighted by Sir Noel Coward in a sort of fourth-wall broken moment during the film itself. To say the British brand was reluctant to take part in the original 1969 version of 'The Italian Job' would be an understatement of gargantuan proportions. The film provided BMC, through the stunts performed by three Minis appearing in the film, with invaluable promotional material.

BMC was rewarded for its contribution of zero money to the film by being forced to reinvent itself as British Leyland, before rapidly achieving the status of market irrelevance around the world. Curiously, Fiat went on to bigger and better things, as everyone knows, having provided the film makers unstinting support. The film itself featured no Fiats on-screen other than second-unit shots taken from a Turin traffic jam.

Individual cars have become perhaps better known in film roles than in reality. Sometimes, as in the case of the (TV) Saint's Volvo or James Bond's DB5, they inhabit a sort of meta reality in which their image is heightened by the film to the point where they're either not associated with the 'safe' Volvos that came after, or they become the generic model for the whole brand, as in Aston Martin.

Volvo's pioneering crash safety efforts drove fans so far away from the brand that even years after the demise of the 240 model few would recall Val Kilmer's front-end throw (a 'Hopkirk') at the wheel of a C70 in the 1997 film reboot (which featured TV Saint Roger Moore in a voice-over cameo at the end). At the very nadir of Volvo's safety campaign in the 1970s, the Saint spawned a new TV series, in which the title character drove a Jaguar XJ-S – things were that bad.

As well as being the original Simon Templar on TV, Roger Moore also played James Bond. In his later films he drove a Lotus Esprit, which will – so to speak – go down in history as a submarine, rather than as a Lotus. Did Lotus make a miscall, with middle-aged playboy type Moore getting around in one of the low-slung sports cars? The Esprit was no grand tourer, and it's hard to imagine many blokes who modelled themselves on Moore's portrayal of the British spy sauntering into a Lotus dealership to pick up a car they could barely squeeze into.

Ford Australia, like BMC, totally failed to capitalise on its products appearing in a film. All the Falcons appearing in the 1979 film 'Mad Max' were XBs – a car well and truly consigned to history by the time the film arrived. A Falcon GT hardtop appearing was doubly an anachronism. Not only had Ford introduced the square-rigged XD model by the time the film was seen in the cinemas, the two-door hardtop was not-so-quietly terminated during the XC era.

But the parent company has enjoyed no end of promotional benefit from the appearance of its Mustang in films like 'Bullit' and 'Gone in Sixty Seconds' (both versions of the latter). And such is the image of the Mustang in popular culture, it's likely the film makers benefit from Mustang product placement more than Ford does.

Another Ford appearing on screen, a rather unlikely one, is the F-Series truck that appeared in 1984's spaced-out sci-fi film ' The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension'. Did the Ford truck enhance or detract from that film. Who can say? But F-Series continues to this day to be popular beyond belief, so at the very least one could argue the film didn't do sales any harm.

Plenty of cars have become synonymous with action films. There's the Audi S8 in 'Ronin', as one example, or the Pontiac Firebird in the 'Smokey and the Bandit' films, as another. On the subject of Burt Reynolds, consider the Citroen SM Reynolds' character stole in 'The Longest Yard'. Check it out on 'YouTube'... it's great.

Other films have featured cars in ways often to the detriment of the brand, or without any great gain. Think of Dennis Weaver's Plymouth Valiant in 'Duel', for instance, or for another Chrysler brand try the Dodge Challenger in 'Vanishing Point'. And there's always a plethora of Mopar-brand or Ford cop cars in action films. Of those, the one that stands out is the Dodge Monaco of 'The Blues Brothers' – and mostly for reasons the manufacturer wouldn't want recognised.

Still, even the worst case of product placement can't compare with the 'Family Truckster' of National Lampoon's Holiday franchise. While clearly an American gothic archetype, the car could not be said to be identifiable as any one particular brand of car. Presumably for legal reasons...

Cars tarnished on silver screen

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