1970 Pontiac GTO The Judge

1970 Pontiac GTO in Dazed and Confused, Movie, 1993 IMDB

Class: Cars, Coupé — Model origin: US

1970 Pontiac GTO The Judge

[*][*][*][*] Vehicle used a lot by a main character or for a long time 

Comments about this vehicle

AuthorMessage

DT US

2006-03-21 01:07

1970 GTO Judge

wickey SK

2006-03-21 02:05

I am just wondering - isn't it the same? /vehicle_26128-Pontiac-GTO-Judge-1970.html

wrenchhead US

2006-03-21 02:17

wickey wrote I am just wondering - isn't it the same? /vehicle_26128-Pontiac-GTO-Judge-1970.html


I think you right. I will change the referenced pic to point at the blue car.

-- Last edit: 2006-03-21 02:20:18

deadlineautotheft US

2006-06-18 03:38

4 stars

antp BE

2006-06-18 15:37

Why?

trucker US

2006-06-20 05:31

One of the main characters drives it.

antp BE

2006-06-20 10:03

In more than one scene?

crossroads US

2006-08-25 21:30

Yes, it is used in the movie quite a lot by a major charecter.

shabanga69 US

2007-03-06 20:06

Kevin Pickford "Prickford" drives the Judge. It is seen at least as often as any other car

Wampa-One US

2008-03-22 03:33

[Image: capture2cmo3.4293.jpg] [Image: capture2iix7.1856.jpg] [Image: capture2hag1.3264.jpg]

tron US

2009-01-11 06:36

zz top 8 track blairing on a l-ride

philsev DE

2014-02-16 17:21

I think they used two GTOs for the movie, a '69 and a '70. Just look at this picture: Link to "media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com"
That's clearly a '69, not a '70.

-- Last edit: 2014-09-06 20:27:26

philsev DE

2014-06-23 18:26

Update: They did use two GTOs for the movie. Link to "www.highperformancepontiac.com"

L182 US

2017-01-11 12:26

philsev wrote I think they used two GTOs for the movie, a '69 and a '70. Just look at this picture: Link to "media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com"
That's clearly a '69, not a '70.

It's a '70

philsev DE

2017-08-22 10:02

L182 wrote
It's a '70



Yeah, well the hero car, which was used for the driving scenes is a '70, but the second car which they used for interior shots etc. is a '69

chastings US

2017-09-19 22:44

deleted comment

Baube QC

2017-09-19 22:47

were they Dazed and Confused ? :D

cl82 DE

2017-09-19 23:07

I just have to post this before Dsl has the chance to do so: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-rmtJ6-EY1E

dsl SX

2017-09-19 23:12

There's only one possible reply.

cl82 DE

2017-09-19 23:22

What on earth was that?!? :wow: Yoko Ono seems like an opera singer compared to that. I'm sorry but https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjPhzgxe3L0

dsl SX

2017-09-19 23:35

Maybe this will bring a smile back. But they are a very strange band.

night cub US

2017-09-19 23:47

philsev wrote Update: They did use two GTOs for the movie. Link to "www.highperformancepontiac.com"

Here's the article via the Web Archives:
Link to "web-beta.archive.org"

cl82 DE

2017-09-20 00:05

@dsl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbOx8TyvUmI ?

dsl SX

2017-09-20 00:09

@cl82: Maybe this ??

cl82 DE

2017-09-20 00:16

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLSagRdgN9M

Baube QC

2017-09-20 02:08

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzdWPwVTWsI
was missing a few words on the previous title .. :D

kentercanyon US

2020-12-30 21:03

There were two picture cars for Pickford's 1970 "The Judge" GTO. Neither was a "real Judge" and both had back vinyl tops, not a part of the factory Judge package and the obvious giveaway. I was involved in the film production side of the making of DAZED and I should know, I was there as part of the camera crew and also involved in the shooting of most of the "second unit" shots as well. The hero GTO was an automatic transmission and the double / stunt car was a four speed. The hero had a 455 but as I recall was not a numbers vehicle, not that the filmmakers cared. One was carefully built and the other quickly assembled, but both were painted for the film.

The story gets complicated when it comes to the interiors. There are a few good looks at the car as the boys get in and out of it, but the insert of the car being shifted into DRIVE has been called into question by a previous poster as possibly being from a 1968. Honestly, I can't remember. It's possible the insert shot was done on a different night or in a different car, possibly the 1968 black-on-black GTO the director purchased at the close of production. But as I recall, almost three decades ago is that the scene as originally written called for Pickford to put the car in gear himself and drive away from the gun-toting geezer, but as a close collaborator at an earlier date I myself made the suggestion to the writer/director Rick Linklater that someone else shift the car into gear to add to the collaborative nature of the boys' shared adventure, and to heighten the tension of the scene. Shawn Andrews, the actor who played Kieth Pickford worked out the wonderful bit with his eyes signaling to Sasha Jenson, playing Don Dawson in rehearsals for the gag. It's his hands and his bracelet in the insert shot, so I tend to think we shot the insert in the hero car on the same night. And it's not a his-hers automatic shifter.

All that is the basics, but I can also add that the filmmakers knew 100% that the car was a nod to TWO LANE BLACKTOP's GTO, itself not badged as a Judge but the same iconic yellow/orange paint scheme. The DP Lee Daniel was featured in the director's first film SLACKER driving his own personal 1967 GTO ragtop and being given the character name GTO in the credits just like Warren Oates. That '67 was his second GTO from high school, IIRC he crashed the first one racing on a night not unlike that depicted in DAZED. The budget for DAZED was around six million and as much care as we could employ was given to assigning the proper cars to the lead characters. Cars are an intergal part of the film and if we'd had more time and more money there would have been more car stuff featured. One of the original suggestions for structuring the film was to be a high-concept plot that followed a single ZZ Top 8 track as it was passed from car to car, the repeated selections forming the soundtrack. As it is, the film's casting of cars and characters is one of the things we are proudest of. The poster we commissioned for the film - rejected by the studio, just as the best poster for TWO LANE was rejected - was a wall of yearbook photos with the primer grey '73 Duster superimposed on it like a garish fetish object d'art by artist Frank Kozik. Again, I had made a suggestion that this be the image, but I thought it should be in the sky in flames like the Hindenburg on the cover of Led Zeppelin's first album.

Linklater bought a '68 GTO from the same builder/provider of the Judge and it can be seen in BOYHOOD driven by Ethan Hawke and falsely promised to his son. Lee Daniel still has his 67 ragtop, although it is rough these days. The two Judges went back to the builder and I'm not sure what he did with them. Originally, the Judge was to be the car driven away at the end of the film, but that's another story.

For the most part, the film was shot in script order and the first shot of the first full day of production was the arrival of the GTO in the high school parking lot, shot at 32 or 48 fps from a crane, one of the only two or three crane shots and uses of slow motion employed in the film.

This movie was always going to star the GTO.

kentercanyon US

2020-12-31 21:14

Link to "phscollectorcarworld.blogspot.com"

Article concerning the whereabouts of the two Dazed Judge GTOs here, circa five years or so ago.

The mailbox-smashing sequence was done in one night's filming by leapfrogging the two cars, one rigged for tow and the other for various interior and exterior driving camera angles. One car would be setup as the other was used for shooting. Careful views of the sequence show that one vehicle has an aftermarket driver's side sport mirror - that one was the automatic, the other was the 4 speed. Both cars were used extensively during the shooting of the picture.

-- Last edit: 2021-01-01 02:17:12

kentercanyon US

2021-01-01 02:25

Link to "www.hotrod.com"

2014 HOT ROD magazine article by the builder/owner of both DAZED GTOs here. Solves the mystery of the dual gate shifter, and yes, it was from the '68.

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