It's just a quaint little town, nestled in the forests of Australia. There's no Eiffel Tower in this Paris, but there are the cars...lying in wait, lurking around the corner, waiting for the next casual driver heading towards town. You see, the only way they'll make it to Paris is in the flaming wreckage of their own car after THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS feed. And it's director Peter Weir's (Dead Poet's Society, Witness) first film work, to boot.

The film opens with a sequence of a young couple enjoying a drive in the Australian countryside, until a lonely road becomes their deathtrap, when they're forced off the roadway by another car. Brothers George and Arthur travel town-to-town, seeking work in their caravan. After a fruitless day of searching, George sees road signs for the town of Paris - and signs offering work in that community. But once they travel down that road, a second car's headlights blind George and he crashes! Arthur wakes up in the town's hospital, where he learns of his brother's death. He also learns the residents of Paris are quite peculiar - the Doctor gets a little too excited about treating accident victims (he calls them "veggies"), and the Mayor tries to convince him he should actually stay in the town. Everyone in this town is part of a horrific conspiracy - the youth use their cars to cause wrecks, and the older folk strip the wrecks of anything valuable before the metal carcasses are put to the torch. Talking with the Mayor, Arthur admits he doesn't drive because he accidentally killed a pedestrian with his car a year earlier. When Arthur tries to walk away from Paris, two cars block the road and force him to return. He tries to use a car himself to leave, but the guilt and fear render Arthur incapable of even starting the vehicle. The Mayor again offers Arthur a job if he stays, but after one night as the Doctor's orderly, Arthur is completely traumatized.

The only visitor to Paris, it seems, is the district Priest. At his Sunday service, the Priest preaches about looking towards the future, while the cars rumble outside the church. The Mayor tells Arthur that if he stays, he can be the Mayor's "son". At the next council meeting, the mayor creates a new job for his protégé - parking supervisor. It's becoming evident that the older generation and the town's youth are at odds with each other over the spoils of their mutual livelihood. When Arthur, as part of his new duties, tries to convince a youth to 'move his car', there is a showdown. Will the town elders be able to continue their 'tradition' of living off of other peoples' car wrecks? Have the youth had enough and strike out on their own in their 'killer cars'? And just what is going to happen to poor Arthur, stuck in the middle?

No, the cars don't actually eat people (ala Killdozer or Maximum Overdrive) in THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS. Weir uses the title as an allegory, that because of the town's perverse use of the motor vehicle in their chosen life style, the cars have 'eaten' their souls. The older generation have become amoral to the consequences of their actions, finding nothing wrong with causing death and pain as long as there's something in it for them - a tire, a hubcap. And the youth, brought up in this moral vacuum, are becoming almost feral. Weir uses the entire film as an analogy of the crisis in the generation gap (the film was shot during the heyday of the Vietnam War). On one side are the elders who are inflexible in their traditions- no matter how horrible they might be- and the other side is a youth culture totally dehumanized to violence because of the amorality of their parents. Thirty years later, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS can still be seen as a viable parable about the schism between today's generations, with the gap ever-widening...

Technically, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS shows its production limitations; As Weir's first film, he does his best with what he had, but there was obviously no budget for effects. The cars themselves are rather cheesy, more than frightening (with the exception of the spiked Volkswagen - a direct link to 'Mad Max'?). The acting overall is good for an unknown cast (although some have gone on to bigger success in the land down under). The film has been digitally remastered for this DVD release, and the quality has held up well (some nighttime lighting issues aside) and the audio is clear and distinct.

Included on this DVD of THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS is a trailer and an interview with director Weir about his experiences on his first film. THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS was a commercial bomb, but Weir felt that its failure was a virtue, because what he learned making this film helped him in subsequent projects. Also included on the disc is a 1979, 77-minute film Weir shot for Aussie TV called THE PLUMBER. This film, well worth watching, challenges the audience's perspectives of what is real and what is imagined when an irritating, somewhat sinister plumber named Max weasels his way into the lives (and bathroom) of a young professional couple. It has all the Weir touches of nothing being exactly as it seems. There is also a trailer for THE PLUMBER and a Weir interview about that film as well.

THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS is a film many have passed off as some freaky monster movie - "cars eating people...yeah, right." The real monsters in this film are the residents of Paris, Australia. An analogy still relevant today, THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS is an important film with themes Weir built upon (see Picnic at Hanging Rock and The Last Wave), and a major stepping-stone for the entire Australian film industry. So take THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS out for a drive, but keep your seat belt buckled and arms inside at all times.