Using AI to Identify Automobiles in Hollywood Cinema

Cars are central to the cinema in a variety of ways. While the railroad and trains were prominent during the silent era -- and in the westerns that continued to be produced well into the 1970s -- automobiles offer greater freedom of movement than trains do and thus offer greater cinematic possibilities. So extensive is this relationship that the car chase has almost become a mini-genre unto itself. Yet film scholars have not yet dedicated any work to exploring this subject in depth. But we can start by examining the relationship between cinema and transportation more broadly.