Road Movies
Submitted by Penny on Wed, 04/20/2005 - 01:06
Tags:
- The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994, Stephan Elliott)
- Badlands (1973, Terrence Malick)
- Beavis and Butt-Head Do America (1996, Mike Judge, Yvette Kaplan)
- Bonnie and Clyde (1967, Arthur Penn)
- The Color of Money (1986, Martin Scorsese)
- The Defiant Ones (1958, Stanley Kramer)
- Detour (1945, Edgar G. Ulmer)
- Duel (1971, Steven Spielberg)
- Dumb & Dumber (1994, Peter Farrelly)
- Crossroads (1986, Walter Hill)
- Easy Rider (1969, Dennis Hopper)
- Fandango (1985, Kevin Reynolds)
- Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1998, Terry Gilliam)
- Five Easy Pieces (1970, Bob Rafelson)
- Go (1999, Doug Liman)
- The Grapes of Wrath (1940, John Ford)
- It Happened One Night (1934, Frank Capra)
- Jeepers Creepers (2001, Victor Salva)
- Joy Ride (2001, John Dahl)
- Kalifornia (1993, Dominic Sena)
- La Strada (1954, Federico Fellini)
- Lost in America (1985, Albert Brooks)
- Midnight Run (1988, Martin Brest)
- Natural Born Killers (1994, Oliver Stone)
- O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000, Joel Coen)
- Paris, Texas (1983, Wim Wenders)
- Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure (1985, Tim Burton)
- Planes, Trains and Automobiles (1987, John Hughes)
- Rain Man (1988, Barry Levinson)
- Road Trip (2000, Todd Phillips)
- The Salton Sea (2002, D. J. Caruso)
- Sideways (2004, Alexander Payne)
- The Sure Thing (1985, Rob Reiner)
- Smoke Signals (1998, Chris Eyre)
- Something Wild (1986, Jonathan Demme)
- The Straight Story (1999, David Lynch)
- Stranger Than Paradise (Jim Jarmusch, 1983)
- Sullivan’s Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
- To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995, Beeban Kidron)
- Thelma and Louise (1991, Ridley Scott)
- Twentynine Palms (2004, Bruno Dumont)
- Two-Lane Blacktop (1971, Monte Hellman)
- Vanishing Point (1971, Richard Sarafian)
- Wild at Heart (1990, David Lynch)
- The Wiz (1978, Sidney Lumet)
- The Wizard of Oz (1939, Victor Fleming)
- Y tu mamá también (2001, Alfonso Cuarón)
Author Comments:
The more elaborate the definition, the more exclusive it becomes. Since I’m trying to build a long list, the basic requirements will be brief: a road movie has 1) an extensive journey 2) by road. It may involve a crime spree, a lark, running away from or towards home, or various kinds of quests. It may intersect with other genres along the way (film noir, the western, fantasy, coming of age), and pick up one or more metaphors: the journey as self-discovery, freedom or life. The road may become a test or an escape or an obstacle or a means or (more rarely) an end in itself.
Thanks to russa, flfrleta, stumpy, frankie, jpthompson, 1922, Rosie, and kenji for their input. More is certainly welcome.
Dancing around just outside the boundaries of your rather precise definitions... have you ever seen The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)? The extensive journey would be Jason Robard's, both personally and literally (across the desert). The road would be the trail past his watering hole. The vehicles - stagecoaches. If I remember correctly, I believe a crime spree and a lark are involved. And I'm pretty sure a couple of the things included in your last sentence may apply. Feel free to ignore this recommendation, as I'm not 100% sure I'm serious.
Sounds like a good rental, if nothing else (I like westerns that don't take themselves too seriously). Too bad it's not on DVD yet.
How about Sam Mendes' "Road to Perdition"? It follows a father and son on the run from an assassin and gangsters as they travel to the sons Aunt and Uncle in Perdition.
It has all the conventions of a road movie. A road, a car, and the journey of discovery and bonding between the father and son.
Cool Hand Luke
The Lord of the Rings trilogy
It Happened One Night
It Happened One Night is a great suggestion -- thank you! The LOTR trilogy and Cool Hand Luke don't have their characters on the road enough to feel like road movies to me, but I do think they're close cousins, since they share a lot with many of the movies on the list: LOTR, for instance, is a buddy picture with a quest (obviously), adversity, and an escape from the powers that be.
Detour (1945, Edgar G. Ulmer)
Absolutely. Thank you.
Well i do think your list could do with at least one early Wenders film, eg Paris Texas, Alice in the Cities, Kings of the Road, when he really was king of the road movie. Good topic, so i may get round to a list myself.
Yes, that was a big omission on my part. I can even see how Wings of Desire owes something to the road movie. I haven't seen as many Wenders movies as I'd like, so I'll leave it at Paris, Texas for now, a movie I've seen and a town I've driven through.
The Defiant Ones (1958, Stanley Kramer)
The Naked Spur (1953, Anthony Mann)
Thank you. The Defiant Ones fits nicely into the subcategory "on the lam." I'm less sure about the Mann (and unfortunately Netflix doesn't have it, which means I probably won't be catching it any time soon).
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (Scorsese, 1974)
The Sugarland Express (Spielberg, 1974)
Thank you. I have somehow missed seeing either of these, although Scorsese has directed some of my favorite movies (The Age of Innocence, Taxi Driver) -- can't say the same for Spielberg, but I will always love Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Harry and Tonto (1974, Paul Mazursky)
Genevieve (1953, Henry Cornelius)