
A road movie is a
genre of film in which the main characters leave home on a
road trip
A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle.
History
First road trips by automobile
The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...
, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the
hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienation and examining the tensions and issues of the cultural identity of a nation or historical period; this is all often enmeshed in a mood of actual or potential menace, lawlessness, and violence, a "distinctly
existential
Existentialism is a family of philosophical views and inquiry that explore the human individual's struggle to lead an authentic life despite the apparent absurdity or incomprehensibility of existence. In examining meaning, purpose, and value ...
air"
[Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1 and 6] and is populated by restless, "frustrated, often desperate characters".
[Laderman, David. ''Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie''. University of Texas Press, 2010. Ch. 1] The setting includes not just the close confines of the car as it moves on highways and roads, but also booths in diners and rooms in roadside motels, all of which helps to create intimacy and tension between the characters.
[Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 8] Road movies tend to focus on the theme of masculinity (with the man often going through some type of crisis), some type of rebellion,
car culture
Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In deve ...
, and self-discovery.
[Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 2] The core theme of road movies is "rebellion against conservative social norms".
There are two main narratives: the quest and the outlaw chase.
In the quest-style film, the story meanders as the characters make discoveries (e.g., ''
Two-Lane Blacktop
''Two-Lane Blacktop'' is a 1971 American road film directed and edited by Monte Hellman, from a screenplay by Rudy Wurlitzer and Will Corry. It stars musicians James Taylor and Dennis Wilson, Warren Oates, and Laurie Bird in the leading ro ...
'' from 1971).
In outlaw road movies, in which the characters are fleeing from law enforcement, there is usually more sex and violence (e.g., ''
Natural Born Killers
''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims ...
'' from 1994).
Road films tend to focus more on characters' internal conflicts and transformations, based on their feelings as they experience new realities on their trip, rather than on the dramatic movement-based sequences that predominate in
action film
The action film is a film genre that predominantly features chase sequences, fights, shootouts, explosions, and stunt work. The specifics of what constitutes an action film has been in scholarly debate since the 1980s. While some scholars such as D ...
s.
Road movies do not typically use the standard three-act structure used in mainstream films; instead, an "open-ended, rambling plot structure" is used.
The road movie keeps its characters "on the move", and as such the "car, the
tracking shot
In cinematography, a tracking shot is any shot where the camera follows backward, forward or moves alongside the subject being recorded. Mostly the camera’s position is parallel to the character, creating a sideway motion, tracking the chara ...
,
ndwide and wild open space" are important iconography elements, similar to a
Western movie
The Western is a film genre defined by the American Film Institute as films which are "set in the American West that mbodythe spirit, the struggle, and the demise of the new frontier." Generally set in the American frontier between the Californi ...
.
[Hayward, Susan. "Road movie" in ''Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts'' (Third Edition). Routledge, 2006. p. 335-336] As well, the road movie is similar to a Western in that road films are also about a "frontiersmanship" and about the codes of discovery (often self-discovery).
Road movies often use the
music from the car stereo, which the characters are listening to, as the soundtrack and in 1960s and 1970s road movies, rock music is often used (e.g., ''
Easy Rider
''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the S ...
'' from 1969 used a rock soundtrack of songs from
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (born Johnny Allen Hendrix; November 27, 1942September 18, 1970) was an American singer-songwriter and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential guitarists of all time. Inducted ...
,
The Byrds
The Byrds () were an American Rock music, rock band formed in Los Angeles, California, in 1964. The band underwent multiple lineup changes throughout its existence, with frontman Roger McGuinn (known as Jim McGuinn until mid-1967) being the so ...
and
Steppenwolf).
While early road movies from the 1930s focused on couples,
in post-World War II films, usually the travellers are male buddies,
although in some cases, women are depicted on the road, either as temporary companions, or more rarely, as the protagonist couple (e.g., ''
Thelma & Louise
''Thelma & Louise'' is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforese ...
'' from 1991).
The genre can also be parodied, or have protagonists that depart from the typical heterosexual couple or buddy paradigm, as with ''
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens (played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) and a transgender woman (Terence S ...
'' (1994), which depicts a group of
drag queen
A drag queen is a person, usually male, who uses Drag (entertainment), drag clothing and makeup to imitate and often exaggerate Femininity, female gender signifiers and gender roles for entertainment purposes. Historically, drag queens have ...
s who tour the Australian desert.
Other examples of the increasing diversity of the drivers shown in 1990s and subsequent decades' road films are ''
The Living End
The Living End is an Australian punk rock band from Melbourne, formed in 1994. Since 2002, the line-up consists of Chris Cheney (vocals, guitar), Scott Owen (double bass, vocals), and Andy Strachan (drums). The band rose to fame in 1997 after ...
'' (1992), about two gay, HIV-positive men on a road trip; ''
To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar'' (1995), which is about drag queens, and ''
Smoke Signals'' (1998), which is about two Indigenous men.
While rare, there are some road movies about large groups on the road (''
Get on the Bus
''Get on the Bus'' is a 1996 American drama film about a group of African-American men who are taking a cross-country bus trip in order to participate in the Million Man March. The film was directed by Spike Lee and premiered on the first annive ...
'' from 1996) and lone drivers (''
Vanishing Point
A vanishing point is a point (geometry), point on the projection plane, image plane of a graphical perspective, perspective rendering where the two-dimensional perspective projections of parallel (geometry), parallel lines in three-dimensional ...
'' from 1971).
Genre and production elements
The road movie has been called an elusive and ambiguous film genre.
Timothy Corrigan states that road movies are a "knowingly impure" genre as they have "overdetermined and built-in genre-blending tendencies".
[Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 3] Devin Orgeron states that road movies, despite their literal focus on car trips, are "about the
istory ofthe cinema, about the culture of the image", with road movies created with a mixture of Classical Hollywood film genres.
The road movie genre developed from a "constellation of “solid” modernity, combining locomotion and media-motion" to get "away from the sedentarising forces of modernity and produc
contingency".
Road movies are blended with other genres to create a number of subgenres, including: road horror (e.g., ''
Near Dark
''Near Dark'' is a 1987 American neo-Western horror film co-written and directed by Kathryn Bigelow (in her solo directorial debut), and starring Adrian Pasdar, Jenny Wright, Bill Paxton, Lance Henriksen and Jenette Goldstein. The plot follows ...
'' from 1987); road comedies (e.g., ''
Flirting with Disaster'' from 1996); road racing films (e.g., ''
Death Race 2000
''Death Race 2000'' is a 1975 American dystopian science-fiction action film directed by Paul Bartel and produced by Roger Corman for New World Pictures. Set in a dystopian American society in the year 2000, the film centers on the murderous Tr ...
'' from 1975) and rock concert tour films (e.g., ''
Almost Famous
''Almost Famous'' is a 2000 American comedy drama film written and directed by Cameron Crowe, starring Billy Crudup, Frances McDormand, Kate Hudson, Patrick Fugit, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. It tells the story of a teenage journalist, played b ...
'' from 2000).
Film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
road movies include ''
Detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
'' (1945), ''
Desperate'', ''
The Devil Thumbs a Ride'' (1947) and ''
The Hitch-Hiker'' (1953), all of which "establish fear and suspense around hitchhiking", and the outlaw-themed film noirs ''
They Live by Night
''They Live by Night'' is a 1948 American film noir directed by Nicholas Ray in his directorial debut and starring Cathy O'Donnell and Farley Granger. Based on Edward Anderson's Depression-era novel '' Thieves Like Us'', the film follows a ...
'' (1948) and ''
Gun Crazy''.
Film noir-influenced road films continued in the
neo noir
Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...
era, with ''
The Hitcher'' (1986), ''
Delusion
A delusion is a fixed belief that is not amenable to change in light of conflicting evidence. As a pathology, it is distinct from a belief based on false or incomplete information, confabulation, dogma, illusion, hallucination, or some other m ...
'' (1991), ''
Red Rock West
''Red Rock West'' is a 1993 American post-Western neo-noir thriller film directed by John Dahl and starring Nicolas Cage, Lara Flynn Boyle, J. T. Walsh, and Dennis Hopper. Its plot focuses on a drifter who is mistaken for a hitman while trave ...
'' (1992), and ''
Joy Ride'' (2001).
Even though road movies are a significant and popular genre, it is an "overlooked strain of film history".
Major genre studies often do not examine road movies, and there has been little analysis of what qualifies as a road movie.
[Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 2]
Country or region of production
United States
The road movie is mostly associated with the United States, as it focuses on "peculiarly American dreams, tensions and anxieties".
US road movies examine the tension between the two foundational myths of American culture, which are individualism and populism, which leads to some road films depicting the open road as a "utopian fantasy" with a homogenous culture while others show it as a "dystopian nightmare" of extreme cultural differences.
[Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 3] US road movies depict the wide open, vast spaces of the highways as symbolizing the "scale and notionally utopian" opportunities to move up upwards and outwards in life.

In US road movies, the road is an "alternative space" where the characters, now set apart from conventional society, can experience transformation. For example, in ''
It Happened One Night
''It Happened One Night'' is a 1934 American pre-Code romantic comedy film with elements of screwball comedy directed and co-produced by Frank Capra, in collaboration with Harry Cohn, in which a pampered socialite ( Claudette Colbert) tr ...
'' (1934), a wealthy woman who goes on the road is liberated from her elite background and marriage to an immoral husband when she meets and experiences hospitality from regular, good-hearted Americans who she never would have met in her previous life, with middle America depicted as a utopia of "real community". The scenes in road movies tend to elicit longing for a mythic past.
American road movies have tended to be a white genre, with
Spike Lee
Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee (born March 20, 1957) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter, actor, and author. His work has continually explored race relations, issues within the black community, the role of media in contemporary ...
's ''
Get on the Bus
''Get on the Bus'' is a 1996 American drama film about a group of African-American men who are taking a cross-country bus trip in order to participate in the Million Man March. The film was directed by Spike Lee and premiered on the first annive ...
'' (1996) being a notable exception, as its main characters are African-American men on a bus travelling to the
Million Man March
The Million Man March was a large gathering of African-American men in Washington, D.C., on Monday, October 16, 1995. Called by Louis Farrakhan, it was held on and around the National Mall. The National African American Leadership Summit, a ...
(the film depicts the historic role of buses in the US civil rights movement). Asian-American filmmakers have used the road movie to examine the role and treatment of Asian-Americans in the United States; examples include
Wayne Wang
Wayne Wang (; born January 12, 1949) is a Hong Kong-American film director, producer, and screenwriter. Considered a pioneer of Asian-American cinema, he was one of the first Chinese-American filmmakers to gain a major foothold in Hollyw ...
's ''
Chan Is Missing'' (1982), about a taxi driver trying to find about the Hollywood detective character
Charlie Chan
Charlie Chan is a fictional Honolulu Police Department, Honolulu police detective created by author Earl Derr Biggers for a series of mystery novels. Biggers loosely based Chan on Hawaiian detective Chang Apana. The benevolent and heroic Chan ...
, and
Abraham Lim Abraham Lim may refer to:
* Abraham Lincoln Lim
Abraham Lincoln Lim is an American film director, editor, and actor. His NYU thesis film "Fly" won recognition at the Haig Manoogian Directors Guild of America screening, where it caught the att ...
's ''
Roads and Bridges
''Roads and Bridges'' is a 2000 Drama (film and television), drama film written and directed by Abraham Lincoln Lim, Abraham Lim about a Chinese-American man facing racial prejudice in the American Midwest. Johnson Lee (played by Lim) is placed ...
'' (2001), about an Asian-American prisoner who is sentenced to clean up garbage along a Midwestern highway.
[Swirski, Peter. ''All Roads Lead to the American City''. Hong Kong University Press, 2007, p. 28]
Australia
Australia's vast open spaces and concentrated population have made the road movie a key genre in that country, with films such as
George Miller's influential
''Mad Max'' film series, which were rooted in an Australian tradition for films with "
dystopian
A dystopia (lit. "bad place") is an imagined world or society in which people lead wretched, dehumanized, fearful lives. It is an imagined place (possibly state) in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmenta ...
and
noir themes with the destructive power of cars and the country’s
harsh, sparsely populated land mass". Australian road movies have been described as having a dystopian or gothic tone, as the road the characters travel on is often a "dead end", with the journey being more about "inward-looking" exploration than reaching the intended location.
[Khoo, Olivia; Smaill, Belinda; Yue, Audrey. "The Global Back of Beyond: Ethics and the Australian Road Movie". In ''Transnational Australian Cinema: Ethics in the Asian Diasporas'', p. 93-106. Lexington Books, 2013] In Australia, road movies have been called a "complex metaphor" which refers to the country's history, current situation, and to anxieties about the future.
The ''Mad Max'' series, including the
first film and its sequels ''
Mad Max 2
''Mad Max 2'' (released as ''The Road Warrior'' in the United States) is a 1981 Australian Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, post-apocalyptic Utopian and dystopian fiction, dystopian action film directed by George Miller (filmmaker), G ...
'', ''
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
''Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'' (also known as ''Mad Max 3'') is a 1985 Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie and written by Terry Hayes and Miller. It is the third installment in the ''M ...
'',
''Mad Max: Fury Road'' and
''Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga'' "have become canonical for their dystopic reinvention of the outback as a post-human wasteland where survival depends upon manic driving skills".

Other Australian road movies include
Peter Weir
Peter Lindsay Weir ( ; born 21 August 1944) is a retired Australian film director. He is known for directing films crossing various genres over forty years with films such as '' Picnic at Hanging Rock'' (1975), '' Gallipoli'' (1981), '' The Y ...
's ''
The Cars That Ate Paris'' (1974), about a small town where the inhabitants cause road accidents to salvage the vehicles; the biker film ''
Stone
In geology, rock (or stone) is any naturally occurring solid mass or aggregate of minerals or mineraloid matter. It is categorized by the minerals included, its Chemical compound, chemical composition, and the way in which it is formed. Rocks ...
'' (1974) by
Sandy Harbutt, about a biker gang who witness a political cover-up murder; The (1981) thriller ''
Roadgames'' by
Richard Franklin, about a truck driver who tracks down a serial killer in the Australian outback; ''
Dead-end Drive-in'' (1986) by
Brian Trenchard-Smith
Brian Medwin Trenchard-Smith (born 1946) is an English-Australian filmmaker and author, known for his idiosyncratic and satirical low-budget genre films. His filmography covers action, science fiction, martial arts, dystopian fiction, comedy, ...
, about a dystopian future where drive-in theatres are turned into detention centres; ''
Metal Skin'' (1994) by Geoffrey Wright about a street racer; and ''
Kiss or Kill'' (1997) by
Bill Bennett, a film noir-style road movie.
''
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
''The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' is a 1994 Australian road comedy film written and directed by Stephan Elliott. The plot follows two drag queens (played by Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce) and a transgender woman (Terence S ...
'' (1994) has been called a "watershed gay road movie that addresses diversity in Australia".
''
Walkabout'' (1971), ''
Backroads'' (1977), and ''
Rabbit-Proof Fence
The State Barrier Fence of Western Australia, formerly known as the Rabbit-Proof Fence, the State Vermin Fence, and the Emu Fence, is a pest-exclusion fence constructed between 1901 and 1907 to keep rabbits, and other agricultural pests from ...
'' (2002) use a depiction of travelling through the Australian outback to address the issue of relations between white and Indigenous people.
In 2005, Fiona Probyn described a subgenre of road movies about Indigenous Australians that she called "No Road" movies, in that they typically do not show a vehicle travelling on an asphalt road; instead, these films depict travel on a trail, often with Indigenous trackers being shown using their tracking abilities to discern hard-to-detect clues on the trail.
With the increasing depiction of racial minorities in Australian road movies, the "No Road" subgenre has also been associated with Asian-Australian films that depict travel using routes other than roads (e.g., the 2010 film ''
Mother Fish'', which depicts travel over water as it tells the story of the
boat people
Vietnamese boat people () were refugees who fled Vietnam by boat and ship following the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. This migration and humanitarian crisis was at its highest in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but continued well into the earl ...
refugees).
The iconography of car crashes in many Australian road movies (particularly the Mad Max series) has been called a symbol of white-Indigenous violence, a rupture point in the narrative which erases and forgets the history of this violence.
Canada
Canada also has huge expanses of territory, which make the road movie also common in that country, where the genre is used to examine "themes of alienation and isolation in relation to an expansive, almost foreboding landscape of seemingly endless space", and explore how Canadian identity differs from the "less humble and self-conscious neighbours to the south", in United States. Canadian road films include
Donald Shebib
Donald Everett Shebib (27 January 1938 – 5 November 2023) was a Canadian film and television director. Shebib was a central figure in the development of English Canadian cinema who made several short documentaries for the National Film Board ...
's ''
Goin' Down the Road
''Goin' Down the Road'' is a 1970 Canadian drama film directed by Donald Shebib, co-written by William Fruet and Donald Shebib. It tells the story of two young men who decide to leave the Maritimes, where jobs and fulfilling lives are hard to find ...
'' (1970), three
Bruce McDonald films (''
Roadkill
Roadkill is a wild animal that has been killed by collision with motor vehicles. Wildlife-vehicle collisions (WVC) have increasingly been the topic of academic research to understand the causes, and how they can be mitigated.
History
Essenti ...
'' (1989), ''
Highway 61'' (1991), and ''
Hard Core Logo
''Hard Core Logo'' is a 1996 Canadian music mockumentary film directed by Bruce McDonald, adapted by Noel S. Baker from the novel of the same name by Michael Turner. The film illustrates the self-destruction of punk rock, documenting a once-pop ...
'' (1996), a mockumentary about a punk rock band's road tour),
Malcolm Ingram's ''
Tail Lights Fade'' (1999) and
Gary Burns' ''
The Suburbanators'' (1995).
David Cronenberg
David Paul Cronenberg (born March 15, 1943) is a Canadian film director, screenwriter, producer and actor. He is a principal originator of the body horror genre, with his films exploring visceral bodily transformation, infectious diseases, and ...
's ''
Crash'' (1996) depicted drivers who get "perverse sexual arousal through the car crash experience", a subject matter which led to
Ted Turner
Robert Edward Turner III (born November 19, 1938) is an American entrepreneur, television producer, media proprietor, and Philanthropy, philanthropist. He founded the CNN, Cable News Network (CNN), the first 24-hour United States cable news, ...
lobbying against the film being shown in US theatres.
Asian-Canadian filmmakers have made road films about the experience of Canadians of Asian origin, such as
Ann Marie Fleming's ''
The Magical Life of Long Tak Sam'', which is about her search for her "Chinese grandfather, an itinerant magician and acrobat".
Other Asian-Canadian road movies look at their relatives experiences during the 1940s internment of Japanese Canadians by the Canadian government (e.g.,
Lise Yasui's ''
Family Gathering'' (1988),
Rea Tajiri's ''
History and Memory'' (1991) and
Janet Tanaka's ''
Memories from the Department of Amnesia'' (1991).
Europe
European filmmakers of road movies appropriate the conventions established by American directors, while at the same time reformulating these approaches, by de-emphasizing the speed of the driver on the road, increasing the amount of introspection (often on themes such as national identity), and depicting the road trip as a search on the part of the characters.
The German filmmaker
Wim Wenders
Ernst Wilhelm "Wim" Wenders (; born 14 August 1945) is a German filmmaker and photographer, who is a major figure in New German Cinema. Among the honors he has received are prizes from the Cannes Film Festival, Cannes, Venice International Film ...
explored the American themes of road movies through his European reference point in his
Road Movie trilogy in the mid-1970s. They include ''
Alice in the Cities'' (1974), ''
The Wrong Move
''The Wrong Move'' ( – "False Movement") is a 1975 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. This was the second part of Wenders' "Road Movie trilogy, ''Road Movie'' trilogy" which included ''Alice in the Cities'' (1974) and ''Kings of the Roa ...
'' (1975), and ''
Kings of the Road
''Kings of the Road'' (, "In The Course of Time") is a 1976 German road movie directed by Wim Wenders. It was the third part of Wenders' " ''Road Movie'' trilogy" which included '' Alice in the Cities'' (1974) and ''The Wrong Move'' (1975). It wa ...
'' (1976).
All three films were shot by cinematographer
Robby Müller and mostly take place in
West Germany
West Germany was the common English name for the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) from its formation on 23 May 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with East Germany on 3 October 1990. It is sometimes known as the Bonn Republi ...
. ''Kings of the Road'' includes stillness, which is unusual for road movies, and quietness (except for the rock soundtrack). Other road movies by Wenders include ''
Paris, Texas
Paris is a city and county seat of Lamar County, Texas, United States. Located in Northeast Texas at the western edge of the Piney Woods, the population of the city was 24,171 in 2020.
History
Present-day Lamar County was part of Red River ...
'' and ''
Until the End of the World''.
[Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 10] Wender's road movies "filter nomadic excursions through a pensive Germanic lens" and depict "somber drifters coming to terms with their internal scars".
France has a road movie tradition than stretches from
Bertrand Blier
Bertrand Blier (; 14 March 1939 – 20 January 2025) was a French film director and writer. His 1978 film '' Get Out Your Handkerchiefs'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 51st Academy Awards.
Career
His 1996 film '' ...
's ''
Les Valseuses'' (1973) and
Agnès Varda
Agnès Varda (; born Arlette Varda; 30 May 1928 – 29 March 2019) was a Belgian-born French film director, screenwriter and photographer.
Varda's work employed location shooting in an era when the limitations of sound technology made it easier ...
's ''
Sans toit ni loi'' (about a homeless woman) to 1990s films such as ''
Merci la vie'' (1991) and
Virginie Despentes
Virginie Despentes (; born 13 June 1969) is a French writer, novelist, and filmmaker. She is known for her work exploring gender, sexuality, and people who live in poverty or other marginalised conditions.
Work
Despentes' work is an inventory o ...
and
Coralie Trinh Thi's ''
Baise-moi
''Baise-moi'' is a 2000 French erotic crime thriller film written and directed by Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi and starring Karen Lancaume and Raffaëla Anderson. It is based on the novel by Despentes, first published in 1993. The ...
'' (a controversial film about two women revenging a rape), to 2000s films such as
Laurent Cantet
Laurent Cantet (; 11 April 1961 – 25 April 2024) was a French director, cinematographer and screenwriter. His film ''Entre les murs'' ('' The Class'') won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008.
Biography
Laurent Cantet was born in ...
's ''
L'emploi du temps
''Time Out'' ( or 'Le Vendu') is a 2001 Cinema of France, French Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Laurent Cantet and starring Aurélien Recoing and Karin Viard. The film is loosely based on the life story of Jean-Claude Romand ...
'' (2001) and
Cédric Kahn
Cédric Kahn (; born 17 June 1966) is a French screenwriter, film director and actor.
Career
His films include ''L'Ennui'' (1998), based on the Alberto Moravia novel ''Boredom'', and ''Red Lights (2004 film), Red Lights'' (2004), based on the Geor ...
's ''
Feux rouges
''Red Lights'' () is a 2004 French thriller film directed by Cédric Kahn. It was adapted from the eponymous 1955 Georges Simenon novel set in the Northeastern United States. The film is set in modern-day France.
The film stars Jean-Pierre Darrou ...
'' (2004). While French road movies share the US road movie's focus on the theme of individual freedom, French movies also balance this value with equality and fraternity, according to the French Republican model of liberty-equality-fraternity.
Neil Archer states that French and other Francophone (e.g., Belgium, Switzerland) road films focus on "displacement and identity", notably in regards to maghrebin immigrants and young people (e.g.,
Yamina Benguigui
Yamina Benguigui (born Yamina Zora Belaïdi; in Lille on 9 April 1955) is a French film director and politician of Algerian descent. She is known for her films on gender issues in the North African (both Berbers in France, Berbers and Arabs in F ...
's ''
Inch'Allah Dimanche
''Inch'Allah Dimanche'' (, ) is a 2001 in film, 2001 French/Algerian film written and directed by Yamina Benguigui. It is the director's first feature-length fiction film, and the story is centred around the life of an Algerian immigrant woman in ...
'' (2001),
Ismaël Ferroukhi's ''
La Fille de Keltoum'' (2001) and
Tony Gatlif
Tony Gatlif is a French film director who also works as a screenwriter, composer, actor, and producer. Born 10 September 1948 as Michel (Boualem) Dahmani in Algeria, then officially part of France, to a Berber (Kabyle) father and an Andalusian- ...
's ''
Exils'' (2004).
[Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 3] More broadly, European films are tending to use imagery of border-crossing and focusing on "marginal identities and economic migration", which can be seen in
Lukas Moodysson
Karl Fredrik Lukas Moodysson (; born 17 January 1969) is a Swedish filmmaker, novelist, and short story writer. First coming to prominence as an ambitious poet in the 1980s, he had his big domestic and international breakthrough directing the 1 ...
's ''
Lilja 4-ever'' (2002), Michael Winterbottom's ''
In This World'' (2002) and
Ulrich Seidl's ''
Import/Export'' (2007).
European road movies also examine
post-colonialism
Postcolonialism (also post-colonial theory) is the critical academic study of the cultural, political and economic consequences of colonialism and imperialism, focusing on the impact of human control and exploitation of colonized people and thei ...
, "disclocation, memory and identity".
Road movies from Spain have a strong American influence, with the films incorporating the road movie-comedy genre hybrid made popular in US films such as
Peter Farrelly
Peter John Farrelly (born December 17, 1956) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer and novelist. Along with his brother Bobby Farrelly, Bobby, the Farrelly brothers are mostly famous for directing and producing quirky comedy and r ...
's ''
Dumb and Dumber
''Dumb and Dumber'' is a 1994 American buddy comedy film directed by Peter Farrelly, who cowrote the screenplay with Bobby Farrelly and Bennett Yellin. It is the first installment in the ''Dumb and Dumber'' franchise. Starring Jim Carrey and ...
'' (1994). Spanish films including ''
Los años bárbaros'', ''
Carretera y manta
Carretera (Spanish "highway") may refer to:
*'' La Carretera'', album by Julio Iglesias 1995
* "La Carretera" (song), 2016 song by American singer Prince Royce See also
* Carretera Central (disambiguation)
*Carretera Austral
The Carretera Aus ...
'', ''
Trileros'', ''
Al final del Camino'', and ''
Airbag
An airbag is a vehicle occupant-restraint system using a bag designed to inflate in milliseconds during a collision and then deflate afterwards. It consists of an airbag cushion, a flexible fabric bag, an inflation module, and an impact sensor. ...
'', which has been called the "most successful Spanish road movie of all time". ''Airbag'', along with ''
Slam'' (2003), ''
El mundo alrededor
EL, El or el may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Fictional entities
* El, a character from the manga series ''Shugo Chara!'' by Peach-Pit
* Eleven (''Stranger Things'') (El), a fictional character in the TV series ''Stranger Things''
* El, fami ...
'' (2006) and ''
Los managers
LOS, or Los, or LoS may refer to:
Science and technology
* Length of stay, the duration of a single episode of hospitalisation
* Level of service, a measure used by traffic engineers
* Level of significance, a measure of statistical significanc ...
'', are examples of Spanish road films that, like US movies such as ''
Road Trip
A road trip, sometimes spelled roadtrip, is a long-distance Travel, journey traveled by a car or a motorcycle.
History
First road trips by automobile
The world's first recorded long-distance road trip by the automobile took place in German Em ...
'', uses the "road movie genre as a narrative framework for...gross-out sex comedy". The director of ''Airbag'',
Juanma Bajo Ulloa, states that he aimed to make fun of the road movie genre as established in North America, while still using the metamorphosis through road trip narrative that is popular in the genre (in this case, the main male character rejects his upper class girlfriend in favour of a prostitute he meets on the road).
[Eraso, Carmen Indurain. "The Transnational Dimension of Contemporary Spanish Road Movies" in ''Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema''. Oliete-Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; and Tarancón Juan A, eds. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2015. p. 145-6] ''Airbag'' also uses Spanish equivalents to the stock road movie setting and iconography, depicting "deserts, casinos and road clubs" and use the road movie action sequences (chases, car explosions, and crashes) that remind the viewer of similar work by
Tony Scott
Anthony David Leighton Scott (21 June 1944 – 19 August 2012) was a British film director and producer.
He made his theatrical film debut with ''The Hunger (1983 film), The Hunger'' (1983) and went on to direct highly successful action and t ...
and
Oliver Stone
William Oliver Stone (born ) is an American filmmaker. Stone is an acclaimed director, tackling subjects ranging from the Vietnam War and American politics to musical film, musical Biographical film, biopics and Crime film, crime dramas. He has ...
.
A second subtype of Spanish road movies is more influenced by the female road movies from the US, such as
Martin Scorsese
Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November17, 1942) is an American filmmaker. One of the major figures of the New Hollywood era, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Martin Scorsese, many accolades, including an Academ ...
's ''
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore'' (1974),
Jonathan Demme
Robert Jonathan Demme ( ; February 22, 1944 – April 26, 2017) was an American filmmaker, whose career directing, producing, and screenwriting spanned more than 30 years and 70 feature films, documentaries, and television productions. He was an ...
's ''
Crazy Mama'' (1975),
Ridley Scott
Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...
's ''
Thelma & Louise
''Thelma & Louise'' is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforese ...
'' (1991), and
Herbert Ross
Herbert David Ross (May 13, 1927 – October 9, 2001) was an American actor, choreographer, director and producer who worked predominantly in theater and film. He was nominated for two Academy Awards and a Tony Award.
He is known for directing ...
' ''
Boys on the Side'' (1995), in that they show a "less traditional" and more "visible, innovative, introspective, and realistic" type of woman onscreen. Spanish road movies about women include ''
Hola, ¿estás sola?'', ''
Lisboa
Lisbon ( ; ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 567,131, as of 2023, within its administrative limits and 3,028,000 within the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, metropolis, as of 2025. Lisbon is mainlan ...
'', ''
Fugitivas'', ''
Retorno a Hansala'', and ''
Sin Dejar Huella'' address social issues about women, such as the "injustice and mistreatment" that women experience under "authoritarian patriarchal order." ''Fugitivas'' depicts an American road movie genre convention: the "disintegration of the family and the community" and the "journey of transformation", as it depicts two fugitives on the run, whose distrust fades as the two women learn to trust each other from their adventures on the road. The images in the film are blend of homage to US road movie conventions (gas stations, billboards) and "recognizable Spanish types", such as the "embittered drunkard".
Other European road films include
Ingmar Bergman
Ernst Ingmar Bergman (14 July 1918 – 30 July 2007) was a Swedish film and theatre director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoun ...
's ''
Wild Strawberries'' (1957), about an old professor travelling the roads of Sweden and picking up hitchhikers and
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
's ''
Pierrot le fou'' (1965) about law-breaking lovers escaping on the road. Both of these films, as well as
Roberto Rossellini
Roberto Gastone Zeffiro Rossellini (8 May 1906 – 3 June 1977) was an Italian film director, screenwriter and producer. He was one of the most prominent directors of the Italian neorealist cinema, contributing to the movement with films such a ...
's ''
Voyage in Italy'' (1953) and Godard's ''
Weekend
The weekdays and weekend are the complementary parts of the week, devoted to labour and rest, respectively. The legal weekdays (British English), or workweek (American English), is the part of the seven-day week devoted to working. In most o ...
'' (1967) have more "existential sensibility" or pauses for "philosophical digressions of a European bent", as compared with American road films.
''
Three Men and a Leg'' (1997) features several sketches from filmmakers and producers'
Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo
Aldo, Giovanni e Giacomo are an Italian trio of comedians, actors, directors and screenwriters, comprising Cataldo "Aldo" Baglio (; born 28 September 1958), Giovanni Storti (; born 20 February 1957) and Giacomino "Giacomo" Poretti (; born 26 ...
's previous comedy productions overlaid with the rest of the movie's road-trip and
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a sub-genre of comedy and Romance novel, romance fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount all obstacles. Ro ...
atmosphere. Other European road films include
Chris Petit
Chris Petit (born 17 June 1949) is an English novelist and filmmaker. During the 1970s he was Film Editor for ''Time Out (company), Time Out'' and wrote in ''Melody Maker''. His first film was the cult British road movie ''Radio On'', while his ...
's ''
Radio On'' (1979), a Wim Wenders-influenced film set on the M4 motorway;
Aki Kaurismäki
Aki Olavi Kaurismäki (; born 4 April 1957) is a Finnish film director and screenwriter. He is best known for the award-winning '' Drifting Clouds'' (1996), '' The Man Without a Past'' (2002), ''Le Havre'' (2011), '' The Other Side of Hope'' (201 ...
's ''
Leningrad Cowboys Go America'' ( 1989), about a fictional Russian rock band which travels to the US; and
Theo Angelopoulos
Theodoros "Theo" Angelopoulos (; (27 April 1935 – 24 January 2012) was a Greek filmmaker, screenwriter and film producer. He dominated the Greek art film industry from 1975 on, and Angelopoulos was one of the most influential and widely respect ...
' ''
Landscape in the Mist
''Landscape In The Mist'' (, Transliteration, translit.''Topío Stín Omíchli'') is a 1988 Greek Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age Road movie, road tragedy film co-written and directed by Theo Angelopoulos. The film was selected as the Greek en ...
'', about a road trip from Greece to Germany.
Latin America
Road movies made in Latin America are similar in feel to European road films.
Latin American road movies are usually about a cast of characters, rather than a couple or single person, and the films explore the differences between urban and rural regions and between north and south.
Luis Buñuel
Luis Buñuel Portolés (; 22 February 1900 – 29 July 1983) was a Spanish and Mexican filmmaker who worked in France, Mexico and Spain. He has been widely considered by many film critics, historians and directors to be one of the greatest and ...
's ''
Subida al Cielo'' (''Mexican Bus Ride'', 1951), is about a poor rural person's trip into a big city to help his mother, who is dying. The road trip on this film is shown as a "carnivalesque pilgrimage" or "travelling circus", an approach also used in ''
Bye Bye Brazil'' (1979, Brazil), ''
Guantanamera
"" (; ) is a Cuban patriotic song, which uses a poem from the collection ''Simple Verses'', by the Cuban poet José Martí, for the lyrics. It is an expression of love for Cuba and of solidarity with the poor people of the world.
The official ...
'' (1995, Cuba), and ''
Central do Brasil
Estação Central do Brasil () is a major train station in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The station is located in Centro, Rio de Janeiro, downtown Rio de Janeiro, along the Avenida Presidente Vargas and across from the Campo de Santana ...
'' (''Central Station'', 1998, Brazil).
Some Latin American road movies are also set in the era of conquest, such as ''
Cabeza de Vaca
In Mexican cuisine, ''cabeza'' (''lit.'' 'head'), from barbacoa de cabeza, is the meat from a roasted beef head, served as taco or burrito fillings. It typically refers to barbacoa de cabeza or beef-head barbacoa, an entire beef-head traditionall ...
'' (1991, Mexico). Movies about outlaws escaping from justice include ''
Profundo Carmesí'' (''Deep Crimson'', 1996, Mexico) and ''El Camino'' (''The Road'', 2000, Argentina).
''
Y tu mamá también
''Y tu mamá también'' (Spanish for ''And Your Mother Too'') is a 2001 Mexican Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age comedy drama Road movie, road film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who co-wrote the script with his brother Carlos Cuarón, Carlos. I ...
'' (''And Your Mother Too'', 2001, Mexico) is about two young male buddies who have sexual adventures on the road.
Countries of the former USSR
Movies involving road movie genre while being rejected by mainstream media, gained huge popularity in Russian ''art cinema'' and surrounding post-Soviet cultures, slowly building their way into international film festivals. Well-known examples are ''
My Joy'' (2010), ''
Bimmer'' (2003), ''
Major
Major most commonly refers to:
* Major (rank), a military rank
* Academic major, an academic discipline to which an undergraduate student formally commits
* People named Major, including given names, surnames, nicknames
* Major and minor in musi ...
'' (2013), and ''
How Vitka Chesnok Took Lyokha Shtyr to the Home for Invalids'' (2017). Some other movies incorporate a large portion of road movie style, for example ''
Morphine
Morphine, formerly also called morphia, is an opiate that is found naturally in opium, a dark brown resin produced by drying the latex of opium poppies (''Papaver somniferum''). It is mainly used as an analgesic (pain medication). There are ...
'' (2008), ''
Leviathan
Leviathan ( ; ; ) is a sea serpent demon noted in theology and mythology. It is referenced in several books of the Hebrew Bible, including Psalms, the Book of Job, the Book of Isaiah, and the pseudepigraphical Book of Enoch. Leviathan is of ...
'' (2014), ''
Cargo 200'' (2007), ''
Donbass'' (2018).
With themes ranging from crime, corruption and power to history, addiction and existence, road movies became an independent part of cinematic landscape. From the strong flow of existentialism, to the
black comedy
Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...
style, the road movie experienced a new revival. Most precious are pieces from
Sergei Loznitsa
Sergei Vladimirovich Loznitsa (born 5 September 1964) or Serhii Volodymyrovych Loznytsia, is a Ukrainian director of Belarusian origin known for his documentary as well as dramatic films.
Biography
Loznitsa was born on 5 September 1964 in the ...
, in his early work ''
My Joy'' (2010) he used black noir style to tell the story of people falling together with destruction of governments after the fall of the Soviet Union. In his later work ''
Donbass'' (2018), he takes an opposing style, turning to black comedy and satire to underline actual war tragedies in the
Russo-Ukrainian War
The Russo-Ukrainian War began in February 2014 and is ongoing. Following Ukraine's Revolution of Dignity, Russia Russian occupation of Crimea, occupied and Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, annexed Crimea from Ukraine. It then ...
.
India
Indian screens saw a series of road movies with experimental filmmaker
Ram Gopal Varma
Penmetsa Ram Gopal Varma (born 7 April 1962), often referred to by his initials RGV, is an Indian film director, screenwriter and producer, primarily known for his work in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Telugu cinema, Telugu films.**
*
* Varma has dir ...
's works such as ''
Kshana Kshanam
''Kshana Kshanam'' () is a 1991 Indian Telugu-language road comedy heist film written and directed by Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Venkatesh, Sridevi, Paresh Rawal, and Rami Reddy. The plot follows Satya (Sridevi), a young woman who is ho ...
''.
Rachel Dwyer
Rachel Dwyer is a professor of Indian Cultures and Indian cinema, Cinema at SOAS, University of London.
Life
Dwyer took her BA in Sanskrit at SOAS, followed by an MPhil in General Linguistics and Comparative Philology at the University of Oxford. ...
, a reader in ''world cinema'' at the
University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...
-Department of South Asia, marked Varma's contribution into the new-age
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
.
The film received critical reception at the
Ann Arbor Film Festival, which led to a series of genre-benders like
Mani Ratnam
Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films.
H ...
's ''
Thiruda Thiruda'', and Varma's ''
Daud'', ''
Anaganaga Oka Roju'' and ''
Road
A road is a thoroughfare used primarily for movement of traffic. Roads differ from streets, whose primary use is local access. They also differ from stroads, which combine the features of streets and roads. Most modern roads are paved.
Th ...
''.
Subsequently 21st century
bollywood
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...
movies witnessed a surge of motion-pictures such as ''
Road, Movie'', nominated for the
Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award, the
Tribeca Film Festival
The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...
, and the Generation 14plus at the
60th Berlin International Film Festival
The 60th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 11 to 21 February 2010, with Werner Herzog as president of the jury. The opening film of the festival was Chinese director Wang Quan'an's romantic drama '' Apart Together'', in com ...
in 2010. ''
Liars Dice'' explores the story of a young mother from a remote village who, going in search of her missing husband, goes missing, the film examines the human cost of migration to cities and the exploitation of migrant workers. It was
India's Official Entry for the
Best Foreign Language Film for the
87th Academy Awards
The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2014 and took place on February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, beginning at 5:30  ...
.
It won special prize at
Sofia International Film Festival
Sofia International Film Festival (SIFF) (Bulgarian language, Bulgarian: ''Международен София Филм Фест, София Филм Фест''), also known as Sofia Film Fest, is an annual film festival in Sofia, capital city of ...
. In
Karwaan, the protagonist is forced to set out on a road trip from
Bengaluru
Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...
to
Kochi
Kochi ( , ), List of renamed Indian cities and states#Kerala, formerly known as Cochin ( ), is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the Ernakulam district, district of Ernakulam in the ...
after he loses his father in an accident, but the body delivered to him is of the mother of a woman in another state.
Ryan Gilbey of ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...
'' was broadly positive about
Zoya Akhtar
Zoya Akhtar (born 14 October 1972) is an Indian director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi films and series. Born to Javed Akhtar and Honey Irani, she completed a diploma in filmmaking from New York University, NYU and assisted dire ...
's ''
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara
''Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara'' (), is a 2011 Indian Hindi-language Road movie, road comedy drama film directed by Zoya Akhtar and produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani under Excel Entertainment. The film stars an ensemble cast of Hrithik ...
''; he wrote, "It's still playing to full houses, and you can see why. Slick it may be. But tourist board employees representing the various
Spanish
Spanish might refer to:
* Items from or related to Spain:
**Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain
**Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas
**Spanish cuisine
**Spanish history
**Spanish culture
...
cities flattered in the movie are not the only ones who will come out grinning", and that he found the movie "stubbornly un-macho" for a buddy film.
''
Piku
''Piku'' is a 2015 Indian Hindi-language comedy drama film directed by Shoojit Sircar and produced by N. P. Singh, Ronnie Lahiri and Sneha Rajani. Released in India on 8 May 2015, the film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Deepika Padukone and Irrfan ...
'' tells the story of the short-tempered Piku Banerjee (
Deepika Padukone
Deepika Padukone (; born 5 January 1986) is an Indian actress who works predominantly in Hindi films. She is India's highest-paid actress, as of 2023, and List of awards and nominations received by Deepika Padukone, her accolades include thre ...
), her grumpy, aging father Bhashkor (
Amitabh Bachchan
Amitabh Bachchan (; 11 October 1942) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema. He is often considered one of the greatest, most accomplished and commercially successful actors in the history of Indian cinema.*
*
*
*
* With a cinemati ...
) and Rana Chaudhary (
Irrfan Khan
Irrfan Khan () (born Sahabzade Irfan Ali Khan; 7 January 196729 April 2020) was an Indian actor who worked in Indian cinema as well as British and American films. Widely regarded as one of the finest actors in world cinema, Khan's career spa ...
), who is stuck between the father-daughter duo, as they embark on a journey from
Delhi
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...
to
Kolkata
Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
. In
Nagesh Kukunoor
Nagesh Kukunoor (born 30 March 1967) is an Indian film director, producer, screenwriter and actor known for his works predominantly in Hindi cinema, and few Telugu films. He is known for his works in parallel cinema, such as '' Hyderabad Blues' ...
's children's film ''
Dhanak'' a blind kid and his sister set off alone on a 300 km journey traversing testing Indian terrain from
Jaislamer to
Jodhpur
Jodhpur () is the second-largest city of the north-western Indian state of Rajasthan, after its capital Jaipur. As of 2023, the city has a population of 1.83 million. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Jodhpur district and ...
, the film won the ''Crystal Bear Grand Prix'' for Best Children's Film, and Special Mention for the Best Feature Film by The Children's Jury for Generation Kplus at the
65th Berlin International Film Festival
The 65th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 to 15 February 2015, with American film director Darren Aronofsky as the president of the jury. German film director Wim Wenders was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear. The ...
''
Finding Fanny
''Finding Fanny'' is a 2014 Indian English-language satirical road film directed and written by Homi Adajania, produced by Dinesh Vijan under Maddock Films and presented by Fox Star Studios. Naseeruddin Shah, Dimple Kapadia, Pankaj Kapur, D ...
'' is based on a road trip set in
Goa
Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...
and follows the journey of five dysfunctional friends who set out on a road trip in search of Fanny.
''
The Good Road'' is told in a
hyperlink format, where several stories are intertwined, with the center of the action being a highway in the rural lands of
Gujarat
Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...
near a town in
Kutch.
Africa
Several road movies have been produced in
Africa
Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
, including ''
Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet'' (1977,
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east ...
); ''
The Train of Salt and Sugar'' (2016,
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...
); ''Hayat'' (2016,
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...
); Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal) and ''Borders'' (2017,
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso is a landlocked country in West Africa, bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Ivory Coast to the southwest. It covers an area of 274,223 km2 (105,87 ...
).
History

The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the ''
Odyssey
The ''Odyssey'' (; ) is one of two major epics of ancient Greek literature attributed to Homer. It is one of the oldest surviving works of literature and remains popular with modern audiences. Like the ''Iliad'', the ''Odyssey'' is divi ...
''
and the ''
Aeneid
The ''Aeneid'' ( ; or ) is a Latin Epic poetry, epic poem that tells the legendary story of Aeneas, a Troy, Trojan who fled the Trojan War#Sack of Troy, fall of Troy and travelled to Italy, where he became the ancestor of the Ancient Rome ...
''. The road film is a standard plot employed by
screenwriter
A screenwriter (also called scriptwriter, scribe, or scenarist) is a person who practices the craft of writing for visual mass media, known as screenwriting. These can include short films, feature-length films, television programs, television ...
s. It is a type of
bildungsroman
In literary criticism, a bildungsroman () is a literary genre that focuses on the psychological and moral growth and change of the protagonist from childhood to adulthood (coming of age). The term comes from the German words ('formation' or 'edu ...
, a story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story. It focuses more on the journey rather than the goal. David Laderman lists other literary influences on the road movie, such as ''
Don Quixote
, the full title being ''The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha'', is a Spanish novel by Miguel de Cervantes. Originally published in two parts in 1605 and 1615, the novel is considered a founding work of Western literature and is of ...
'' (1615), which uses a description of a journey to create social satire; ''
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
''Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' is a picaresque novel by American author Mark Twain that was first published in the United Kingdom in December 1884 and in the United States in February 1885.
Commonly named among the Great American Novels, th ...
'' (1884), a story about a journey down the Mississippi River that is full of social commentary; ''
Heart of Darkness
''Heart of Darkness'' is an 1899 novella by Polish-British novelist Joseph Conrad in which the sailor Charles Marlow tells his listeners the story of his assignment as steamer captain for a Belgium, Belgian company in the African interior. Th ...
'' (1902), about a journey down a river in the Belgian Congo to search for a rogue colonial trader; and ''
Women in Love
''Women in Love'' is a 1920 novel by English author D. H. Lawrence. It is a sequel to his earlier novel, '' The Rainbow'' (1915), and follows the continuing loves and lives of the Brangwen sisters, Gudrun and Ursula. Gudrun Brangwen, an arti ...
'' (1920), which describes "travel and mobility" while also providing social commentary about the woes of industrialization.
Laderman states that ''Women in Love'' particularly lays the groundwork for the future road films, as it showed a couple who rebelled against social norms by leaving their familiar location and going on an aimless, meandering journey.
Steinbeck's novel ''
The Grapes of Wrath
''The Grapes of Wrath'' is an American realist novel written by John Steinbeck and published in 1939. The book won the National Book Award
and Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and it was cited prominently when Steinbeck was awarded the Nobel Prize ...
'' (1939) depicts a family that struggles to survive on the road during the Great Depression, a book that has been called "America's best-known proletarian road saga".
The movie version of the novel, made a year later, depicts the hungry, weary family's travel on
Route 66
U.S. Route 66 or U.S. Highway 66 (US 66 or Route 66) is one of the original highways in the United States Numbered Highway System. It was established on November 11, 1926, with road signs erected the following year. The high ...
using "montage sequences, reflected images of the road on windshields and mirrors", and shots taken from the driver's point of view to create a sense of movement and place.
[Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 15] Even though Henry Miller's ''
The Air-Conditioned Nightmare'' (1947) is not a fictional work, it captures the mood of frustration, restlessness and aimlessness that became prevalent in the road movie.
In the book, which describe's Miller's cross-country journey across the United States, he criticizes the nation's descent into materialism.
Western films such as
John Ford
John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), better known as John Ford, was an American film director and producer. He is regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers during the Golden Age of Hollywood, and w ...
's ''
Stagecoach
A stagecoach (also: stage coach, stage, road coach, ) is a four-wheeled public transport coach used to carry paying passengers and light packages on journeys long enough to need a change of horses. It is strongly sprung and generally drawn by ...
'' (1939) have been called "proto-road movies."
[Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 5] In the film, an unusual group of travellers, including a banker, prostitute, escaped prisoner and a military officer's wife, move through the dangerous desert trails. Even though the travellers are so unlike each other, the mutual danger they must face in travelling through
Geronimo
Gerónimo (, ; June 16, 1829 – February 17, 1909) was a military leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Ndendahe Apache people. From 1850 to 1886, Geronimo joined with members of three other Central Apache bands the Tchihen ...
's Apache territory requires them to work together to create a "utopia of...community".
The difference between older stories about wandering characters and the road movie is technological: with road movies, the hero travels by car, motorcycle, bus or train, making road movies a representation of modernity's advantages and social ills.
The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American cinema but blossomed in the years after
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture. Early road movies have been criticized by some
progressives for their "casual misogyny", "fear of otherness", and for not examining issues such as power, privilege, and gender
and for mostly showing white people.
The road movie of the pre-WW II era was changed by the publication of
Jack Kerouac
Jean-Louis Lebris de Kérouac (; March 12, 1922 – October 21, 1969), known as Jack Kerouac, was an American novelist and poet who, alongside William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, was a pioneer of the Beat Generation.
Of French-Canadian ...
's ''
On the Road
''On the Road'' is a 1957 novel by American writer Jack Kerouac, based on the travels of Kerouac and his friends across the United States. It is considered a defining work of the postwar Beat and Counterculture generations, with its protagoni ...
'' in 1957, as it sketched out the future for the road movie and provided its "master narrative" of exploration, questing, and journeying. The book includes many descriptions of driving in cars. It also depicted the character Sal Paradise, a middle class college student who goes on the road to seek material for his writing career, a bounded journey with a clear start and finish which differs from the open ended wandering of previous films, with characters making chance encounters with other drivers who influence where one travels or ends up. To contrast the intellectual Sal character, Kerouac has the juvenile delinquent Dean, a wild, fast-driving character who represents the idea that the road provides liberation.
By depicting a movie character who was marginalized and who could not be incorporated into mainstream American culture, Kerouac opened the way for road movies to depict a more diverse range of characters, rather than just heterosexual couples (e.g., ''It Happened One Night''), groups on the move (e.g., ''The Grapes of Wrath''), notably the pair of male buddies. ''On the Road'' and another novel published in the same era,
Vladimir Nabokov
Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov ( ; 2 July 1977), also known by the pen name Vladimir Sirin (), was a Russian and American novelist, poet, translator, and entomologist. Born in Imperial Russia in 1899, Nabokov wrote his first nine novels in Rus ...
's novel ''
Lolita
''Lolita'' is a 1955 novel written by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov. The protagonist and narrator is a French literature professor who moves to New England and writes under the pseudonym Humbert Humbert. He details his obsession ...
'' (1955), have been called "two monumental road novels that rip back and forth across American with a subversive erotic charge."
In the 1950s, there were "wholesome" road comedies such as
Bob Hope
Leslie Townes "Bob" Hope (May 29, 1903 – July 27, 2003) was an American comedian, actor, entertainer and producer with a career that spanned nearly 80 years and achievements in vaudeville, network radio, television, and USO Tours. He appeared ...
and
Bing Crosby
Harry Lillis "Bing" Crosby Jr. (May 3, 1903 – October 14, 1977) was an American singer, comedian, entertainer and actor. The first multimedia star, he was one of the most popular and influential musical artists of the 20th century worldwi ...
's ''
Road to Bali
''Road to Bali'' is a 1952 American comedy film directed by Hal Walker and starring Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, and Dorothy Lamour. Released by Paramount Pictures on November 19, 1952, the film is the sixth of the seven ''Road to ...'' movies. It wa ...
'' (1952),
Vincente Minnelli
Vincente Minnelli (; born Lester Anthony Minnelli; February 28, 1903 – July 25, 1986) was an American Theatre director, stage director and film director. From a career spanning over half a century, he is best known for his sophisticated innovat ...
's ''
The Long, Long Trailer'' (1954) and the
Dean Martin
Dean Martin (born Dino Paul Crocetti; June 7, 1917 – December 25, 1995) was an American singer, actor, and comedian. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Cool", he is regarded as one of the most popular entertainers of ...
and
Jerry Lewis
Jerry Lewis (born Joseph Levitch; March 16, 1926 – August 20, 2017) was an American comedian, actor, singer, filmmaker and humanitarian, with a career spanning seven decades in film, stage, television and radio. Famously nicknamed as "Th ...
film ''
Hollywood or Bust'' (1956).
There were not many 1950s road films, but "postwar youth culture" was depicted in ''
The Wild One
''The Wild One'' is a 1953 American crime film directed by László Benedek and produced by Stanley Kramer. The picture is most noted for the character of Johnny Strabler, portrayed by Marlon Brando, whose persona became a cultural icon of the ...
'' (1953) and ''
Rebel Without a Cause
''Rebel Without a Cause'' is a 1955 American coming-of-age melodrama film, directed by Nicholas Ray. The film stars James Dean, Natalie Wood, Sal Mineo, Jim Backus, Ann Doran, Corey Allen and William Hopper. It is also the film debut of ...
'' (1955).
Timothy Corrigan states that post-WW II, the genre of road films became more codified, with features solidifying such as the use of characters experiencing "amnesia, hallucinations and theatrical crisis".
David Laderman states that road movies have a modernist aesthetic approach, as they focus on "rebellion, social criticism, and liberating thrills", which shows "disillusionment" with mainstream political and aesthetic norms.
Awareness of the "road picture" as a separate genre came only in the 1960s with ''
Bonnie and Clyde
Bonnie Elizabeth Parker (October 1, 1910May 23, 1934) and Clyde Chestnut "Champion" Barrow (March 24, 1909May 23, 1934) were American outlaws who traveled the Central United States with their gang during the Great Depression, committing a ser ...
'' and ''
Easy Rider
''Easy Rider'' is a 1969 American road drama film written by Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Terry Southern. It was produced by Fonda and directed by Hopper. Fonda and Hopper play two bikers who travel through the American Southwest and the S ...
''. Road movies were an important genre in the late 1960s and 1970s era of the
New Hollywood
The New Hollywood, Hollywood Renaissance, American New Wave, or New American Cinema (not to be confused with the New American Cinema of the 1960s that was part of Experimental film, avant-garde underground film, underground cinema), was a movemen ...
, with films such as
Terrence Malick
Terrence Frederick Malick (; born November 30, 1943) is an American filmmaker. Malick began his career as part of the New Hollywood generation of filmmakers and received awards at the Cannes Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival, and ...
's ''
Badlands
Badlands are a type of dry terrain where softer sedimentary rocks and clay-rich soils have been extensively eroded."Badlands" in '' Chambers's Encyclopædia''. London: George Newnes, 1961, Vol. 2, p. 47. They are characterized by steep slopes, ...
'' and
Richard Sarafian's ''
Vanishing Point
A vanishing point is a point (geometry), point on the projection plane, image plane of a graphical perspective, perspective rendering where the two-dimensional perspective projections of parallel (geometry), parallel lines in three-dimensional ...
'' (1971) showing an influence from ''Bonnie and Clyde''.
There may have been influences from French cinema in the creation of ''Bonnie and Clyde'';
David Newman and
Robert Benton have stated that they were influenced by
Jean-Luc Godard
Jean-Luc Godard ( , ; ; 3 December 193013 September 2022) was a French and Swiss film director, screenwriter, and film critic. He rose to prominence as a pioneer of the French New Wave film movement of the 1960s, alongside such filmmakers as ...
's ''
A bout de souffle'' (1960) and
François Truffaut
François Roland Truffaut ( , ; ; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a ...
's ''
Tirez sur la pianiste'' (1960).
[Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 13] More generally, Devin Orgeron states that American road movies were based on post-WW II European cinema's own take on the American road film approach, showing a mutual influence between US and European filmmakers in this genre.
The addition of violence to the sexual tension of road movies in the late 1960s and in subsequent decades can be seen as a way to create more excitement and "frisson".
From the 1930s to 1960s, merely showing a man and woman on a road trip was exciting for audience, as all the motel stays and closeness had implied, yet deferred, consummation of the sexual attraction between the characters (sex could not be depicted due to the
Motion Picture Production Code
The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the Cinema of the United States, United States from 1934 to 1968. It ...
).
With ''Bonnie and Clyde'' (1967) and ''Natural Born Killers'' (1994), the heterosexual couple are united by their involvement in murder; as well, with jail hanging over their heads, there can be no return to domestic life at the end of the film.
There have been three historical eras of the "outlaw-rebel" road movie: the post-WW II
film noir
Film noir (; ) is a style of Cinema of the United States, Hollywood Crime film, crime dramas that emphasizes cynicism (contemporary), cynical attitudes and motivations. The 1940s and 1950s are generally regarded as the "classic period" of Ameri ...
era (e.g., ''
Detour
__NOTOC__
A detour or (British English: diversion) is a (normally temporary) route taking traffic around an area of prohibited or reduced access, such as a construction site. Standard operating procedure for many roads departments is to route an ...
''), the late 1960s era which was rocked by the Vietnam War (''Easy Rider'' and ''Bonnie and Clyde''), and the post-Reagan era of the 1990s, when the "masculinist heroics of the Gulf War gave way to closer scrutiny" (''
My Own Private Idaho
''My Own Private Idaho'' is a 1991 American independent adventure drama film written and directed by Gus Van Sant, loosely based on Shakespeare's '' Henry IV, Part 1'', '' Henry IV, Part 2'', and '' Henry V''. The story follows two friends, ...
'', ''
Thelma & Louise
''Thelma & Louise'' is a 1991 American crime drama film directed by Ridley Scott and written by Callie Khouri. The film stars Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as Louise and Thelma, two friends who embark on a road trip that ends up in unforese ...
'' and ''
Natural Born Killers
''Natural Born Killers'' is a 1994 American romantic crime action film directed by Oliver Stone and starring Woody Harrelson, Juliette Lewis, Robert Downey Jr., Tommy Lee Jones, and Tom Sizemore. The film tells the story of two victims ...
''). In the 1970s, there were low-budget outlaw films depicting chases, such as ''
Eddie Macon's Run''.
In the 1980s, there were rural Southern road movies such as ''
Smokey and the Bandit
''Smokey and the Bandit'' is a 1977 American action comedy road film starring Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jackie Gleason, Jerry Reed, Pat McCormick, Paul Williams, and Mike Henry. The film marks the directorial debut of stuntman Hal Needham ...
'' and the ''
Cannonball Run'' chase films of 1981 and 1984.
The outlaw couple movie was reinvented in the 1990s with a postmodernist take in films such as ''
Wild at Heart'', ''
Kalifornia'' and ''
True Romance
''True Romance'' is a 1993 American romantic crime film directed by Tony Scott and written by Quentin Tarantino. It features an ensemble cast led by Christian Slater and Patricia Arquette, with Dennis Hopper, Val Kilmer, Gary Oldman, Brad Pitt ...
''.
While the first road movies described the discovery of new territories or pushing the boundaries of a nation, which was a core message of early Western films in the United States, road movies were later used to show how national identities were changing, such as which
Edgar G. Ulmer’s ''Detour'' (1945), a film noir about a musician travelling from New York City to Hollywood who sees a nation absorbed by greed, or
Dennis Hopper
Dennis Lee Hopper (May 17, 1936 – May 29, 2010) was an American actor, filmmaker, photographer and visual artist. He was considered one of the key figures of New Hollywood. He earned prizes from the Cannes Film Festival and Venice Internatio ...
’s ''Easy Rider'', which showed how American society was transformed by the social and cultural trends of the late 1960s.
The New Hollywood era films made use of the new film technologies in the road movie genre, such as "fast film stock" and lightweight cameras, as well as incorporating filmmaking approaches from European cinema, such as "elliptical narrative structure and self-reflexive devices, elusive development of alienated characters; bold traveling shots and montage sequences.
Road movies have been called a post-WW II genre, as they track key post-war cultural trends, such as the breakup of the traditional family structure, in which male roles were destabilized; there is focus on menacing events which impact the characters who are on the move; there is an association between the character and the mode of transportation being used (e.g., a car or motorcycle), with the car symbolizing the self in the modern culture; and there is usually a focus on men, with women typically being excluded, creating a "male escapist fantasy linking masculinity to technology".
Despite these examples of the post-WW II aspects of road movies, Cohan and Hark argue that road movies go back to the 1930s.
In the 2000s, a new crop of road movies was produced, including
Vincent Gallo
Vincent Gallo (born April 11, 1961) is an American actor, filmmaker, and musician. He has won several accolades, including a Volpi Cup for Best Actor, and has been nominated for the Palme d'Or, the Golden Lion, and the Bronze Horse.
Gallo was ...
's ''
Brown Bunny'' (2003),
Alexander Payne
Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is noted for his satire, satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne has received List of awards and nominations rec ...
's ''
Sideways
''Sideways'' is a 2004 American comedy-drama directed by Alexander Payne and written by Jim Taylor and Payne. A film adaptation of Rex Pickett's 2004 novel, ''Sideways'' follows two men in their forties, Miles Raymond ( Paul Giamatti), a de ...
'' (2004),
Jim Jarmusch
James Robert Jarmusch ( ; born January 22, 1953) is an American film director, screenwriter and musician.
He has been a major proponent of independent film, independent cinema since the 1980s, directing films such as ''Stranger Than Paradise'' ...
's ''
Broken Flowers
''Broken Flowers'' is a 2005 French-American comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. The film focuses on an aging "Don Juan" who embarks on a cross-country journey to track ...
'' (2005) and
Kelly Reichardt
Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalism, minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working class, working-class characters in small ...
's ''
Old Joy
''Old Joy'' is a 2006 American road movie written and directed by Kelly Reichardt and based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond. The original soundtrack for the film is by Yo La Tengo and included on the compilation soundtrack album ''They Shoot ...
'' (2006) and scholars are taking more interest in examining the genre.
[Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 8] The British Film Institute highlights ten post-2000 road films that show that "
ere’s still plenty of gas left in the road movie genre".
The BFI's top 10 include
Andrea Arnold
Andrea Patricia Arnold OBE (born 5 April 1961) is an English filmmaker and former actress. She won an Academy Award for her short film ''Wasp'' in 2005. Her feature films include '' Red Road'' (2006), '' Fish Tank'' (2009) and '' American Hon ...
’s ''
American Honey'' (2016), which used "mostly non-professional actors";
Alfonso Cuarón
Alfonso Cuarón Orozco ( ; ; born 28 November 1961) is a Mexican filmmaker. List of awards and nominations received by Alfonso Cuarón, His accolades include four Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and seven BAFTA Awards.
Cuarón made h ...
's ''
Y tu mamá también
''Y tu mamá también'' (Spanish for ''And Your Mother Too'') is a 2001 Mexican Coming-of-age story, coming-of-age comedy drama Road movie, road film directed by Alfonso Cuarón, who co-wrote the script with his brother Carlos Cuarón, Carlos. I ...
'' (2001), about Mexican teens on the road; The Brown Bunny (2003), which garnered publicity for its "infamous fellatio scene";
Walter Salles
Walter Moreira Salles Júnior (; ; born 12 April 1956) is a Brazilian filmmaker. A major figure of the Resumption Cinema in Brazil, Salles is widely regarded as one of the greatest Brazilian filmmakers of all time. His List of awards and nomina ...
' ''
The Motorcycle Diaries'' (2004), about Che Guevera's epic motorcycle trip;
Mark Duplass
Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996, for which they wrote and directed ''The ...
and
Jay Duplass
Lawrence Jay Duplass Jr. (born March 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author widely known for his films ''The Puffy Chair'' (2005), ''Cyrus'' (2010), and '' Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' (2011), made in collaboration with his younger br ...
' ''
The Puffy Chair
''The Puffy Chair'' is a 2005 American mumblecore road movie, road film written and directed by Jay Duplass, Jay and Mark Duplass. It stars Mark Duplass, Katie Aselton and Rhett Wilkins. The film had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festi ...
'' (2005), the "first
mumblecore
Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and (sometimes improvised) dialogue, low budgets, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of young adults. Filmmakers associ ...
road movie"; ''
Broken Flowers
''Broken Flowers'' is a 2005 French-American comedy drama, comedy-drama film written and directed by Jim Jarmusch and produced by Jon Kilik and Stacey Smith. The film focuses on an aging "Don Juan" who embarks on a cross-country journey to track ...
'' (2005);
Jonathan Dayton
Jonathan Dayton (October 16, 1760October 9, 1824) was an American Founding Father and politician from New Jersey. At 26, he was the youngest person to sign the Constitution of the United States. He was elected to the United States House of Rep ...
and
Valerie Faris' ''
Little Miss Sunshine
''Little Miss Sunshine'' is a 2006 American tragicomedy road movie, road film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (in their directorial debut) from a screenplay written by Michael Arndt. The film stars an ensemble cast consisting of G ...
'' (2006), about a family's trip in a VW camper van; ''Old Joy'' (2006);
Alexander Payne
Constantine Alexander Payne (born February 10, 1961) is an American film director, screenwriter and producer. He is noted for his satire, satirical depictions of contemporary American society. Payne has received List of awards and nominations rec ...
's ''
Nebraska
Nebraska ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Ka ...
'' (2013), which depicts a father and son on a road trip;
Steven Knight
Steven Knight (born 5 August 1959) is a British screenwriter, producer, and director for film and television. He wrote the screenplays for the films ''Closed Circuit (2013 film), Closed Circuit'', ''Dirty Pretty Things (film), Dirty Pretty Thi ...
's ''
Locke'' (2013), about a construction executive taking stressful calls on a road trip; and
Jafar Panahi
Jafar Panâhi (, ) (born 11 July 1960) is an Iranian film director, screenwriter, and editor. He is known internationally for his contributions to Iranian cinema and has received numerous awards at major film festivals, including the Palme d'Or ...
's ''
Taxi Tehran'' (2015), about a cab driver ferrying strange passengers around the city.
Timothy Corrigan has called the postmodern road movie a "borderless refuse bin" of "
mise en abyme
In Western art history, ''mise en abyme'' (; also ''mise en abîme'') is the technique of placing a copy of an image within itself, often in a way that suggests an infinitely recurring sequence. In film theory and literary theory, it refers to t ...
" reflection, reflecting a modern audience that is not able to think of a "naturalized history".
Atkinson calls contemporary road movies an "ideogram of human desire and a last-ditch search for self" designed for an audience that was raised watching TV, particularly open-ended serial programs.
Movies of this genre
''Note, that the Country column is the country of origin and/or financing, and does not necessarily represent the country or countries depicted in each film.''
See also
*
Monomyth
In narratology and comparative mythology, the hero's quest or hero's journey, also known as the monomyth, is the common template of stories that involve a hero who goes on an adventure, is victorious in a decisive crisis, and comes home ch ...
References
Further reading
*Atkinson, Michael. "Crossing the frontiers." ''Sight & Sound'' vol IV number 1 (Jan 1994); p 14-17
*Dargis, Manohla. "Roads to freedom." (history and analysis of road movies ) ''Sight and Sound'' July 1991 vol 1 number 3 p. 14
*
*Ireland, Brian. "American Highways: Recurring Images and Themes of the Road Genre." ''The Journal of American Culture'' 26:4 (December 2003) p. 474-484
*Laderman, David. ''Driving visions : exploring the road movie''. Austin : University of Texas Press, 2002.
*Lang, Robert. "My own private Idaho and the new new queer road movies." New York : Columbia University Press, c2002.
*Mazierska, Ewa and Rascaroli, Laura. ''Crossing New Europe. Postmodern Travel and the European Road Movie''. London, Wallflower, 2006.
*Morris, Christopher. "The Reflexivity of the Road Film." ''Film Criticism'' vol. 28 no. 1 (Fall 2003) p. 24-52
*Orgeron, Devin. ''Road movies : from Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
*Lie, Nadia. (2017)
''The Latin American (Counter-) Road Movie and Ambivalent Modernity'' New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. This book offers a critical survey of the Latin American road film genre through an analysis covering over 160 films.
*Luckman, Susan. "Road Movies, National Myths and the Threat of the Road: The Shifting Transformative Space of the Road in Australian Film." ''International Journal of the Humanities''; 2010, Vol. 8 Issue 1, p. 113–125.
*Mills, Katie. "Road Film Rising: Hells Angels, Merry Pranksters, and Easy Rider." ''The road story and the rebel : moving through film, fiction, and television''. Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press, 2006.
* This book collects 16 essays on road movies.
External links
at
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
{{Authority control
Film genres
Transport films