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{{Short description|Film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip}}
{{essay-like|date=December 2025}}
{{Short description|Film genre in which the main characters embark on a road trip}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Other uses}}
[[File:Detour.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Edgar G. Ulmer]]’s ''[[Detour (1945 film)|Detour]]'' (1945), a film noir about a musician travelling from New York City to Hollywood who sees a nation absorbed by greed.<ref name="salles2007">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/magazine/11roadtrip-t.html |title=Notes for a Theory of the Road Movie |last=Salles |first=Walter |date=11 November 2007 |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=25 August 2018 }}</ref>]]
[[File:Detour.jpg|thumb|right|200px|[[Edgar G. Ulmer]]’s ''[[Detour (1945 film)|Detour]]'' (1945), a film noir about a musician travelling from New York City to Hollywood who sees a nation absorbed by greed.<ref name="salles2007">{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/11/magazine/11roadtrip-t.html |title=Notes for a Theory of the Road Movie |last=Salles |first=Walter |date=11 November 2007 |website=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=25 August 2018 }}</ref>]]
A '''road movie''' is a [[film genre]] in which the main characters leave home on a [[road trip]], typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives.<ref>{{cite book | last=Danesi | first=Marcel | year=2008 | title=Dictionary of Media and Communications | publisher=M.E. Sharpe | page=256 | isbn=978-0-7656-8098-3 }}</ref> 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,<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1</ref> a "distinctly [[existentialism|existential]] air"<ref name="autogenerated6">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1 and 6</ref> and is populated by restless, "frustrated, often desperate characters".<ref name="autogenerated1">Laderman, David. ''Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie''. University of Texas Press, 2010. Ch. 1</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated8">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 8</ref> 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]], and self-discovery.<ref name="autogenerated2">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 2</ref> The core theme of road movies is "rebellion against conservative social norms".<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
A '''road movie''' is a [[film genre|genre of film]] in which the main characters leave home on a [[road trip]], typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives.<ref>{{cite book | last=Danesi | first=Marcel | year=2008 | title=Dictionary of Media and Communications | publisher=M.E. Sharpe | page=256 | isbn=978-0-7656-8098-3 }}</ref> 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,<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1</ref> a "distinctly [[existentialism|existential]] air"<ref name="autogenerated6">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1 and 6</ref> and is populated by restless, "frustrated, often desperate characters".<ref name="autogenerated1">Laderman, David. ''Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie''. University of Texas Press, 2010. Ch. 1</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated8">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 8</ref> 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]], and self-discovery.<ref name="autogenerated2">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 2</ref> The core theme of road movies is "rebellion against conservative social norms".<ref name="autogenerated1"/>


There are two main narratives: the quest and the outlaw chase.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/road-movies |title=Road Movies |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=www.encyclopedia.com |publisher=Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film |access-date=13 September 2018 }}</ref> In the quest-style film, the story meanders as the characters make discoveries (e.g., ''[[Two-Lane Blacktop]]'' from 1971).<ref name="auto"/> 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]]'' from 1994).<ref name="auto"/> 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]]s.<ref name="salles2007" /> Road movies do not typically use the standard three-act structure used in mainstream films; instead, an "open-ended, rambling plot structure" is used.<ref name="autogenerated1" />
There are two main narratives: the quest and the outlaw chase.<ref name="auto">{{cite web |url=https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/road-movies |title=Road Movies |author=<!--Not stated--> |website=www.encyclopedia.com |publisher=Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film |access-date=13 September 2018 }}</ref> In the quest-style film, the story meanders as the characters make discoveries (e.g., ''[[Two-Lane Blacktop]]'' from 1971).<ref name="auto"/> 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]]'' from 1994).<ref name="auto"/> 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]]s.<ref name="salles2007" /> Road movies do not typically use the standard three-act structure used in mainstream films; instead, an "open-ended, rambling plot structure" is used.<ref name="autogenerated1" />
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The road movie is mostly associated with the United States, as it focuses on "peculiarly American dreams, tensions and anxieties".<ref name="autogenerated2002" /> 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.<ref name="autogenerated4">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 3</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 6</ref>
The road movie is mostly associated with the United States, as it focuses on "peculiarly American dreams, tensions and anxieties".<ref name="autogenerated2002" /> 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.<ref name="autogenerated4">Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 3</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 6</ref>
[[File:Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night film trailer.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) is about a rich woman who learns about regular Americans when she travels the highway system by car.]]
[[File:Claudette Colbert and Clark Gable in It Happened One Night film trailer.jpg|thumb|right|200px|''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (1934) is about a rich woman who learns about regular Americans when she travels the highway system by car.]]
In US road movies, the road is an "alternative space" where the characters, now set apart from conventional society, can experience transformation.<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5</ref> For example, in ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (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".<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5-6</ref> The scenes in road movies tend to elicit longing for a mythic past.<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 5</ref>
In American road movies, the road is an "alternative space" where the characters, now set apart from conventional society, can experience transformation.<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5</ref> For example, in ''[[It Happened One Night]]'' (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".<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5-6</ref> The scenes in road movies tend to elicit longing for a mythic past.<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 5</ref>


American road movies have tended to be a white genre, with [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Get on the Bus]]'' (1996) being a notable exception, as its main characters are African-American men on a bus travelling to the [[Million Man March]] (the film depicts the historic role of buses in the US civil rights movement).<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18</ref> 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]]'s ''[[Chan Is Missing]]'' (1982), about a taxi driver trying to find about the Hollywood detective character [[Charlie Chan]], and [[Abraham Lim]]'s ''[[Roads and Bridges]]'' (2001), about an Asian-American prisoner who is sentenced to clean up garbage along a Midwestern highway.<ref name="Swirski, Peter 2007, p. 28">Swirski, Peter. ''All Roads Lead to the American City''. Hong Kong University Press, 2007, p. 28</ref>
American road movies have tended to be a white genre, with [[Spike Lee]]'s ''[[Get on the Bus]]'' (1996) being a notable exception, as its main characters are African-American men on a bus travelling to the [[Million Man March]] (the film depicts the historic role of buses in the American civil rights movement).<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18</ref> 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]]'s ''[[Chan Is Missing]]'' (1982), about a taxi driver trying to find about the Hollywood detective character [[Charlie Chan]], and [[Abraham Lincoln Lim|Abraham Lim]]'s ''[[Roads and Bridges]]'' (2001), about an Asian-American prisoner who is sentenced to clean up garbage along a Midwestern highway.<ref name="Swirski, Peter 2007, p. 28">Swirski, Peter. ''All Roads Lead to the American City''. Hong Kong University Press, 2007, p. 28</ref>


=== Australia ===
=== 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 (director)|George Miller]]'s [[Mad Max]] films, which were rooted in an Australian tradition for films with "[[dystopian]] and [[film noir|noir]] themes with the destructive power of cars and the country’s [[Outback|harsh, sparsely populated land mass]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-dystopian-australian-road-movies |title=10 great dystopian Australian road movies|last=Nette |first=Andrew |date=7 April 2017 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=21 August 2018 |quote=Australia’s sheer size and relatively concentrated population means much of its cinema has either taken the form of road movies or contains aspects of the road film genre.}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106">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</ref>  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.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106"/>  
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 (director)|George Miller]]'s influential ''[[Mad Max]]'' film series, which were rooted in an Australian tradition for films with "[[dystopian]] and [[film noir|noir]] themes with the destructive power of cars and the country’s [[Outback|harsh, sparsely populated land mass]]".<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-dystopian-australian-road-movies |title=10 great dystopian Australian road movies|last=Nette |first=Andrew |date=7 April 2017 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=21 August 2018 |quote=Australia’s sheer size and relatively concentrated population means much of its cinema has either taken the form of road movies or contains aspects of the road film genre.}}</ref> 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.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106">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</ref>  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.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106"/>  
The Mad Max films, including ''[[Mad Max]]'', ''[[The Road Warrior]]'' and ''[[Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome]]'', "have become canonical for their dystopic reinvention of the outback as a post-human wasteland where survival depends upon manic driving skills".<ref name="auto"/>
The ''Mad Max'' series, including the [[Mad Max (film)|first film]] and its sequels ''[[Mad Max 2]]'', ''[[Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome]]'', ''[[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".<ref name="auto"/>
[[File:Mother Fish.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The 2010 film ''[[Mother Fish]]'', which depicts travel over water, has been called a "No Road"-style road film, as it uses the road movie journey narrative without using roads as a setting.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106"/>]]
[[File:Mother Fish.jpg|thumb|left|200px|The 2010 film ''[[Mother Fish]]'', which depicts travel over water, has been called a "No Road"-style road film, as it uses the road movie journey narrative without using roads as a setting.<ref name="Khoo, Olivia p. 93-106"/>]]
Other Australian road movies include [[Peter Weir]]'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 (1974 film)|Stone]]'' (1974) by [[Sandy Harbutt]], about a biker gang who witness a political cover-up murder; The (1981) thriller ''[[Roadgames]]'' by [[Richard Franklin (director)|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]], 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 film)|Kiss or Kill]]'' (1997) by [[Bill Bennett]], a film noir-style road movie.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-dystopian-australian-road-movies |title=10 great dystopian Australian road movies|last=Nette |first=Andrew |date=7 April 2017 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=21 August 2018 }}</ref>
Other Australian road movies include [[Peter Weir]]'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 (1974 film)|Stone]]'' (1974) by [[Sandy Harbutt]], about a biker gang who witness a political cover-up murder; The (1981) thriller ''[[Roadgames]]'' by [[Richard Franklin (director)|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]], 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 film)|Kiss or Kill]]'' (1997) by [[Bill Bennett]], a film noir-style road movie.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-dystopian-australian-road-movies |title=10 great dystopian Australian road movies|last=Nette |first=Andrew |date=7 April 2017 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=British Film Institute |access-date=21 August 2018 }}</ref>


''[[The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert]]'' (1994) has been called a "watershed gay road movie that addresses diversity in Australia".<ref name="auto"/>'' [[Walkabout (film)|Walkabout]]'' (1971), ''[[Backroads (1977 film)|Backroads]]'' (1977), and ''[[Rabbit-Proof Fence]]'' (2002) use a depiction of travelling through the Australian outback to address the issue of relations between white and Indigenous people.<ref name="auto"/>
''[[The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert]]'' (1994) has been called a "watershed gay road movie that addresses diversity in Australia".<ref name="auto"/>'' [[Walkabout (film)|Walkabout]]'' (1971), ''[[Backroads (1977 film)|Backroads]]'' (1977), and ''[[Rabbit-Proof Fence]]'' (2002) use a depiction of travelling through the Australian outback to address the issue of relations between white and Indigenous people.<ref name="auto"/>
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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.<ref>Oliete-Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; and Tarancón Juan A. ''Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema''. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2015. p. 147-8</ref>
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.<ref>Oliete-Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; and Tarancón Juan A. ''Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema''. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2015. p. 147-8</ref>


The German filmmaker [[Wim Wenders]] 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]]'' (1975), and ''[[Kings of the Road]]'' (1976).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/where-wim-wenders-went-wrong |title=Where Wim Wenders Went Wrong |last=Brody |first=Richard |date=3 September 2015 |access-date=7 June 2016 |work=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/mar/04/wim-wenders-retrospective-five-to-watch-one-to-miss |title=Wim Wenders retrospective: five to watch, and one to miss |access-date=7 June 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]]}}</ref>  All three films were shot by cinematographer [[Robby Müller]] and mostly take place in [[West Germany]]. ''Kings of the Road'' includes stillness, which is unusual for road movies, and quietness (except for the rock soundtrack).<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 140-147</ref> Other road movies by Wenders include ''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' and ''[[Until the End of the World]]''.<ref name="autogenerated10">Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 10</ref> Wender's road movies "filter nomadic excursions through a pensive Germanic lens" and depict "somber drifters coming to terms with their internal scars".<ref name="auto"/>
The German filmmaker [[Wim Wenders]] 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]]'' (1975), and ''[[Kings of the Road]]'' (1976).<ref>{{Cite magazine|url=http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/where-wim-wenders-went-wrong |title=Where Wim Wenders Went Wrong |last=Brody |first=Richard |date=3 September 2015 |access-date=7 June 2016 |magazine=[[The New Yorker]]}}</ref><ref name="Guardian">{{Cite news|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/mar/04/wim-wenders-retrospective-five-to-watch-one-to-miss |title=Wim Wenders retrospective: five to watch, and one to miss |access-date=7 June 2016 |work=[[The Guardian]]|date=4 March 2015 |last1=Pulver |first1=Andrew }}</ref>  All three films were shot by cinematographer [[Robby Müller]] and mostly take place in [[West Germany]]. ''Kings of the Road'' includes stillness, which is unusual for road movies, and quietness (except for the rock soundtrack).<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 140-147</ref> Other road movies by Wenders include ''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' and ''[[Until the End of the World]]''.<ref name="autogenerated10">Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 10</ref> Wender's road movies "filter nomadic excursions through a pensive Germanic lens" and depict "somber drifters coming to terms with their internal scars".<ref name="auto"/>


France has a road movie tradition than stretches from [[Bertrand Blier]]'s ''[[Les Valseuses]]'' (1973) and [[Agnès Varda]]'s ''[[Sans toit ni loi]]'' (about a homeless woman) to 1990s films such as ''[[Merci la vie]]'' (1991) and [[Virginie Despentes]] and [[Coralie Trinh Thi]]'s ''[[Baise-moi]]'' (a controversial film about two women revenging a rape), to 2000s films such as [[Laurent Cantet]]'s ''[[Time Out (2001 film)|L'emploi du temps]]'' (2001) and [[Cédric Kahn]]'s ''[[Feux rouges]]'' (2004).<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 1</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 18-19</ref>
France has a road movie tradition than stretches from [[Bertrand Blier]]'s ''[[Les Valseuses]]'' (1973) and [[Agnès Varda]]'s ''[[Sans toit ni loi]]'' (about a homeless woman) to 1990s films such as ''[[Merci la vie]]'' (1991) and [[Virginie Despentes]] and [[Coralie Trinh Thi]]'s ''[[Baise-moi]]'' (a controversial film about two women revenging a rape), to 2000s films such as [[Laurent Cantet]]'s ''[[Time Out (2001 film)|L'emploi du temps]]'' (2001) and [[Cédric Kahn]]'s ''[[Feux rouges]]'' (2004).<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 1</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 18-19</ref>
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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]]'s ''[[Inch'Allah Dimanche]]'' (2001), [[Ismaël Ferroukhi]]'s ''[[The Daughter of Keltoum|La Fille de Keltoum]]'' (2001) and [[Tony Gatlif]]'s ''[[Exils]]'' (2004).<ref name="autogenerated5">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 3</ref> 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]]'s ''[[Lilja 4-ever]]'' (2002), Michael Winterbottom's ''[[In This World]]'' (2002) and [[Ulrich Seidl]]'s ''[[Import/Export]]'' (2007).<ref name="autogenerated5" /> European road movies also examine [[post-colonialism]], "disclocation, memory and identity".<ref name="autogenerated5" />
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]]'s ''[[Inch'Allah Dimanche]]'' (2001), [[Ismaël Ferroukhi]]'s ''[[The Daughter of Keltoum|La Fille de Keltoum]]'' (2001) and [[Tony Gatlif]]'s ''[[Exils]]'' (2004).<ref name="autogenerated5">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 3</ref> 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]]'s ''[[Lilja 4-ever]]'' (2002), Michael Winterbottom's ''[[In This World]]'' (2002) and [[Ulrich Seidl]]'s ''[[Import/Export]]'' (2007).<ref name="autogenerated5" /> European road movies also examine [[post-colonialism]], "disclocation, memory and identity".<ref name="autogenerated5" />


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]]'s ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'' (1994). Spanish films including ''[[Los anos barbaros]]'', ''[[Carretera y manta]]'', ''[[Trileros]]'', ''[[Al final del Camino]]'', and ''[[Airbag (film)|Airbag]]'', which has been called the "most successful Spanish road movie of all time".<ref>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. 144</ref> ''Airbag'', along with ''[[Slam (2003 film)|Slam]]'' (2003), ''[[El mundo alrededor]]'' (2006) and ''[[Los managers]]'', are examples of Spanish road films that, like US movies such as ''[[Road Trip (film)|Road Trip]]'', uses the "road movie genre as a narrative framework for...gross-out sex comedy".<ref>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</ref> 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).<ref name="Eraso, Carmen Indurain 2015. p. 145-6">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</ref> ''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]] and [[Oliver Stone]].<ref name="Eraso, Carmen Indurain 2015. p. 145-6"/>
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]]'s ''[[Dumb and Dumber]]'' (1994). Spanish films including ''[[The Stolen Years (1998 film)|Los años bárbaros]]'', ''[[Carretera y manta]]'', ''[[Trileros]]'', ''[[Al final del Camino]]'', and ''[[Airbag (film)|Airbag]]'', which has been called the "most successful Spanish road movie of all time".<ref>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. 144</ref> ''Airbag'', along with ''[[Slam (2003 film)|Slam]]'' (2003), ''[[El mundo alrededor]]'' (2006) and ''[[Los managers]]'', are examples of Spanish road films that, like US movies such as ''[[Road Trip (2000 film)|Road Trip]]'', uses the "road movie genre as a narrative framework for...gross-out sex comedy".<ref>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</ref> 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).<ref name="Eraso, Carmen Indurain 2015. p. 145-6">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</ref> ''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]] and [[Oliver Stone]].<ref name="Eraso, Carmen Indurain 2015. p. 145-6"/>


A second subtype of Spanish road movies is more influenced by the female road movies from the US, such as [[Martin Scorsese]]'s ''[[Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore]]'' (1974), [[Jonathan Demme]]'s ''[[Crazy Mama]]'' (1975), [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Thelma & Louise]]'' (1991), and [[Herbert Ross]]' ''[[Boys on the Side]]'' (1995), in that they show a "less traditional" and more "visible, innovative, introspective, and realistic" type of woman onscreen.<ref>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. 148</ref> Spanish road movies about women include ''[[Hola, estas, sola]]'', ''[[Lisboa]]'', ''[[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."<ref>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. 148</ref> ''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.<ref>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. 149 and 153</ref> 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".<ref>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. 152</ref>
A second subtype of Spanish road movies is more influenced by the female road movies from the US, such as [[Martin Scorsese]]'s ''[[Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore]]'' (1974), [[Jonathan Demme]]'s ''[[Crazy Mama]]'' (1975), [[Ridley Scott]]'s ''[[Thelma & Louise]]'' (1991), and [[Herbert Ross]]' ''[[Boys on the Side]]'' (1995), in that they show a "less traditional" and more "visible, innovative, introspective, and realistic" type of woman onscreen.<ref>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. 148</ref> Spanish road movies about women include ''[[Hola, ¿estás sola?]]'', ''[[Lisbon (1999 film)|Lisboa]]'', ''[[Fugitivas]]'', ''[[Return to Hansala|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."<ref>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. 148</ref> ''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.<ref>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. 149 and 153</ref> 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".<ref>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. 152</ref>


Other European road films include [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'' (1957), about an old professor travelling the roads of Sweden and picking up hitchhikers and [[Jean-Luc Godard]]'s ''[[Pierrot le fou]]'' (1965) about law-breaking lovers escaping on the road. Both of these films, as well as [[Roberto Rossellini]]'s ''[[Voyage in Italy]]'' (1953) and Godard's ''[[Weekend (1967 film)|Weekend]]'' (1967) have more "existential sensibility" or pauses for "philosophical digressions of a European bent", as compared with American road films.<ref name="auto"/> ''[[Three Men and a Leg]]'' (1997) features several sketches from filmmakers and producers' [[Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo]]'s previous comedy productions overlaid with the rest of the movie's road-trip and [[romantic comedy]] atmosphere.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rooney |first=David |date=1998-01-12 |title=Three Men and a Leg |url=https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/three-men-and-a-leg-1200452609/ |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> Other European road films include [[Chris Petit]]'s ''[[Radio On]]'' (1979), a Wim Wenders-influenced film set on the M4 motorway; [[Aki Kaurismäki]]'s ''[[Leningrad Cowboys Go America]]'' ( 1989), about a fictional Russian rock band which travels to the US; and [[Theo Angelopoulos]]' ''[[Landscape in the Mist]]'', about a road trip from Greece to Germany.
Other European road films include [[Ingmar Bergman]]'s ''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'' (1957), about an old professor travelling the roads of Sweden and picking up hitchhikers and [[Jean-Luc Godard]]'s ''[[Pierrot le fou]]'' (1965) about law-breaking lovers escaping on the road. Both of these films, as well as [[Roberto Rossellini]]'s ''[[Voyage in Italy]]'' (1953) and Godard's ''[[Weekend (1967 film)|Weekend]]'' (1967) have more "existential sensibility" or pauses for "philosophical digressions of a European bent", as compared with American road films.<ref name="auto"/> ''[[Three Men and a Leg]]'' (1997) features several sketches from filmmakers and producers' [[Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo]]'s previous comedy productions overlaid with the rest of the movie's road-trip and [[romantic comedy]] atmosphere.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rooney |first=David |date=1998-01-12 |title=Three Men and a Leg |url=https://variety.com/1998/film/reviews/three-men-and-a-leg-1200452609/ |access-date=2022-05-22 |website=Variety |language=en-US}}</ref> Other European road films include [[Chris Petit]]'s ''[[Radio On]]'' (1979), a Wim Wenders-influenced film set on the M4 motorway; [[Aki Kaurismäki]]'s ''[[Leningrad Cowboys Go America]]'' ( 1989), about a fictional Russian rock band which travels to the US; and [[Theo Angelopoulos]]' ''[[Landscape in the Mist]]'', about a road trip from Greece to Germany.
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Road movies made in Latin America are similar in feel to European road films.<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref name="auto"/> [[Luis Buñuel]]'s ''[[Mexican Bus Ride|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]]'' (1995, Cuba), and ''[[Central do Brasil]]'' (''Central Station'', 1998, Brazil).<ref name="auto"/> Some Latin American road movies are also set in the era of conquest, such as ''[[Cabeza de Vaca]]'' (1991, Mexico). Movies about outlaws escaping from justice include ''[[Profundo Carmesí]]'' (''Deep Crimson'', 1996, Mexico) and ''El Camino'' (''The Road'', 2000, Argentina).<ref name="auto"/>  ''[[Y tu mamá también]]'' (''And Your Mother Too'', 2001, Mexico) is about two young male buddies who have sexual adventures on the road.<ref name="auto"/>
Road movies made in Latin America are similar in feel to European road films.<ref name="auto"/> 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.<ref name="auto"/> [[Luis Buñuel]]'s ''[[Mexican Bus Ride|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]]'' (1995, Cuba), and ''[[Central do Brasil]]'' (''Central Station'', 1998, Brazil).<ref name="auto"/> Some Latin American road movies are also set in the era of conquest, such as ''[[Cabeza de Vaca]]'' (1991, Mexico). Movies about outlaws escaping from justice include ''[[Profundo Carmesí]]'' (''Deep Crimson'', 1996, Mexico) and ''El Camino'' (''The Road'', 2000, Argentina).<ref name="auto"/>  ''[[Y tu mamá también]]'' (''And Your Mother Too'', 2001, Mexico) is about two young male buddies who have sexual adventures on the road.<ref name="auto"/>


=== Russia and countries of the former USSR ===
=== 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 (film)|Bummer]]'' (2003), ''[[The Major (film)|Major]]'' (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 (film)|Morphine]]'' (2008), ''[[Leviathan (2014 film)|Leviathan]]'' (2014), ''[[Cargo 200 (film)|Cargo 200]]'' (2007), ''[[Donbass (film)|Donbass]]'' (2018).
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 (film)|Bimmer]]'' (2003), ''[[The Major (film)|Major]]'' (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 (film)|Morphine]]'' (2008), ''[[Leviathan (2014 film)|Leviathan]]'' (2014), ''[[Cargo 200 (film)|Cargo 200]]'' (2007), ''[[Donbass (film)|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]] style, the road movie experienced a new revival. Most precious are pieces from [[Sergei Loznitsa]], 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 (film)|Donbass]]'' (2018), he takes an opposing style, turning to black comedy and satire to underline actual war tragedies in the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]].
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]] style, the road movie experienced a new revival. Most precious are pieces from [[Sergei Loznitsa]], 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 (film)|Donbass]]'' (2018), he takes an opposing style, turning to black comedy and satire to underline actual war tragedies in the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]].
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===India===
===India===


Indian screens saw a series of road movies with experimental filmmaker [[Ram Gopal Varma]]'s works such as ''[[Kshana Kshanam]]''. [[Rachel Dwyer]], a reader in ''world cinema'' at the [[University of London]]-Department of South Asia, marked Varma's contribution into the new-age [[film noir]].<ref name="The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum">{{cite web|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071216/spectrum/main11.htm|title=The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum|work=tribuneindia.com}}</ref><ref name="dwyer">{{cite news| title = Behind The Scenes| author = Rachel Dwyer| work = Outlook Magazine| date = 30 May 2005| access-date = 18 August 2010| url = http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?227527}}</ref> The film received critical reception at the [[Ann Arbor Film Festival]], which led to a series of genre-benders like [[Mani Ratnam]]'s ''[[Thiruda Thiruda]]'', and Varma's ''[[Daud (film)|Daud]]'', ''[[Anaganaga Oka Roju]]'' and ''[[Road (2002 film)|Road]]''.<ref name="India Today">{{cite news|url=http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/edouard-waintrop-on-the-new-indian-cinema/1/189357.html |title=Edouard Waintrop on the New Indian Cinema : UP Front – India Today |work=India Today |date=18 May 2012 |access-date=27 September 2012}}</ref> Subsequently 21st century [[bollywood]] movies witnessed a surge of motion-pictures such as ''[[Road, Movie]]'', nominated for the [[Tokyo International Film Festival#Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix winners|Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award]], the [[Tribeca Film Festival]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie |title=Road, Movie |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival |access-date=21 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091225085059/http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie |archive-date=25 December 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ibnlive.in.com/news/road-movie-set-to-premier-in-toronto-on-friday/101639-8.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090923015119/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/road-movie-set-to-premier-in-toronto-on-friday/101639-8.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 23 September 2009 |title= Road Movie set to premier in Toronto on Friday |date= 18 September 2009 |work=CNN-IBN |access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref> and the Generation 14plus at the [[60th Berlin International Film Festival]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.aol.in/bollywood-story/road-movie-selected-as-berlin-festival-opener/749486 |title= ROAD, MOVIE selected as Berlin Festival opener |author= Bollywood Trade News Network  |date= 14 January 2010 |publisher= AOL Bollywood |access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.holidify.com/pages/road-trip-movies-1827.html|title=11 Bollywood Road Trip Movies to Inspire you to Hit the Road!|website=www.holidify.com}}</ref> ''[[Liar's Dice (film)|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 [[List of Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|India's Official Entry]] for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] for the [[87th Academy Awards]].<ref>
Indian screens saw a series of road movies with experimental filmmaker [[Ram Gopal Varma]]'s works such as ''[[Kshana Kshanam]]''. [[Rachel Dwyer]], a reader in ''world cinema'' at the [[University of London]]-Department of South Asia, marked Varma's contribution into the new-age [[film noir]].<ref name="The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum">{{cite web|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2007/20071216/spectrum/main11.htm|title=The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum|work=tribuneindia.com}}</ref><ref name="dwyer">{{cite news| title = Behind The Scenes| author = Rachel Dwyer| work = Outlook Magazine| date = 30 May 2005| access-date = 18 August 2010| url = http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?227527}}</ref> The film received critical reception at the [[Ann Arbor Film Festival]], which led to a series of genre-benders like [[Mani Ratnam]]'s ''[[Thiruda Thiruda]]'', and Varma's ''[[Daud (film)|Daud]]'', ''[[Anaganaga Oka Roju]]'' and ''[[Road (2002 film)|Road]]''.<ref name="India Today">{{cite news|url=https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/up-front/story/20120528-edouard-waintrop-on-the-new-indian-cinema-758464-2012-05-18 |title=Edouard Waintrop on the New Indian Cinema : UP Front – India Today |work=India Today |date=18 May 2012 |access-date=27 September 2012}}</ref> Subsequently 21st century [[bollywood]] movies witnessed a surge of motion-pictures such as ''[[Road, Movie]]'', nominated for the [[Tokyo International Film Festival#Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix winners|Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award]], the [[Tribeca Film Festival]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie |title=Road, Movie |publisher=Toronto International Film Festival |access-date=21 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091225085059/http://www.tiff.net/filmsandschedules/films/roadmovie |archive-date=25 December 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url= http://ibnlive.in.com/news/road-movie-set-to-premier-in-toronto-on-friday/101639-8.html |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20090923015119/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/road-movie-set-to-premier-in-toronto-on-friday/101639-8.html |url-status= dead |archive-date= 23 September 2009 |title= Road Movie set to premier in Toronto on Friday |date= 18 September 2009 |work=CNN-IBN |access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref> and the Generation 14plus at the [[60th Berlin International Film Festival]] in 2010.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.aol.in/bollywood-story/road-movie-selected-as-berlin-festival-opener/749486 |title= ROAD, MOVIE selected as Berlin Festival opener |author= Bollywood Trade News Network  |date= 14 January 2010 |publisher= AOL Bollywood |access-date=21 January 2010}}</ref> ''[[Liar's Dice (film)|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 [[List of Indian submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|India's Official Entry]] for the [[Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film|Best Foreign Language Film]] for the [[87th Academy Awards]].<ref>
{{cite web | title = Geethu Mohandas' 'Liar's Dice' is India's official entry to the Oscars|work=CNN-IBN| url = http://ibnlive.in.com/news/geethu-mohandas-liars-dice-is-indias-official-entry-to-the-oscars/501199-8-66.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140924102713/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/geethu-mohandas-liars-dice-is-indias-official-entry-to-the-oscars/501199-8-66.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = 24 September 2014|date=23 September 2014| access-date = 2014-10-19  }}</ref><ref name="IndiaHWR">{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-india-selects-liars-dice-734967 |title=Oscars: India Selects 'Liar's Dice' for Foreign-Language Category |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=Hollywood Reporter}}</ref> It won special prize at [[Sofia International Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dearcinema.com/news/liars-dice-wins-special-jury-award-sofia-international-film-festival/1922|title=Liar's Dice wins Special Jury award at Sofia International Film Festival|work=DearCinema.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321145527/http://dearcinema.com/news/liars-dice-wins-special-jury-award-sofia-international-film-festival/1922|archive-date=21 March 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mid-day.com/articles/top-10-small-budget-independent-films-set-to-release-in-2015/15898169|title=Top 10 small-budget independent films set to release in 2015|date=9 January 2015|work=mid-day}}</ref> In [[Karwaan]], the protagonist is forced to set out on a road trip from [[Bengaluru]] to [[Kochi]] after he loses his father in an accident, but the body delivered to him is of the mother of a woman in another state.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.filmfare.com/reviews/bollywood-movies/karwaan-29584.html|title=Movie Review: Karwaan|work=filmfare.com|access-date=2018-08-05|language=en}}</ref>
{{cite web | title = Geethu Mohandas' 'Liar's Dice' is India's official entry to the Oscars|work=CNN-IBN| url = http://ibnlive.in.com/news/geethu-mohandas-liars-dice-is-indias-official-entry-to-the-oscars/501199-8-66.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140924102713/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/geethu-mohandas-liars-dice-is-indias-official-entry-to-the-oscars/501199-8-66.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = 24 September 2014|date=23 September 2014| access-date = 2014-10-19  }}</ref><ref name="IndiaHWR">{{cite web |url=http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/oscars-india-selects-liars-dice-734967 |title=Oscars: India Selects 'Liar's Dice' for Foreign-Language Category |access-date=23 September 2014 |work=Hollywood Reporter|date=23 September 2014 }}</ref> It won special prize at [[Sofia International Film Festival]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dearcinema.com/news/liars-dice-wins-special-jury-award-sofia-international-film-festival/1922|title=Liar's Dice wins Special Jury award at Sofia International Film Festival|work=DearCinema.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140321145527/http://dearcinema.com/news/liars-dice-wins-special-jury-award-sofia-international-film-festival/1922|archive-date=21 March 2014|df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.mid-day.com/articles/top-10-small-budget-independent-films-set-to-release-in-2015/15898169|title=Top 10 small-budget independent films set to release in 2015|date=9 January 2015|work=mid-day}}</ref> In [[Karwaan]], the protagonist is forced to set out on a road trip from [[Bengaluru]] to [[Kochi]] after he loses his father in an accident, but the body delivered to him is of the mother of a woman in another state.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.filmfare.com/reviews/bollywood-movies/karwaan-29584.html|title=Movie Review: Karwaan|work=filmfare.com|access-date=2018-08-05|language=en}}</ref>


Ryan Gilbey of ''[[The Guardian]]'' was broadly positive about [[Zoya Akhtar]]'s ''[[Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara]]''; 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 [[Spain|Spanish]] 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.<ref name="guardianreview">{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/aug/02/ryan-gilbey-bollywood-contract |title=Ryan Gilbey's Bollywood contract: Hindi heroes pack a soft and hard punch |last=Ryan Gilbey |date=2 August 2011 |website=[[The Guardian]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930184910/http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/aug/02/ryan-gilbey-bollywood-contract |archive-date=30 September 2013 |access-date=2 August 2011}}</ref> ''[[Piku]]'' tells the story of the short-tempered Piku Banerjee ([[Deepika Padukone]]), her grumpy, aging father Bhashkor ([[Amitabh Bachchan]]) and Rana Chaudhary ([[Irrfan Khan]]), who is stuck between the father-daughter duo, as they embark on a journey from [[Delhi]] to [[Kolkata]].<ref>{{cite news|title='Piku' trailer to be released with 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!'|url=http://www.mid-day.com/articles/piku-trailer-to-be-released-with-detective-byomkesh-bakshy/16070186|access-date=18 March 2015|issue=Mid-Day.com|publisher=[[Mid-Day]]}}</ref> In [[Nagesh Kukunoor]]'s children's film ''[[Dhanak]]'' a blind kid and his sister set off alone on a 300&nbsp;km journey traversing testing Indian terrain from [[Jaislamer]] to [[Jodhpur]], 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]]<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/jahresarchive/2015/02_programm_2015/02_filmdatenblatt_2015_201504112.html|title=Dhanak &#124; Rainbow &#124; Regenbogen|website=www.berlinale.de}}</ref> ''[[Finding Fanny]]'' is based on a road trip set in [[Goa]] and follows the journey of five dysfunctional friends who set out on a road trip in search of Fanny.<ref name="ibtimes">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/466617/20130510/arjun-kapoor-deepika-padukone-homi-adadjania-finding.htm|title=Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor Team Up for English Film|date=10 May 2013|work=[[International Business Times]]|access-date=28 June 2013}}</ref> ''[[The Good Road]]'' is told in a [[Hyperlink cinema|hyperlink format]], where several stories are intertwined, with the center of the action being a highway in the rural lands of [[Gujarat]] near a town in [[Kutch]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarati-film-the-good-road-to-represent-india-at-the-oscars/423659-8-66.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923044315/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarati-film-the-good-road-to-represent-india-at-the-oscars/423659-8-66.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 September 2013|title=News18.com: CNN News18 Latest News, Breaking News India, Current News Headlines|website=News18|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>
Ryan Gilbey of ''[[The Guardian]]'' was broadly positive about [[Zoya Akhtar]]'s ''[[Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara]]''; 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 [[Spain|Spanish]] 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.<ref name="guardianreview">{{Cite web |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/aug/02/ryan-gilbey-bollywood-contract |title=Ryan Gilbey's Bollywood contract: Hindi heroes pack a soft and hard punch |last=Ryan Gilbey |date=2 August 2011 |website=[[The Guardian]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130930184910/http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/aug/02/ryan-gilbey-bollywood-contract |archive-date=30 September 2013 |access-date=2 August 2011}}</ref> ''[[Piku]]'' tells the story of the short-tempered Piku Banerjee ([[Deepika Padukone]]), her grumpy, aging father Bhashkor ([[Amitabh Bachchan]]) and Rana Chaudhary ([[Irrfan Khan]]), who is stuck between the father-daughter duo, as they embark on a journey from [[Delhi]] to [[Kolkata]].<ref>{{cite news|title='Piku' trailer to be released with 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!'|url=http://www.mid-day.com/articles/piku-trailer-to-be-released-with-detective-byomkesh-bakshy/16070186|access-date=18 March 2015|issue=Mid-Day.com|publisher=[[Mid-Day]]}}</ref> In [[Nagesh Kukunoor]]'s children's film ''[[Dhanak]]'' a blind kid and his sister set off alone on a 300&nbsp;km journey traversing testing Indian terrain from [[Jaislamer]] to [[Jodhpur]], 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]]<ref name="auto1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.berlinale.de/en/archive/jahresarchive/2015/02_programm_2015/02_filmdatenblatt_2015_201504112.html|title=Dhanak &#124; Rainbow &#124; Regenbogen|website=www.berlinale.de}}</ref> ''[[Finding Fanny]]'' is based on a road trip set in [[Goa]] and follows the journey of five dysfunctional friends who set out on a road trip in search of Fanny.<ref name="ibtimes">{{cite web|url=http://www.ibtimes.co.in/articles/466617/20130510/arjun-kapoor-deepika-padukone-homi-adadjania-finding.htm|title=Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor Team Up for English Film|date=10 May 2013|work=[[International Business Times]]|access-date=28 June 2013}}</ref> ''[[The Good Road]]'' is told in a [[Hyperlink cinema|hyperlink format]], where several stories are intertwined, with the center of the action being a highway in the rural lands of [[Gujarat]] near a town in [[Kutch]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarati-film-the-good-road-to-represent-india-at-the-oscars/423659-8-66.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923044315/http://ibnlive.in.com/news/gujarati-film-the-good-road-to-represent-india-at-the-oscars/423659-8-66.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=23 September 2013|title=News18.com: CNN News18 Latest News, Breaking News India, Current News Headlines|website=News18|access-date=27 October 2017}}</ref>


===Africa===
===Africa===
Several road movies have been produced in [[Africa]], including ''[[Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet]]'' (1977, [[Niger]]); ''[[The Train of Salt and Sugar]]'' (2016, [[Mozambique]]); ''Hayat'' (2016, [[Morocco]]); Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal) and ''Borders'' (2017, [[Burkina Faso]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/01/20-best-african-films-ranked|title=20 best African films – ranked!|date=October 1, 2020|website=the Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://moroccancinema.exeter.ac.uk/en/2017/09/the-african-road-movies-of-khouribga/|title=The African road movies of Khouribga &#124; Transnational Moroccan Cinema|first=Stefanie Elvire Van De|last=Peer}}</ref>
Several road movies have been produced in [[Africa]], including ''[[Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet]]'' (1977, [[Niger]]); ''[[The Train of Salt and Sugar]]'' (2016, [[Mozambique]]); ''Hayat'' (2016, [[Morocco]]); Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal) and ''Borders'' (2017, [[Burkina Faso]]).<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2020/oct/01/20-best-african-films-ranked|title=20 best African films – ranked!|date=October 1, 2020|website=the Guardian}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://moroccancinema.exeter.ac.uk/en/2017/09/the-african-road-movies-of-khouribga/|title=The African road movies of Khouribga &#124; Transnational Moroccan Cinema|first=Stefanie Elvire Van De|last=Peer|date=29 September 2017 }}</ref>


== History ==
== History ==
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Steinbeck's novel ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (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".<ref name="autogenerated1"/> The movie version of the novel, made a year later, depicts the hungry, weary family's travel on [[U.S. Route 66|Route 66]] 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.<ref name="Archer, Neil 2016. p. 15">Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 15</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> In the book, which describe's Miller's cross-country journey across the United States, he criticizes the nation's descent into materialism.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
Steinbeck's novel ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (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".<ref name="autogenerated1"/> The movie version of the novel, made a year later, depicts the hungry, weary family's travel on [[U.S. Route 66|Route 66]] 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.<ref name="Archer, Neil 2016. p. 15">Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 15</ref> 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.<ref name="autogenerated1"/> In the book, which describe's Miller's cross-country journey across the United States, he criticizes the nation's descent into materialism.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>


Western films such as [[John Ford]]'s ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' (1939) have been called "proto-road movies."<ref name="autogenerated7">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 5</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 16</ref> Even though the travellers are so unlike each other, the mutual danger they must face in travelling through [[Geronimo]]'s Apache territory requires them to work together to create a "utopia of...community".<ref name="Archer, Neil 2016. p. 15"/> 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.<ref name="autogenerated4" /> The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American cinema but blossomed in the years after [[World War II]], reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture. Early road movies have been criticized for their "casual misogyny", "fear of otherness", and for not examining issues such as power, privilege, and gender <ref name="autogenerated7" /> and for mostly showing white people.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18-19</ref>
Western films such as [[John Ford]]'s ''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' (1939) have been called "proto-road movies".<ref name="autogenerated7">Archer, Neil. ''THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity''. Berghahn Books. p. 5</ref> 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.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 16</ref> Even though the travellers are so unlike each other, the mutual danger they must face in travelling through [[Geronimo]]'s Apache territory requires them to work together to create a "utopia of...community".<ref name="Archer, Neil 2016. p. 15"/> 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.<ref name="autogenerated4" /> The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American cinema but blossomed in the years after [[World War II]], reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture. Early road movies have been criticized by some [[Progressivism in the United States|progressives]] for their "casual misogyny", "fear of otherness", and for not examining issues such as power, privilege, and gender<ref name="autogenerated7" /> and for mostly showing white people.<ref>Archer, Neil. ''The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning''. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18-19</ref>


[[File:Grapes of Wrath, The - (Original Trailer) - 10.png|thumb|right|''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1940) is about an entire family on the road.]]
[[File:Grapes of Wrath, The - (Original Trailer) - 10.png|thumb|right|''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1940) is about an entire family on the road.]]
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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".<ref name="autogenerated2002" /> Despite these examples of the post-WW II aspects of road movies, Cohan and Hark argue that road movies go back to the 1930s.<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1</ref>
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".<ref name="autogenerated2002" /> Despite these examples of the post-WW II aspects of road movies, Cohan and Hark argue that road movies go back to the 1930s.<ref>Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". ''The Road Movie Book''. Eds. Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1</ref>


In the 2000s, a new crop of road movies was produced, including [[Vincent Gallo]]'s ''[[Brown Bunny]]'' (2003), [[Alexander Payne]]'s ''[[Sideways]]'' (2004), [[Jim Jarmusch]]'s ''[[Broken Flowers]]'' (2005) and [[Kelly Reichardt]]'s ''[[Old Joy]]'' (2006) and scholars are taking more interest in examining the genre.<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 8</ref> The British Film Institute highlights ten post-2000 road films that show that "[t]here’s still plenty of gas left in the road movie genre".<ref name="Lunn">{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/lists/10-great-road-movies-21st-century |title=10 great road movies of the 21st century |last=Lunn |first=Oliver |date=23 January 2018 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=BFI |access-date=13 October 2018 }}</ref> The BFI's top 10 include [[Andrea Arnold]]’s ''[[American Honey (film)|American Honey]]'' (2016), which used "mostly non-professional actors"; [[Alfonso Cuarón]]'s ''[[Y tu mamá también]]'' (2001), about Mexican teens on the road; The Brown Bunny (2003), which garnered publicity for its "infamous fellatio scene"; [[Walter Salles]]' ''[[The Motorcycle Diaries (film)|The Motorcycle Diaries]]'' (2004), about Che Guevera's epic motorcycle trip; [[Mark Duplass]] and [[Jay Duplass]]' ''[[The Puffy Chair]]'' (2005), the "first [[mumblecore]] road movie"; ''[[Broken Flowers]]'' (2005); [[Jonathan Dayton]] and [[Valerie Faris]]' ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'' (2006), about a family's trip in a VW camper van; ''Old Joy'' (2006); [[Alexander Payne]]'s ''[[Nebraska (film)|Nebraska]]'' (2013), which depicts a father and son on a road trip; [[Steven Knight]]'s ''[[Locke (film)|Locke]]'' (2013), about a construction executive taking stressful calls on a road trip; and [[Jafar Panahi]]'s ''[[Taxi Tehran]]'' (2015), about a cab driver ferrying strange passengers around the city.<ref name="Lunn"/>
In the 2000s, a new crop of road movies was produced, including [[Vincent Gallo]]'s ''[[Brown Bunny]]'' (2003), [[Alexander Payne]]'s ''[[Sideways]]'' (2004), [[Jim Jarmusch]]'s ''[[Broken Flowers]]'' (2005) and [[Kelly Reichardt]]'s ''[[Old Joy]]'' (2006) and scholars are taking more interest in examining the genre.<ref>Orgeron, Devin. ''Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. Springer, 2007. p. 8</ref> The British Film Institute highlights ten post-2000 road films that show that "[t]here’s still plenty of gas left in the road movie genre".<ref name="Lunn">{{cite web |url=https://www.bfi.org.uk/lists/10-great-road-movies-21st-century |title=10 great road movies of the 21st century |last=Lunn |first=Oliver |date=23 January 2018 |website=www.bfi.org.uk |publisher=BFI |access-date=13 October 2018 }}</ref> The BFI's top 10 include [[Andrea Arnold]]’s ''[[American Honey (film)|American Honey]]'' (2016), which used "mostly non-professional actors"; [[Alfonso Cuarón]]'s ''[[Y tu mamá también]]'' (2001), about Mexican teens on the road; The Brown Bunny (2003), which garnered publicity for its "infamous fellatio scene"; [[Walter Salles]]' ''[[The Motorcycle Diaries (film)|The Motorcycle Diaries]]'' (2004), about Che Guevera's epic motorcycle trip; [[Mark Duplass]] and [[Jay Duplass]]' ''[[The Puffy Chair]]'' (2005), the "first [[mumblecore]] road movie"; ''[[Broken Flowers]]'' (2005); [[Jonathan Dayton]] and [[Valerie Faris]]' ''[[Little Miss Sunshine]]'' (2006), about a family's trip in a VW camper van; ''Old Joy'' (2006); [[Alexander Payne]]'s ''[[Nebraska (film)|Nebraska]]'' (2013), which depicts a father and son on a road trip; [[Steven Knight]]'s ''[[Locke (film)|Locke]]'' (2013), about a construction executive taking stressful calls on a road trip; and [[Jafar Panahi]]'s ''[[Taxi Tehran]]'' (2015), about a cab driver ferrying strange passengers around the city.<ref name="Lunn"/>
Timothy Corrigan has called the postmodern road movie a "borderless refuse bin" of "[[mise en abyme]]" reflection, reflecting a modern audience that is not able to think of a "naturalized history".<ref name="autogenerated1"/> 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.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>
Timothy Corrigan has called the postmodern road movie a "borderless refuse bin" of "[[mise en abyme]]" reflection, reflecting a modern audience that is not able to think of a "naturalized history".<ref name="autogenerated1"/> 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.<ref name="autogenerated1"/>


== Movies of this genre ==
== Movies of this genre ==
{{More citations needed|section|date=April 2017}}
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2017}}
''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.''
''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.''


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|-
|-
|''[[Alice in the Cities]]'' || 1974 || [[West Germany]] || Bauer International
|''[[Alice in the Cities]]'' || 1974 || [[West Germany]] || Bauer International
|-
|''[[Aloha, Bobby and Rose]]'' || 1975 || United States || [[Columbia Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip|Alvin and the Chipmunks:<br />The Road Chip]]'' || 2015 || United States || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip|Alvin and the Chipmunks:<br />The Road Chip]]'' || 2015 || United States || [[20th Century Fox]]
Line 129: Line 132:
|''[[American Honey (film)|American Honey]]''|| 2016 || United States ||[[A24]]
|''[[American Honey (film)|American Honey]]''|| 2016 || United States ||[[A24]]
|-
|-
|''[[Are We There Yet? (film)|Are We There Yet?]]'' || 2005 || United States, [[Canada]] || [[Columbia Pictures]]
|''[[Are We There Yet? (film)|Are We There Yet?]]'' || 2005 || United States, [[Canada]] || Columbia Pictures
|-
|-
|''[[As Crazy as It Gets]]'' || 2015 || [[Nigeria]] ||
|''[[As Crazy as It Gets]]'' || 2015 || [[Nigeria]] ||
|-
|-
|''[[As Good as it Gets]]'' || 1997 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Columbia Pictures]]
|''[[As Good as It Gets]]'' || 1997 || rowspan=2 | United States || [[TriStar Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Badlands (film)|Badlands]]'' || 1973 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Badlands (film)|Badlands]]'' || 1973 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|-
|''[[Beavis and Butt-head Do America]]'' || 1996 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Basilicata Coast to Coast]]''
|2010
|Italy
|
|-
|''[[Beavis and Butt-Head Do America]]'' || 1996  
|United States|| [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|[[Bimmer (film)|''Bimmer'']] || 2003 || [[Russia]] ||
|[[Bimmer (film)|''Bimmer'']] || 2003 || [[Russia]] ||
|-
|-
|''[[Black Sheep (1996 film)|Black Sheep]]'' || 1996 || rowspan="8" | United States || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Black Sheep (1996 film)|Black Sheep]]'' || 1996 || rowspan="9" | United States || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Blue Bird (1940 film)|The Blue Bird]]''|| 1940 || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[The Blue Bird (1940 film)|The Blue Bird]]''|| 1940 || [[20th Century Fox]]
Line 147: Line 156:
|''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' || 1980 || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[The Blues Brothers (film)|The Blues Brothers]]'' || 1980 || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Bones and All]]''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ide |first1=Wendy |title=Bones and All review – an elegant lovers-on-the-run road movie, with cannibals |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/nov/26/bones-and-all-review-an-elegant-lovers-on-the-run-road-movie-with-cannibals |website=[[The Guardian]] |access-date=9 May 2025}}</ref> || 2022 || [[Frenesy Film Company]]
|-
|''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' || 1967 || rowspan=2| [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Bonnie and Clyde (film)|Bonnie and Clyde]]'' || 1967 || rowspan=2| [[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|-
Line 174: Line 185:
|-
|-
|''[[Coupe de Ville (film)|Coupe de Ville]]'' || 1990 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Coupe de Ville (film)|Coupe de Ville]]'' || 1990 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|''[[The Croods]]'' || 2013 || [[20th Century Fox]]<br />{{small|(via [[DreamWorks Animation]])}}
|-
|-
|''[[Crossroads (2002 film)|Crossroads]]'' || 2002 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Crossroads (2002 film)|Crossroads]]'' || 2002 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Death Proof]]'' || 2007 || [[Dimension Films]]
|''[[Death Proof]]'' || 2007 || [[Dimension Films]]
|-
|''[[Detroit Rock City (film)|Detroit Rock City]]''<ref>{{cite web |title=The Delightful Deviance of Detroit Rock City |url=https://crookedmarquee.com/the-delightful-deviance-of-detroit-rock-city/#google_vignette |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> || 1999 || Base-12 Productions
|-
|-
|''[[Dhanak]]'' || 2016 || India ||
|''[[Dhanak]]'' || 2016 || India ||
|-
|-
|''[[Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film)|Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul]]'' || 2017 || rowspan=2| United States || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul (film)|Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul]]'' || 2017 || rowspan=6| United States || [[20th Century Fox]]
|-
|-
|''[[Dirty Girl (2010 film)|Dirty Girl]]'' || 2010 || [[The Weinstein Company]]
|''[[Dirty Girl (2010 film)|Dirty Girl]]'' || 2010 || [[The Weinstein Company]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Doom Generation]]'' || 1995 || United States || [[Trimark Pictures]]
|''[[Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry]]'' || 1974 || [[20th Century Fox]]
|-
|'' [[Don't Make Me Go (film)|Don’t Make Me Go]]'' || 2022 || Amazon Studios
|-
|''[[The Doom Generation]]'' || 1995 || [[Trimark Pictures]]
|-
|''[[Drive-Away Dolls]]'' || 2024 || [[Focus Features]]
|-
|-
|''[[Drive My Car (film)|Drive My Car]]'' || 2021 || Japan || Bitters End (Japan)
|''[[Drive My Car (film)|Drive My Car]]'' || 2021 || Japan || Bitters End (Japan)
Line 203: Line 220:
|''[[Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show]]'' || 2009 || United States, Canada || [[Warner Bros. Television]]
|''[[Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show]]'' || 2009 || United States, Canada || [[Warner Bros. Television]]
|-
|-
|''[[Egghead & Twinkie]]'' || 2023 || United States || [[CanBeDone Films]]
|''[[Egghead & Twinkie]]'' || 2023 || United States || CanBeDone Films
|-
|-
|''[[EuroTrip]]'' || 2004 || United States, [[Czech Republic]] || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[EuroTrip]]'' || 2004 || United States, [[Czech Republic]] || [[DreamWorks Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Eyjafjallajökull (film)|Eyjafjallajökull]]'' || 2013 || France ||
|''[[Eyjafjallajökull (film)|Eyjafjallajökull]]'' || 2013 || France ||
|-
|-
|''[[Fanboys (film)|Fanboys]]'' || 2009 || rowspan=3| United States || [[Anchor Bay Entertainment]]
|''[[Fanboys (film)|Fanboys]]'' || 2009 || rowspan=3| United States || [[The Weinstein Company]]
|-
|-
|''[[Fandango (1985 film)|Fandango]]'' || 1985 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Fandango (1985 film)|Fandango]]'' || 1985 || [[Warner Bros.]]
Line 217: Line 234:
|''[[Gamyam]]'' || 2008 || India ||
|''[[Gamyam]]'' || 2008 || India ||
|-
|-
|''[[Get on the Bus]]'' || 1996 || rowspan=2| United States || [[Sony Pictures Releasing]]
|''[[Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie]]'' || 2025 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]<br/>{{small|(via [[DreamWorks Animation]])}}
|-
|''[[Get on the Bus]]'' || 1996 || [[Sony Pictures Releasing]]
|-
|-
|''[[God Bless America (film)|God Bless America]]'' || 2011 || [[Magnolia Pictures]]
|''[[God Bless America (film)|God Bless America]]'' || 2011 || [[Magnolia Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Goin' Down the Road]]'' || 1970 || Canada || [[Chevron Pictures]]
|''[[Goin' Down the Road]]'' || 1970 || Canada || Chevron Pictures
|-
|''[[Goodbye Berlin]]'' || 2016 || [[Germany]] || [[StudioCanal]]
|-
|-
|''[[Goodbye Pork Pie]]'' || 1981 || [[New Zealand]] ||
|''[[Goodbye Pork Pie]]'' || 1981 || [[New Zealand]] ||
Line 231: Line 252:
|''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' || 1988 || Japan || [[Toho]]
|''[[Grave of the Fireflies]]'' || 1988 || Japan || [[Toho]]
|-
|-
|''[[Green Book (film)|Green Book]]'' || 2018 || United States || [[Participant Media]]
|''[[Green Book (film)|Green Book]]'' || 2018 || rowspan=2 | United States || [[Participant Media]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Guilt Trip (film)|The Guilt Trip]]'' || 2012 || United States || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[The Guilt Trip (film)|The Guilt Trip]]'' || 2012 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Gypsy (2019 film)|Gypsy]]'' || 2019 || India || Olympia Pictures
|''[[Gypsy (2019 film)|Gypsy]]'' || 2019 || India || Olympia Pictures
Line 239: Line 260:
|''[[Hacksaw (film)|Hacksaw]]''
|''[[Hacksaw (film)|Hacksaw]]''
|2020
|2020
| rowspan="2" |United States
| rowspan="3" |United States
|Midnight Releasing
|Midnight Releasing
|-
|-
|''[[Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle]]'' || 2004 || [[New Line Cinema]]
|''[[Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle]]'' || 2004 || [[New Line Cinema]]
|-
|-
|''Have Dreams, Will Travel'' || 2007 || rowspan=4| United States ||
|''Have Dreams, Will Travel'' || 2007
|-
|''[[Heavy Trip]]''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Young |first1=Deborah |title='Heavy Trip' ('Hevi Reissu'): Film Review |url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/heavy-trip-1114565/ |website=[[Hollywood Reporter]] |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> || 2018 || rowspan=2 |Finland || Making Movies
|-
|''[[Heavier Trip]]''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Orozco |first1=Matthew |title="HEAVIER TRIP" (2024) Is A Raucous Sequel That Will Have You Headbanging For More! (REVIEW) |url=https://www.macabredaily.com/articles/heavier-trip-2024-is-a-raucous-sequel-that-will-have-you-headbanging-for-more-review |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> || 2024 || Heimathafen Film
|-
|''[[The Hills Have Eyes (1977 film)|The Hills Have Eyes]]'' || 1977 || United States || Vanguard
|-
|''[[The Hitcher (1986 film)|The Hitcher]]'' || 1986
|United States|| [[TriStar Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Hitcher (1986 film)|The Hitcher]]'' || 1986 || [[TriStar Pictures]]
|''[[Hitch-Hike (film)|Hitch-Hike]]''|| 1977
|[[Italy]]||
|-
|-
|''[[Huckleberry Finn (1931 film)|Huckleberry Finn]]'' || 1931 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Huckleberry Finn (1931 film)|Huckleberry Finn]]'' || 1931  
|United States|| [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Il Sorpasso]]'' || 1962 || [[Italy]]
|''[[Il Sorpasso]]'' || 1962 || Italy
|-
|-
|''[[In America (film)|In America]]'' || 2002 || [[Ireland]], United Kingdom, United States || [[Fox Searchlight Pictures]]
|''[[In America (film)|In America]]'' || 2002 || [[Ireland]], United Kingdom, United States || [[Fox Searchlight Pictures]]
Line 256: Line 288:
|''[[Interstate 60 (film)|Interstate 60]]'' || 2002 || United States, Canada || [[Samuel Goldwyn Films]]
|''[[Interstate 60 (film)|Interstate 60]]'' || 2002 || United States, Canada || [[Samuel Goldwyn Films]]
|-
|-
|''[[Into the Night (1985 film)|Into the Night]]'' || 1985 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[Into the Night (1985 film)|Into the Night]]'' || 1985 || rowspan=4 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|''[[Into the Wild (film)|Into the Wild]]'' || 2007 || [[Paramount Vantage]]
|-
|-
|''[[It Happened One Night]]'' || 1934 || [[Columbia Pictures]]
|''[[It Happened One Night]]'' || 1934 || [[Columbia Pictures]]
Line 271: Line 305:
|-
|-
|''[[Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997 film)|Knockin' on Heaven's Door]]'' || 1997 || [[Germany]] || [[Buena Vista International]]
|''[[Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997 film)|Knockin' on Heaven's Door]]'' || 1997 || [[Germany]] || [[Buena Vista International]]
|-
|''[[Kodachrome (film)|Kodachrome]]'' || 2017 || United States || Netflix
|-
|-
|''[[Kshana Kshanam]]''|| 1991 || India || Durga Arts  
|''[[Kshana Kshanam]]''|| 1991 || India || Durga Arts  
Line 286: Line 322:
|''[[The Living End (film)|The Living End]]''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/03/movies/review-film-festival-the-living-end-footloose-frenzied-and-hiv-positive.html|title=Review/Film Festival: The Living End; Footloose, Frenzied and H.I.V.-Positive|first=Janet|last=Maslin|date=April 3, 1992|work=The New York Times}}</ref> || 1992 || [[Cineplex Odeon Films]]
|''[[The Living End (film)|The Living End]]''<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/03/movies/review-film-festival-the-living-end-footloose-frenzied-and-hiv-positive.html|title=Review/Film Festival: The Living End; Footloose, Frenzied and H.I.V.-Positive|first=Janet|last=Maslin|date=April 3, 1992|work=The New York Times}}</ref> || 1992 || [[Cineplex Odeon Films]]
|-
|-
|[[Logan (film)|''Logan'']]
|''[[Logan (film)|Logan]]'' || 2017 || United States || [[20th Century Fox]]
|2017
|United States
|[[20th century Fox|20th Century Fox]]
|-
|-
|''[[Loev]]'' || rowspan=2| 2015 || India || [[Netflix]]
|''[[Loev]]'' || rowspan=2| 2015 || India || [[Netflix]]
Line 304: Line 337:
|-
|-
|''[[Mad Max: Fury Road]]'' || 2015 || Australia, United States
|''[[Mad Max: Fury Road]]'' || 2015 || Australia, United States
|-
|''[[Made in U.S.A. (1987 film)|Made In U.S.A.]]'' || 1985 || rowspan=2| United States || [[Tri-Star Pictures]]
|-
|''[[Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted]]'' || 2012 || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Madeline: Lost in Paris]]'' || 1999 || rowspan=7| United States || [[Walt Disney Home Video]]
|''[[Madeline: Lost in Paris]]'' || 1999 || rowspan=7| United States || [[Walt Disney Home Video]]
Line 342: Line 379:
|''[[Old Joy]]''
|''[[Old Joy]]''
|| 2006 || United States || Film Science
|| 2006 || United States || Film Science
|-
|''[[Olave Mandara]]''
|| 2011 || India || Alliance Picturesv.
|-
|-
|''[[On the Road (2012 film)|On the Road]]'' || 2012 || United States, United Kingdom, <br /> France, Brazil, Canada || [[IFC Films]]
|''[[On the Road (2012 film)|On the Road]]'' || 2012 || United States, United Kingdom, <br /> France, Brazil, Canada || [[IFC Films]]
Line 355: Line 395:
|''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' || 1984 || West Germany, France || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[Paris, Texas (film)|Paris, Texas]]'' || 1984 || West Germany, France || [[20th Century Fox]]
|-
|-
|''[[Paul (film)|Paul]]'' || 2011 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[Paul (2011 film)|Paul]]'' || 2011 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Pee-wee's Big Adventure]]'' || 1985 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Pee-wee's Big Adventure]]'' || 1985 || [[Warner Bros.]]
Line 365: Line 405:
|''[[Piku]]'' || 2015 || India || [[Yash Raj Films]]
|''[[Piku]]'' || 2015 || India || [[Yash Raj Films]]
|-
|-
|''[[Planes, Trains and Automobiles]]'' || 1987 || rowspan=3| United States || rowspan=2| [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Plan B (2021 film)|Plan B]]'' || 2021 || United States || [[Hulu]]
|-
|''[[Planes, Trains and Automobiles]]'' || 1987 || rowspan=4| United States || rowspan=2| [[Paramount Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Professor Beware]]'' || 1938  
|''[[Professor Beware]]'' || 1938  
|-
|''[[Quiz Lady]]'' || 2023 || [[Hulu]]
|-
|-
|''[[Rain Man]]'' || 1988 || [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer#MGM/UA Communications|MGM/UA Communications Company]]
|''[[Rain Man]]'' || 1988 || [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer#MGM/UA Communications|MGM/UA Communications Company]]
|-
|-
|''[[Road, Movie]]'' ({{lang-hi|रोड, मूवी}}) || 2009 || India || [[Madman Entertainment]] <br /> [[Tribeca Film]]
|''[[The Road (2009 film)|The Road]]'' || 2009 || United States || [[Dimension Films]]
|-
|''[[Road, Movie]]'' ({{langx|hi|रोड, मूवी}}) || 2009 || India || [[Madman Entertainment]] <br /> [[Tribeca Film]]
|-
|-
|''[[Road to Morocco]]'' || 1942 || United States || [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[Road to Morocco]]'' || 1942 || United States || [[Paramount Pictures]]
Line 377: Line 423:
|''[[Road to Yesterday (film)|Road to Yesterday]]'' || 2015 || Nigeria || FilmOne Distribution
|''[[Road to Yesterday (film)|Road to Yesterday]]'' || 2015 || Nigeria || FilmOne Distribution
|-
|-
|''[[Road Trip (film)|Road Trip]]'' || 2000 || rowspan=2| United States || [[DreamWorks Pictures]] <br /> [[The Montecito Picture Company]]
|''[[Road Trip (2000 film)|Road Trip]]'' || 2000 || rowspan=2| United States || [[DreamWorks Pictures]] <br /> [[The Montecito Picture Company]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Road Within]]'' || 2014 || [[Well Go USA Entertainment]]
|''[[The Road Within]]'' || 2014 || [[Well Go USA Entertainment]]
|-
|''[[Rock-A-Doodle]]'' || 1992 || United States, United Kingdom, Ireland || The Samuel Goldwyn Company (USA) <br /> The Rank Organisation (UK)
|-
|-
|''[[The Rover (2014 film)|The Rover]]'' || 2014 || Australia || [[Village Roadshow]] <br /> [[A24]]
|''[[The Rover (2014 film)|The Rover]]'' || 2014 || Australia || [[Village Roadshow]] <br /> [[A24]]
Line 387: Line 435:
|''[[Rugrats in Paris: The Movie]]'' || 2000 || United States, Germany  
|''[[Rugrats in Paris: The Movie]]'' || 2000 || United States, Germany  
|-
|-
|''[[RV (film)|RV]]'' || 2006 || rowspan=2| United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[RV (film)|RV]]'' || 2006 || rowspan="4" | United States || [[Columbia Pictures]]
|-
|[[Sacramento (film)|''Sacramento'']]
|2024
|[[Vertical (film company)|Vertical]]
|-
|[[Scarecrow (1973 film)|''Scarecrow'']]
|1973
|[[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|-
|''[[Sideways]]'' || 2004 || [[Fox Searchlight Pictures]]  
|''[[Sideways]]'' || 2004 || [[Fox Searchlight Pictures]]  
Line 393: Line 449:
|''[[Smoke Signals (film)|Smoke Signals]]'' || 1998 || United States, Canada || [[Miramax]]
|''[[Smoke Signals (film)|Smoke Signals]]'' || 1998 || United States, Canada || [[Miramax]]
|-
|-
|''[[Smokey and the Bandit]]'' || 1977 || rowspan=5| United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[Smokey and the Bandit]]'' || 1977 || rowspan=3| United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Spongebob SquarePants Movie]]'' || 2004 || rowspan=2| [[Paramount Pictures]]
|''[[The Spongebob SquarePants Movie]]'' || 2004 || rowspan=2| [[Paramount Pictures]]
Line 399: Line 455:
|''[[The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run]]'' || 2020
|''[[The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run]]'' || 2020
|-
|-
|''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' || 1939 || [[United Artists]]
|''[[Spike Island (film)|Spike Island]]''<ref>{{cite web |last1=Taylor |first1=Trey |title=Spike Island style |url=https://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/16426/1/spike-island-style |website=[[Dazed]] |access-date=17 March 2025}}</ref> || 2012 || United Kingdom || [[Revolver Entertainment]]
|-
|''[[Stagecoach (1939 film)|Stagecoach]]'' || 1939 || rowspan=2| United States || [[United Artists]]
|-
|-
|''[[Stagecoach (1966 film)|Stagecoach]]'' || 1966 || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[Stagecoach (1966 film)|Stagecoach]]'' || 1966 ||[[20th Century Fox]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Straight Story]]'' || 1999 || United States, United Kingdom, France || [[Buena Vista Pictures]]
|''[[The Straight Story]]'' || 1999 || United States, United Kingdom, France || [[Buena Vista Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Sugarland Express]]'' || 1974 || rowspan=2 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[The Sugarland Express]]'' || 1974 || rowspan=3 | United States || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|''[[The Sunchaser]]'' || 1996 || [[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Sure Thing]]'' || 1985 || [[Embassy Pictures]]
|''[[The Sure Thing]]'' || 1985 || [[Embassy Pictures]]
Line 415: Line 475:
|''[[These Final Hours]]'' || 2013 || Australia || [[Roadshow Films]]
|''[[These Final Hours]]'' || 2013 || Australia || [[Roadshow Films]]
|-
|-
|''[[Things Are Tough All Over]]'' || 1982 || rowspan="7" | United States|| [[Columbia Pictures]]
|''[[Things Are Tough All Over]]'' || 1982 || rowspan="10" | United States|| [[Columbia Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Three for the Road]]'' || 1987 || New Century-Vista
|''[[Three for the Road (1987 film)|Three for the Road]]'' || 1987 || New Century-Vista
|-
|-
|''[[To Grandmother's House We Go]]'' || 1992 || [[Warner Bros. Television]]
|''[[To Grandmother's House We Go]]'' || 1992 || [[Warner Bros. Television]]
Line 428: Line 488:
|-
|-
|''[[Two-Lane Blacktop]]'' || 1971 || [[Universal Pictures]]
|''[[Two-Lane Blacktop]]'' || 1971 || [[Universal Pictures]]
|-
|''[[Uncle Frank (film)|Uncle Frank]]'' || 2020 || Amazon Studios
|-
|-
|''[[Uncle Peckerhead]]''
|''[[Uncle Peckerhead]]''
|2020
|2020
|[[Epic Pictures Group]]
|[[Epic Pictures Group]]
|-
|''[[The Unknown Country]]'' || 2022 || [[Music Box Films]]
|-
|''[[Unpregnant]]'' || 2020 || [[HBO Max]]
|-
|-
|''[[Until the End of the World]]'' || 1991 || Germany, France, Australia, United States || [[Warner Bros.]]
|''[[Until the End of the World]]'' || 1991 || Germany, France, Australia, United States || [[Warner Bros.]]
|-
|-
|''[[Vacation (2015 film)|Vacation]]'' || 2015 || rowspan=5| United States || [[Universal Studios]]
|''[[Vacation (2015 film)|Vacation]]'' || 2015 || rowspan=5| United States || [[Warner Bros. Pictures]]
|-
|-
|''[[Vanishing Point (1971 film)|Vanishing Point]]'' || 1971 || [[20th Century Fox]]
|''[[Vanishing Point (1971 film)|Vanishing Point]]'' || 1971 || [[20th Century Fox]]
Line 447: Line 513:
|''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'' || 1957 || Sweden || [[AB Svensk Filmindustri]]
|''[[Wild Strawberries (film)|Wild Strawberries]]'' || 1957 || Sweden || [[AB Svensk Filmindustri]]
|-
|-
|''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' || 1939 || rowspan=2| United States || [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
|''[[The Wizard of Oz (1939 film)|The Wizard of Oz]]'' || 1939 || United States || [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]]
|-
|''[[Wolf Creek (film)|Wolf Creek]]'' || 2005 ||Australia || Roadshow Entertainment
|-
|-
|''[[Wristcutters: A Love Story]]'' || 2006 || Autonomous Films
|''[[Wristcutters: A Love Story]]'' || 2006 || United States || Autonomous Films
|-
|-
|''[[Y Tu Mamá También]]'' || 2001 || [[Mexico]] || [[20th Century Fox]] (Mexico) <br /> [[IFC Films]] (North America)
|''[[Y Tu Mamá También]]'' || 2001 || [[Mexico]] || [[20th Century Fox]] (Mexico) <br /> [[IFC Films]] (North America)
|-
|-
|''[[Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara]]'' || 2011 || India || [[Eros International]]
|''[[Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara]]'' || 2011 || India || [[Eros International]]
|-
|}
|}


Line 465: Line 534:
== Further reading ==
== Further reading ==
{{refbegin}}
{{refbegin}}
*Atkinson, Michael. "Crossing the frontiers." ''Sight & Sound'' vol IV number 1 (Jan 1994); p 14-17
*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.&nbsp;14
*Dargis, Manohla. "Roads to freedom." (history and analysis of road movies ) ''Sight and Sound'' July 1991 vol 1 number 3 p.&nbsp;14
* {{cite news |last1=Dyer |first1=Geoff |title=Full speed ahead: the enduring appeal of the road movie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/10/buckle-up-for-a-new-generation-of-road-movies-geoff-dyer |access-date=12 July 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 July 2022 |language=en}}
* {{cite news |last1=Dyer |first1=Geoff |title=Full speed ahead: the enduring appeal of the road movie |url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2022/jul/10/buckle-up-for-a-new-generation-of-road-movies-geoff-dyer |access-date=12 July 2022 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=10 July 2022 |language=en}}
Line 474: Line 543:
*Morris, Christopher. "The Reflexivity of the Road Film." ''Film Criticism'' vol. 28 no. 1 (Fall 2003) p.&nbsp;24-52
*Morris, Christopher. "The Reflexivity of the Road Film." ''Film Criticism'' vol. 28 no. 1 (Fall 2003) p.&nbsp;24-52
*Orgeron, Devin. ''Road movies : from Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
*Orgeron, Devin. ''Road movies : from Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami''. New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.
*Lie, Nadia. (2017). [https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319435534#reviews ''The Latin American (Counter-) Road Movie and Ambivalent Modernity'']''.'' New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-3-319-43553-4}} This book offers a critical survey of the Latin American road film genre through an analysis covering over 160 films.
*Lie, Nadia. (2017). [https://www.palgrave.com/de/book/9783319435534#reviews ''The Latin American (Counter-) Road Movie and Ambivalent Modernity'']. New York: Palgrave-Macmillan. {{ISBN|978-3-319-43553-4}} 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.&nbsp;113–125.
*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.&nbsp;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.
*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.
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== External links ==
== External links ==
* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/roadmovies.html Road Movie Filmography] at [[University of California, Berkeley]]
* [http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/roadmovies.html Road Movie Filmography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20000817211213/http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/roadmovies.html |date=2000-08-17 }} at [[University of California, Berkeley]]


{{Film genres}}
{{Film genres}}

Latest revision as of 01:52, 24 February 2026

For other uses, see Road movie (disambiguation).
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.[1]

A road movie is a genre of film in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives.[2] 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,[3] a "distinctly existential air"[4] and is populated by restless, "frustrated, often desperate characters".[5] 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.[6] 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, and self-discovery.[7] The core theme of road movies is "rebellion against conservative social norms".[5]

There are two main narratives: the quest and the outlaw chase.[8] In the quest-style film, the story meanders as the characters make discoveries (e.g., Two-Lane Blacktop from 1971).[8] 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 from 1994).[8] 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 films.[1] Road movies do not typically use the standard three-act structure used in mainstream films; instead, an "open-ended, rambling plot structure" is used.[5]

The road movie keeps its characters "on the move", and as such the "car, the tracking shot, [and] wide and wild open space" are important iconography elements, similar to a Western movie.[9] 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).[9] Road movies often use the music from the car stereo, which the characters are listening to, as the soundtrack[10] and in 1960s and 1970s road movies, rock music is often used (e.g., Easy Rider from 1969 used a rock soundtrack [11] of songs from Jimi Hendrix, The Byrds and Steppenwolf).

While early road movies from the 1930s focused on couples,[6] in post-World War II films, usually the travellers are male buddies,[4] 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 from 1991).[9] 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 (1994), which depicts a group of drag queens who tour the Australian desert.[9] Other examples of the increasing diversity of the drivers shown in 1990s and subsequent decades' road films are The Living End (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.[8] While rare, there are some road movies about large groups on the road (Get on the Bus from 1996) and lone drivers (Vanishing Point from 1971).

Genre and production elements[edit | edit source]

The road movie has been called an elusive and ambiguous film genre.[7] Timothy Corrigan states that road movies are a "knowingly impure" genre as they have "overdetermined and built-in genre-blending tendencies".[12] Devin Orgeron states that road movies, despite their literal focus on car trips, are "about the [history of] the cinema, about the culture of the image", with road movies created with a mixture of Classical Hollywood film genres.[12] 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[e] contingency".[13]

Road movies are blended with other genres to create a number of subgenres, including: road horror (e.g., Near Dark from 1987); road comedies (e.g., Flirting with Disaster from 1996); road racing films (e.g., Death Race 2000 from 1975) and rock concert tour films (e.g., Almost Famous from 2000).[8] Film noir road movies include Detour (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 (1948) and Gun Crazy.[8] Film noir-influenced road films continued in the neo noir era, with The Hitcher (1986), Delusion (1991), Red Rock West (1992), and Joy Ride (2001).[8]

Even though road movies are a significant and popular genre, it is an "overlooked strain of film history".[5] Major genre studies often do not examine road movies, and there has been little analysis of what qualifies as a road movie.[14]

Country or region of production[edit | edit source]

United States[edit | edit source]

The road movie is mostly associated with the United States, as it focuses on "peculiarly American dreams, tensions and anxieties".[14] 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.[15] 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.[16]

It Happened One Night (1934) is about a rich woman who learns about regular Americans when she travels the highway system by car.

In American road movies, the road is an "alternative space" where the characters, now set apart from conventional society, can experience transformation.[17] For example, in It Happened One Night (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".[18] The scenes in road movies tend to elicit longing for a mythic past.[19]

American road movies have tended to be a white genre, with Spike Lee's Get on the Bus (1996) being a notable exception, as its main characters are African-American men on a bus travelling to the Million Man March (the film depicts the historic role of buses in the American civil rights movement).[20] 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's Chan Is Missing (1982), about a taxi driver trying to find about the Hollywood detective character Charlie Chan, and Abraham Lim's Roads and Bridges (2001), about an Asian-American prisoner who is sentenced to clean up garbage along a Midwestern highway.[21]

Australia[edit | edit source]

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 and noir themes with the destructive power of cars and the country’s harsh, sparsely populated land mass".[22] 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.[23] 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.[23] The Mad Max series, including the first film and its sequels Mad Max 2, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, 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".[8]

The 2010 film Mother Fish, which depicts travel over water, has been called a "No Road"-style road film, as it uses the road movie journey narrative without using roads as a setting.[23]

Other Australian road movies include Peter Weir'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 (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, 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.[24]

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) has been called a "watershed gay road movie that addresses diversity in Australia".[8] Walkabout (1971), Backroads (1977), and Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) use a depiction of travelling through the Australian outback to address the issue of relations between white and Indigenous people.[8]

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.[23] 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 refugees).[23] 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.[23]

Canada[edit | edit source]

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.[25] Canadian road films include Donald Shebib's Goin' Down the Road (1970), three Bruce McDonald films (Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), and Hard Core Logo (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's Crash (1996) depicted drivers who get "perverse sexual arousal through the car crash experience", a subject matter which led to Ted Turner lobbying against the film being shown in US theatres.[8]

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".[21] 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).[21]

Europe[edit | edit source]

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.[26]

The German filmmaker Wim Wenders 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 (1975), and Kings of the Road (1976).[27][28] All three films were shot by cinematographer Robby Müller and mostly take place in West Germany. Kings of the Road includes stillness, which is unusual for road movies, and quietness (except for the rock soundtrack).[29] Other road movies by Wenders include Paris, Texas and Until the End of the World.[30] Wender's road movies "filter nomadic excursions through a pensive Germanic lens" and depict "somber drifters coming to terms with their internal scars".[8]

France has a road movie tradition than stretches from Bertrand Blier's Les Valseuses (1973) and Agnès Varda's Sans toit ni loi (about a homeless woman) to 1990s films such as Merci la vie (1991) and Virginie Despentes and Coralie Trinh Thi's Baise-moi (a controversial film about two women revenging a rape), to 2000s films such as Laurent Cantet's L'emploi du temps (2001) and Cédric Kahn's Feux rouges (2004).[31] 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.[32]

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's Inch'Allah Dimanche (2001), Ismaël Ferroukhi's La Fille de Keltoum (2001) and Tony Gatlif's Exils (2004).[33] 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's Lilja 4-ever (2002), Michael Winterbottom's In This World (2002) and Ulrich Seidl's Import/Export (2007).[33] European road movies also examine post-colonialism, "disclocation, memory and identity".[33]

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's Dumb and Dumber (1994). Spanish films including Los años bárbaros, Carretera y manta, Trileros, Al final del Camino, and Airbag, which has been called the "most successful Spanish road movie of all time".[34] Airbag, along with Slam (2003), El mundo alrededor (2006) and Los managers, are examples of Spanish road films that, like US movies such as Road Trip, uses the "road movie genre as a narrative framework for...gross-out sex comedy".[35] 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).[36] 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 and Oliver Stone.[36]

A second subtype of Spanish road movies is more influenced by the female road movies from the US, such as Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Jonathan Demme's Crazy Mama (1975), Ridley Scott's Thelma & Louise (1991), and Herbert Ross' Boys on the Side (1995), in that they show a "less traditional" and more "visible, innovative, introspective, and realistic" type of woman onscreen.[37] Spanish road movies about women include Hola, ¿estás sola?, Lisboa, 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."[38] 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.[39] 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".[40]

Other European road films include Ingmar Bergman's Wild Strawberries (1957), about an old professor travelling the roads of Sweden and picking up hitchhikers and Jean-Luc Godard's Pierrot le fou (1965) about law-breaking lovers escaping on the road. Both of these films, as well as Roberto Rossellini's Voyage in Italy (1953) and Godard's Weekend (1967) have more "existential sensibility" or pauses for "philosophical digressions of a European bent", as compared with American road films.[8] Three Men and a Leg (1997) features several sketches from filmmakers and producers' Aldo, Giovanni & Giacomo's previous comedy productions overlaid with the rest of the movie's road-trip and romantic comedy atmosphere.[41] Other European road films include Chris Petit's Radio On (1979), a Wim Wenders-influenced film set on the M4 motorway; Aki Kaurismäki's Leningrad Cowboys Go America ( 1989), about a fictional Russian rock band which travels to the US; and Theo Angelopoulos' Landscape in the Mist, about a road trip from Greece to Germany.

Latin America[edit | edit source]

Road movies made in Latin America are similar in feel to European road films.[8] 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.[8] Luis Buñuel'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 (1995, Cuba), and Central do Brasil (Central Station, 1998, Brazil).[8] Some Latin American road movies are also set in the era of conquest, such as Cabeza de Vaca (1991, Mexico). Movies about outlaws escaping from justice include Profundo Carmesí (Deep Crimson, 1996, Mexico) and El Camino (The Road, 2000, Argentina).[8] Y tu mamá también (And Your Mother Too, 2001, Mexico) is about two young male buddies who have sexual adventures on the road.[8]

Countries of the former USSR[edit | edit source]

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 (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 (2008), Leviathan (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 style, the road movie experienced a new revival. Most precious are pieces from Sergei Loznitsa, 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.

India[edit | edit source]

Indian screens saw a series of road movies with experimental filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma's works such as Kshana Kshanam. Rachel Dwyer, a reader in world cinema at the University of London-Department of South Asia, marked Varma's contribution into the new-age film noir.[42][43] The film received critical reception at the Ann Arbor Film Festival, which led to a series of genre-benders like Mani Ratnam's Thiruda Thiruda, and Varma's Daud, Anaganaga Oka Roju and Road.[44] Subsequently 21st century bollywood movies witnessed a surge of motion-pictures such as Road, Movie, nominated for the Tokyo Sakura Grand Prix Award, the Tribeca Film Festival,[45][46] and the Generation 14plus at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in 2010.[47] 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.[48][49] It won special prize at Sofia International Film Festival.[50][51] In Karwaan, the protagonist is forced to set out on a road trip from Bengaluru to Kochi after he loses his father in an accident, but the body delivered to him is of the mother of a woman in another state.[52]

Ryan Gilbey of The Guardian was broadly positive about Zoya Akhtar's Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara; 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 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.[53] Piku tells the story of the short-tempered Piku Banerjee (Deepika Padukone), her grumpy, aging father Bhashkor (Amitabh Bachchan) and Rana Chaudhary (Irrfan Khan), who is stuck between the father-daughter duo, as they embark on a journey from Delhi to Kolkata.[54] In Nagesh Kukunoor'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, 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[55] Finding Fanny is based on a road trip set in Goa and follows the journey of five dysfunctional friends who set out on a road trip in search of Fanny.[56] 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 near a town in Kutch.[57]

Africa[edit | edit source]

Several road movies have been produced in Africa, including Cocorico! Monsieur Poulet (1977, Niger); The Train of Salt and Sugar (2016, Mozambique); Hayat (2016, Morocco); Touki Bouki (1973, Senegal) and Borders (2017, Burkina Faso).[58][59]

History[edit | edit source]

John Ford's 1939 Western Stagecoach has been called a proto-road movie.

The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the Odyssey[5] and the Aeneid. The road film is a standard plot employed by screenwriters. It is a type of bildungsroman, 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 (1615), which uses a description of a journey to create social satire; The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), a story about a journey down the Mississippi River that is full of social commentary; Heart of Darkness (1902), about a journey down a river in the Belgian Congo to search for a rogue colonial trader; and Women in Love (1920), which describes "travel and mobility" while also providing social commentary about the woes of industrialization.[5] 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.[5]

Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath (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".[5] The movie version of the novel, made a year later, depicts the hungry, weary family's travel on Route 66 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.[60] 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.[5] In the book, which describe's Miller's cross-country journey across the United States, he criticizes the nation's descent into materialism.[5]

Western films such as John Ford's Stagecoach (1939) have been called "proto-road movies".[61] 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.[62] Even though the travellers are so unlike each other, the mutual danger they must face in travelling through Geronimo's Apache territory requires them to work together to create a "utopia of...community".[60] 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.[15] The on-the-road plot was used at the birth of American cinema but blossomed in the years after World War II, 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[61] and for mostly showing white people.[63]

The Grapes of Wrath (1940) is about an entire family on the road.

The road movie of the pre-WW II era was changed by the publication of Jack Kerouac's On the Road 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.[64] 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.[65]

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.[66] On the Road and another novel published in the same era, Vladimir Nabokov's novel Lolita (1955), have been called "two monumental road novels that rip back and forth across American with a subversive erotic charge."[8]

In the 1950s, there were "wholesome" road comedies such as Bob Hope and Bing Crosby's Road to Bali (1952), Vincente Minnelli's The Long, Long Trailer (1954) and the Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis film Hollywood or Bust (1956).[8] There were not many 1950s road films, but "postwar youth culture" was depicted in The Wild One (1953) and Rebel Without a Cause (1955).[8]

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".[5] 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.[5] Awareness of the "road picture" as a separate genre came only in the 1960s with Bonnie and Clyde[citation needed] and Easy Rider.[67] Road movies were an important genre in the late 1960s and 1970s era of the New Hollywood, with films such as Terrence Malick's Badlands and Richard Sarafian's Vanishing Point (1971) showing an influence from Bonnie and Clyde.[68]

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's A bout de souffle (1960) and François Truffaut's Tirez sur la pianiste (1960).[69] 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.[69]

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".[6] 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).[6] 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.[70]

There have been three historical eras of the "outlaw-rebel" road movie: the post-WW II film noir era (e.g., Detour), 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, Thelma & Louise and Natural Born Killers).[71] In the 1970s, there were low-budget outlaw films depicting chases, such as Eddie Macon's Run.[30] In the 1980s, there were rural Southern road movies such as Smokey and the Bandit and the Cannonball Run chase films of 1981 and 1984.[30] The outlaw couple movie was reinvented in the 1990s with a postmodernist take in films such as Wild at Heart, Kalifornia and True Romance.[72]

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’s Easy Rider, which showed how American society was transformed by the social and cultural trends of the late 1960s.[1] 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.[5]

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".[14] Despite these examples of the post-WW II aspects of road movies, Cohan and Hark argue that road movies go back to the 1930s.[73]

In the 2000s, a new crop of road movies was produced, including Vincent Gallo's Brown Bunny (2003), Alexander Payne's Sideways (2004), Jim Jarmusch's Broken Flowers (2005) and Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy (2006) and scholars are taking more interest in examining the genre.[74] The British Film Institute highlights ten post-2000 road films that show that "[t]here’s still plenty of gas left in the road movie genre".[75] The BFI's top 10 include Andrea Arnold’s American Honey (2016), which used "mostly non-professional actors"; Alfonso Cuarón's Y tu mamá también (2001), about Mexican teens on the road; The Brown Bunny (2003), which garnered publicity for its "infamous fellatio scene"; Walter Salles' The Motorcycle Diaries (2004), about Che Guevera's epic motorcycle trip; Mark Duplass and Jay Duplass' The Puffy Chair (2005), the "first mumblecore road movie"; Broken Flowers (2005); Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris' Little Miss Sunshine (2006), about a family's trip in a VW camper van; Old Joy (2006); Alexander Payne's Nebraska (2013), which depicts a father and son on a road trip; Steven Knight's Locke (2013), about a construction executive taking stressful calls on a road trip; and Jafar Panahi's Taxi Tehran (2015), about a cab driver ferrying strange passengers around the city.[75] Timothy Corrigan has called the postmodern road movie a "borderless refuse bin" of "mise en abyme" reflection, reflecting a modern audience that is not able to think of a "naturalized history".[5] 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.[5]

Movies of this genre[edit | edit source]

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.

Title Year Country Distribution
A French Holiday 2018 United Kingdom, United States, France Sony Pictures Releasing
A Perfect World 1993 United States Warner Bros.
Adventures in Babysitting 1987 Buena Vista Pictures
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn 1939 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
The Adventures of Priscilla,
Queen of the Desert		 1994 Australia Gramercy Pictures
Alice in the Cities 1974 West Germany Bauer International
Aloha, Bobby and Rose 1975 United States Columbia Pictures
Alvin and the Chipmunks:
The Road Chip		 2015 United States 20th Century Fox
Ameerika Suvi (American Summer) 2016 Estonia
American Honey 2016 United States A24
Are We There Yet? 2005 United States, Canada Columbia Pictures
As Crazy as It Gets 2015 Nigeria
As Good as It Gets 1997 United States TriStar Pictures
Badlands 1973 Warner Bros.
Basilicata Coast to Coast 2010 Italy
Beavis and Butt-Head Do America 1996 United States Paramount Pictures
Bimmer 2003 Russia
Black Sheep 1996 United States Paramount Pictures
The Blue Bird 1940 20th Century Fox
The Blues Brothers 1980 Universal Pictures
Bones and All[76] 2022 Frenesy Film Company
Bonnie and Clyde 1967 Warner Bros.
Boys on the Side 1995
Breakdown 1997 Paramount Pictures
The Bride Came C.O.D. 1941 Warner Bros.
The Bucket List 2007
Burn Burn Burn 2015 United Kingdom Verve Pictures
Cactus 2008 Australia Hoyts Distribution
The Cannonball Run 1981 United States, Hong Kong 20th Century Fox
Charlie 2015 India RFT Films
Children Who Chase Lost Voices 2011 Japan Media Factory
College Road Trip 2008 United States Walt Disney Pictures
Come as You Are (aka Hasta la Vista) 2011 Belgium Eureka Entertainment
Cop Car 2015 United States Universal Home Entertainment
Coupe de Ville 1990 Warner Bros.
Crossroads 2002 Paramount Pictures
Death Proof 2007 Dimension Films
Detroit Rock City[77] 1999 Base-12 Productions
Dhanak 2016 India
Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Long Haul 2017 United States 20th Century Fox
Dirty Girl 2010 The Weinstein Company
Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry 1974 20th Century Fox
Don’t Make Me Go 2022 Amazon Studios
The Doom Generation 1995 Trimark Pictures
Drive-Away Dolls 2024 Focus Features
Drive My Car 2021 Japan Bitters End (Japan)
Due Date 2010 United States Warner Bros.
Duel 1971 Universal Pictures
Dumb and Dumber 1994 New Line Cinema
Dumb and Dumber To 2014 Universal Pictures
Easy Rider 1969 Sony Pictures Releasing
Ed, Edd n Eddy's Big Picture Show 2009 United States, Canada Warner Bros. Television
Egghead & Twinkie 2023 United States CanBeDone Films
EuroTrip 2004 United States, Czech Republic DreamWorks Pictures
Eyjafjallajökull 2013 France
Fanboys 2009 United States The Weinstein Company
Fandango 1985 Warner Bros.
The Fundamentals of Caring 2016 Netflix
Gamyam 2008 India
Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie 2025 United States Universal Pictures
(via DreamWorks Animation)
Get on the Bus 1996 Sony Pictures Releasing
God Bless America 2011 Magnolia Pictures
Goin' Down the Road 1970 Canada Chevron Pictures
Goodbye Berlin 2016 Germany StudioCanal
Goodbye Pork Pie 1981 New Zealand
A Goofy Movie 1995 United States Buena Vista Pictures
The Grapes of Wrath 1940 20th Century Fox
Grave of the Fireflies 1988 Japan Toho
Green Book 2018 United States Participant Media
The Guilt Trip 2012 Paramount Pictures
Gypsy 2019 India Olympia Pictures
Hacksaw 2020 United States Midnight Releasing
Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle 2004 New Line Cinema
Have Dreams, Will Travel 2007
Heavy Trip[78] 2018 Finland Making Movies
Heavier Trip[79] 2024 Heimathafen Film
The Hills Have Eyes 1977 United States Vanguard
The Hitcher 1986 United States TriStar Pictures
Hitch-Hike 1977 Italy
Huckleberry Finn 1931 United States Paramount Pictures
Il Sorpasso 1962 Italy
In America 2002 Ireland, United Kingdom, United States Fox Searchlight Pictures
Interstate 60 2002 United States, Canada Samuel Goldwyn Films
Into the Night 1985 United States Universal Pictures
Into the Wild 2007 Paramount Vantage
It Happened One Night 1934 Columbia Pictures
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World 1963 United Artists
Kanni Thaai 1965 India
Karachi se Lahore 2015 Pakistan IMGC Global Entertainment
Kingpin 1996 United States Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Kings of the Road 1976 West Germany Axiom Films
Knockin' on Heaven's Door 1997 Germany Buena Vista International
Kodachrome 2017 United States Netflix
Kshana Kshanam 1991 India Durga Arts
Lahore Se Aagey 2016 Pakistan ARY Films
The Last Detail 1973 United States Columbia Pictures
Leningrad Cowboys Go America 1989 Finland, Sweden Finnkino
The Little Bear Movie 2001 Canada, United States Paramount Home Video
Little Miss Sunshine 2006 United States Fox Searchlight Pictures
The Living End[80] 1992 Cineplex Odeon Films
Logan 2017 United States 20th Century Fox
Loev 2015 India Netflix
Looney Tunes: Rabbits Run United States Warner Home Video
Lost in America 1985 Warner Bros.
M Cream 2014 India All Rights Entertainment
Mad Max 1979 Australia Warner Bros.
Mad Max 2 1981
Mad Max: Fury Road 2015 Australia, United States
Made In U.S.A. 1985 United States Tri-Star Pictures
Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted 2012 Paramount Pictures
Madeline: Lost in Paris 1999 United States Walt Disney Home Video
Magic Trip 2011 Magnolia Pictures
Midnight Run 1988 Universal Pictures
Midnight Special 2016 Warner Bros. Pictures
The Mitchells vs. the Machines 2021 Netflix
Moana 2016 Walt Disney Animation Studios
Motorama 1991 Two Moon Releasing
The Motorcycle Diaries 2004 Argentina, United States, Chile, Peru,
Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, France		 Buena Vista International (ARG)
Pathé (UK)
Focus Features (USA)
Mourning (aka Soog or Soug, سوگ) 2011 Iran
The Muppet Movie 1979 United States, United Kingdom Associated Film Distribution
My Own Private Idaho 1991 United States Fine Line Features
National Lampoon's European Vacation 1985 Warner Bros.
National Lampoon's Vacation 1983
Natural Born Killers 1994
Nebraska 2013 Paramount Vantage
Neelakasham Pachakadal Chuvanna Bhoomi 2013 India E4 Entertainment & PJ Entertainments Europe
O Brother, Where Art Thou? 2000 United States, United Kingdom, France Buena Vista Pictures Distribution (North America)

Universal Pictures (International)

Old Joy 2006 United States Film Science
Olave Mandara 2011 India Alliance Picturesv.
On the Road 2012 United States, United Kingdom,
France, Brazil, Canada		 IFC Films
Onward 2020 United States Pixar Animation Studios
Paper Moon 1973 Paramount Pictures
Paper Towns 2015 20th Century Fox
The Parade 2011 Serbia Filmstar
Paris, Texas 1984 West Germany, France 20th Century Fox
Paul 2011 United States Universal Pictures
Pee-wee's Big Adventure 1985 Warner Bros.
Pee-wee's Big Holiday 2016 Netflix
Pierrot le Fou 1965 France Société Nouvelle de Cinématographie
Piku 2015 India Yash Raj Films
Plan B 2021 United States Hulu
Planes, Trains and Automobiles 1987 United States Paramount Pictures
Professor Beware 1938
Quiz Lady 2023 Hulu
Rain Man 1988 MGM/UA Communications Company
The Road 2009 United States Dimension Films
Road, Movie (Script error: The function "langx" does not exist.) 2009 India Madman Entertainment
Tribeca Film
Road to Morocco 1942 United States Paramount Pictures
Road to Yesterday 2015 Nigeria FilmOne Distribution
Road Trip 2000 United States DreamWorks Pictures
The Montecito Picture Company
The Road Within 2014 Well Go USA Entertainment
Rock-A-Doodle 1992 United States, United Kingdom, Ireland The Samuel Goldwyn Company (USA)
The Rank Organisation (UK)
The Rover 2014 Australia Village Roadshow
A24
The Rugrats Movie 1998 United States Paramount Pictures
Nickelodeon Movies
Rugrats in Paris: The Movie 2000 United States, Germany
RV 2006 United States Columbia Pictures
Sacramento 2024 Vertical
Scarecrow 1973 Warner Bros.
Sideways 2004 Fox Searchlight Pictures
Smoke Signals 1998 United States, Canada Miramax
Smokey and the Bandit 1977 United States Universal Pictures
The Spongebob SquarePants Movie 2004 Paramount Pictures
The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run 2020
Spike Island[81] 2012 United Kingdom Revolver Entertainment
Stagecoach 1939 United States United Artists
Stagecoach 1966 20th Century Fox
The Straight Story 1999 United States, United Kingdom, France Buena Vista Pictures
The Sugarland Express 1974 United States Universal Pictures
The Sunchaser 1996 Warner Bros.
The Sure Thing 1985 Embassy Pictures
Taxi Driver: Oko Ashewo 2015 Nigeria FilmOne Distributions
Thelma & Louise 1991 United States Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
These Final Hours 2013 Australia Roadshow Films
Things Are Tough All Over 1982 United States Columbia Pictures
Three for the Road 1987 New Century-Vista
To Grandmother's House We Go 1992 Warner Bros. Television
Tommy Boy 1995 Paramount Pictures
Transamerica 2005 The Weinstein Company
IFC Films
Two-Lane Blacktop 1971 Universal Pictures
Uncle Frank 2020 Amazon Studios
Uncle Peckerhead 2020 Epic Pictures Group
The Unknown Country 2022 Music Box Films
Unpregnant 2020 HBO Max
Until the End of the World 1991 Germany, France, Australia, United States Warner Bros.
Vacation 2015 United States Warner Bros. Pictures
Vanishing Point 1971 20th Century Fox
We're the Millers 2013 Warner Bros. Pictures
Wild at Heart 1990 The Samuel Goldwyn Company
Wild Hogs 2007 Touchstone Pictures
Wild Strawberries 1957 Sweden AB Svensk Filmindustri
The Wizard of Oz 1939 United States Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Wolf Creek 2005 Australia Roadshow Entertainment
Wristcutters: A Love Story 2006 United States Autonomous Films
Y Tu Mamá También 2001 Mexico 20th Century Fox (Mexico)
IFC Films (North America)
Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara 2011 India Eros International

See also[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Salles, Walter (11 November 2007). "Notes for a Theory of the Road Movie". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 August 2018.
  2. ↑ Danesi, Marcel (2008). Dictionary of Media and Communications. M.E. Sharpe. p. 256. ISBN 978-0-7656-8098-3.
  3. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1 and 6
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 Laderman, David. Driving Visions: Exploring the Road Movie. University of Texas Press, 2010. Ch. 1
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 8
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 2
  8. ↑ 8.00 8.01 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 8.10 8.11 8.12 8.13 8.14 8.15 8.16 8.17 8.18 8.19 8.20 "Road Movies". www.encyclopedia.com. Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film. Retrieved 13 September 2018.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 Hayward, Susan. "Road movie" in Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (Third Edition). Routledge, 2006. p. 335-336
  10. ↑ Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 20
  11. ↑ Archer, Neil. The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 25
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Orgeron, Devin. Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. Springer, 2007. p. 3
  13. ↑ Moser, Walter. "Présentation. Le road movie : un genre issu d’une constellation moderne de locomotion et de médiamotion." Cinémas, volume 18, number 2-3, printemps 2008, p. 7–30. doi:10.7202/018415ar
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 2
  15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 3
  16. ↑ Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 6
  17. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5
  18. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 5-6
  19. ↑ Orgeron, Devin. Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. Springer, 2007. p. 5
  20. ↑ Archer, Neil. The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18
  21. ↑ 21.0 21.1 21.2 Swirski, Peter. All Roads Lead to the American City. Hong Kong University Press, 2007, p. 28
  22. ↑ Nette, Andrew (7 April 2017). "10 great dystopian Australian road movies". www.bfi.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved 21 August 2018. Australia's sheer size and relatively concentrated population means much of its cinema has either taken the form of road movies or contains aspects of the road film genre.
  23. ↑ 23.0 23.1 23.2 23.3 23.4 23.5 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
  24. ↑ Nette, Andrew (7 April 2017). "10 great dystopian Australian road movies". www.bfi.org.uk. British Film Institute. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  25. ↑ Bell, Robert (6 September 2011). "I'm Yours: Leonard Farlinger". exclaim.ca. Exclaim. Retrieved 21 August 2018.
  26. ↑ Oliete-Aldea, Elena; Oria, Beatriz; and Tarancón Juan A. Global Genres, Local Films: The Transnational Dimension of Spanish Cinema. Bloomsbury Publishing USA, 2015. p. 147-8
  27. ↑ Brody, Richard (3 September 2015). "Where Wim Wenders Went Wrong". The New Yorker. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  28. ↑ Pulver, Andrew (4 March 2015). "Wim Wenders retrospective: five to watch, and one to miss". The Guardian. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  29. ↑ Orgeron, Devin. Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. Springer, 2007. p. 140-147
  30. ↑ 30.0 30.1 30.2 Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 10
  31. ↑ Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 1
  32. ↑ Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 18-19
  33. ↑ 33.0 33.1 33.2 Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 3
  34. ↑ 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. 144
  35. ↑ 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
  36. ↑ 36.0 36.1 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
  37. ↑ 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. 148
  38. ↑ 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. 148
  39. ↑ 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. 149 and 153
  40. ↑ 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. 152
  41. ↑ Rooney, David (1998-01-12). "Three Men and a Leg". Variety. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  42. ↑ "The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum". tribuneindia.com.
  43. ↑ Rachel Dwyer (30 May 2005). "Behind The Scenes". Outlook Magazine. Retrieved 18 August 2010.
  44. ↑ "Edouard Waintrop on the New Indian Cinema : UP Front – India Today". India Today. 18 May 2012. Retrieved 27 September 2012.
  45. ↑ "Road, Movie". Toronto International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 25 December 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  46. ↑ "Road Movie set to premier in Toronto on Friday". CNN-IBN. 18 September 2009. Archived from the original on 23 September 2009. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  47. ↑ Bollywood Trade News Network (14 January 2010). "ROAD, MOVIE selected as Berlin Festival opener". AOL Bollywood. Retrieved 21 January 2010.
  48. ↑ "Geethu Mohandas' 'Liar's Dice' is India's official entry to the Oscars". CNN-IBN. 23 September 2014. Archived from the original on 24 September 2014. Retrieved 2014-10-19.
  49. ↑ "Oscars: India Selects 'Liar's Dice' for Foreign-Language Category". Hollywood Reporter. 23 September 2014. Retrieved 23 September 2014.
  50. ↑ "Liar's Dice wins Special Jury award at Sofia International Film Festival". DearCinema.com. Archived from the original on 21 March 2014.
  51. ↑ "Top 10 small-budget independent films set to release in 2015". mid-day. 9 January 2015.
  52. ↑ "Movie Review: Karwaan". filmfare.com. Retrieved 2018-08-05.
  53. ↑ Ryan Gilbey (2 August 2011). "Ryan Gilbey's Bollywood contract: Hindi heroes pack a soft and hard punch". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 September 2013. Retrieved 2 August 2011.
  54. ↑ "'Piku' trailer to be released with 'Detective Byomkesh Bakshy!'". No. Mid-Day.com. Mid-Day. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  55. ↑ "Dhanak | Rainbow | Regenbogen". www.berlinale.de.
  56. ↑ "Deepika Padukone, Arjun Kapoor Team Up for English Film". International Business Times. 10 May 2013. Retrieved 28 June 2013.
  57. ↑ "News18.com: CNN News18 Latest News, Breaking News India, Current News Headlines". News18. Archived from the original on 23 September 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2017.
  58. ↑ "20 best African films – ranked!". the Guardian. October 1, 2020.
  59. ↑ Peer, Stefanie Elvire Van De (29 September 2017). "The African road movies of Khouribga | Transnational Moroccan Cinema".
  60. ↑ 60.0 60.1 Archer, Neil. The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 15
  61. ↑ 61.0 61.1 Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 5
  62. ↑ Archer, Neil. The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 16
  63. ↑ Archer, Neil. The Road Movie: In Search of Meaning. Columbia University Press, 2016. p. 18-19
  64. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 6-7
  65. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 7
  66. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 7-8
  67. ↑ Cowen, Nick; Hari Patience (26 Feb 2009). "Wheels On Film: Easy Rider". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 2022-01-12. Retrieved 22 July 2013.
  68. ↑ Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 8
  69. ↑ 69.0 69.1 Archer, Neil. THE FRENCH ROAD MOVIE: Space, Mobility, Identity. Berghahn Books. p. 13
  70. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 9
  71. ↑ Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 2
  72. ↑ Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 14
  73. ↑ Cohan, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. "Introduction". The Road Movie Book. Eds. Cohen, Steven and Hark, Ina Rae. Routledge, 2002. p. 1
  74. ↑ Orgeron, Devin. Road Movies: From Muybridge and Méliès to Lynch and Kiarostami. Springer, 2007. p. 8
  75. ↑ 75.0 75.1 Lunn, Oliver (23 January 2018). "10 great road movies of the 21st century". www.bfi.org.uk. BFI. Retrieved 13 October 2018.
  76. ↑ Ide, Wendy. "Bones and All review – an elegant lovers-on-the-run road movie, with cannibals". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 May 2025.
  77. ↑ "The Delightful Deviance of Detroit Rock City". Retrieved 17 March 2025.
  78. ↑ Young, Deborah. "'Heavy Trip' ('Hevi Reissu'): Film Review". Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 17 March 2025.
  79. ↑ Orozco, Matthew. ""HEAVIER TRIP" (2024) Is A Raucous Sequel That Will Have You Headbanging For More! (REVIEW)". Retrieved 17 March 2025.
  80. ↑ Maslin, Janet (April 3, 1992). "Review/Film Festival: The Living End; Footloose, Frenzied and H.I.V.-Positive". The New York Times.
  81. ↑ Taylor, Trey. "Spike Island style". Dazed. Retrieved 17 March 2025.

Further reading[edit | edit source]

  • 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
  • Dyer, Geoff (10 July 2022). "Full speed ahead: the enduring appeal of the road movie". The Guardian. Retrieved 12 July 2022.
  • 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. ISBN 978-3-319-43553-4 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.
  • Cohan, Steven; Hark, Ina Rae, eds. (1997). The Road Movie Book. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-14937-2. OCLC 36458232. This book collects 16 essays on road movies.

External links[edit | edit source]

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