My favorites;
Pierrot le Fou
Stagecoach
The Passenger
La Strada
Bound for Glory
The Grapes of Wrath
Paper Moon
Down by Law
The Motorcycle Diaries
Two-lane Blacktop
and
Bonnie and Clyde.
I think everyone forgot Speed, 1994. It’s my 12th all time favorite road movie.
Does anyone besides me remember a very wild and dirty French movie from the 1970s starring Gerard Depardieu titled “Going Places”?
Does Repo Man count as a road movie?
Road movie? How about Road To Singapore, Road Zanzibar, Road to Morocco, and Road to Utopia? It doesn’t get better than Crosby and Hope! Actually it may, but I can watch those pictures over and over again.
Also, what about Spielberg’s Duel from ’71? Although earlier in these forums I was panning Spielberg a bit I think Duel is a great little movie.
“Sideways” immediately comes to mind (even though there is very little time actually spent on the road). I also love the previous mentions of “The Motorcycle Diaries” and “Y Tu Mama Tambien.”
Oh, and let’s not forget “Vacation.”
Mad Max 2….. can’t get any ‘roadier’ than that! and Mel when he was palatable……
Didn’t anyone see “Niagara, Niagara” ?
I liked that one a lot.
also love
Doom Generation
Badlands
Stranger Than Paradise
Paris, Texas
sounds like their are a lot more good ones I need to see.
The king of the Road Movie is, or was till his career took a wrong turn, Wim Wenders: Alice in the Cities, Paris Texas, Kings of the Road.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles anyone?
Broken Flowers. It’s simple yet great
Slow Moves + Last Chants for A Slow Dance, both by Jon Jost.
Most of the other good ones have been mentioned except:
Taste of Cherry (maybe questionable)
Candy Mountain
I’m sure there are plenty more. Personal favs already mentioned would be “Two Lane Blacktop”, “Wanda” + “Pierrot le Fou”.
La Strada
The darjeeling Limited
Wild Strawberries
The Motorcycle Diarie
roadkill and highway 61
>>Where’s the love for Hope & Crosby? Road To Morocco!!!!<<
I wondered the same thing myself.
But given the parameters being displayed here:
NORTH BY BORTHWEST
SABOTEUR
THE SEVENTH SEAL
O LUCKY MAN
I agree with many others, including Two-Lane Blacktop, Paris Texas, My Own Private Idaho and more.
I would include COCKFIGHTER by Hellman as well.
And I’ve recently become a big fan of Kelly Reichardt’s films OLD JOY and WENDY AND LUCY.
Also, I think GERRY by Gus Van Sant would qualify.
Pee-wee’s Big Adventure
Vanishing Point
Badlands
Two Lane Blacktop
Natural Born Killers
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Wild at Heart
True Romance
Straight Story
Knife in the Water
Radio On—a British, existentialist version of the road movie that forgoes coherent narrative or plot for mood and intensity—takes seriously the idea that the road is a serial set of experiences bound together by the fact one is crossing through space. Very sparse dialogue balanced with a brilliant use of music, including Bowie, Eno and “The Whole Wide World” by Wreckless Eric.
Three Crowns of the Sailor by Raoul Ruiz
Not so much a road movie as a travel movie, but it loosely fits into this category. Just replace the road with the sea.
Kings of the Road
My favorite road movie is one of my favorite films: THE PASSENGER.
The most recently watched road movie: Barbara Loden’s WANDA. Disturbing, haunting, quite remarkable.
The last time I watched VERTIGO I came to see it as a kind of urban road movie, Stewart always behind the wheel of his big two-tone (white and grey) DeSoto, or sometimes paired with Novak in the green Jag, but always “wandering.”
Second-Hand Hearts
O Lucky Man
Bloody Kids
Road to Morocco
Y Tu Mama Tambien
Pierrot le Fou
Wanda
Into the Wild
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Two-Lane Blacktop
Road Movie (1974)
or
Wild at Heart
“vertigo” as road movie? hmm. i dont know. first of all, what’s a road movie, if we consider it to be a genre? setting and conflict.
To me a road movie can’t be a comedy, and it must involve driving, either a car or motorcycle or camper. Journeys on horses, rivers, starships, or by foot, imnsho, just don’t count. There must be some existential element, or a type of quest for understanding, even if the search is unfulfilled. The journey must be an essential part of the story, not just what the characters are doing. How’s that for starters….?
why must comedy be excluded a priori?
i agree that the journey must be an essential part of the story, but driving seems too exact for me (though driving is one of the conventions of the road movie).
i also disagree about existentialism as a prerequisite.
so the setting must be on the road. we know that much. but i dont think that road has to be a literal “road” (for cars). the journey is tied in with the setting. the journey is the road, and it can take many forms. so the road movie is set on a literal path where a journey is unfolding, either literally also, or figuratively. whats the conflict?
Here’s another vote for Bruce McDonald’s ROADKILL.
Synopsis (from IMDb): This is an early film by Bruce McDonald filmed on a tiny budget over a few weeks traveling the wilds in Canada. It tells the story of Ramona, sent to recover an errant band who are in danger of missing the final date in their tour. After obtaining the job through falsely claiming to be able to drive, she hires a taxi cab to drive her the hundreds / thousands of miles required to get the job done. On the way she meets a variety of characters from a trainee serial killer (who moans that the only jobs available in Canada are ice hockey players or serial killers, and he’s no good at ice hockey) who’s finding it hard to get off the ground, to a film crew desperate for some live action gore, to a silent young man who refuses to speak as ‘he has nothing left to say any more’. The conclusion to the film is just great, as the spaghetti of apparently isolated plot lines are tied together in a thumping final scene. In true road movie style, Ramona gradually develops and breaks out as she proceeds on her journey, and the whole attitude of the film is very open and free, complemented by the 8mm filming in black and white. It seems very unprofessional but that’s a lot of its charm, only some of which is retained in the bigger budget sequel, ‘Highway 61’
Vanishing Point
Two Lane Blacktop
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
Wild Strawberries
Knife in the Water
Straight Story
Natural Born Killers
Badlands
Roadside Prophets
How about THE DAY OF THE TRIFFIDS and its reamke 28 DAYS LATER?
Or NO BLADE OF GRASS?
Kim Nall
Easy Rider, Motorcycle Diaries, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Y Tu Mama Tambien, and I suppose Into the Wild counts as well?