![]() It anticipates the phrase “road rage” and takes it to its inevitable extreme. The title suggests that modern day incidents of vehicular violence for perceived slights or bad driving are new forms of channeling aggression and defending one’s honor. The film sets up the public road drama with domestic tension in the form of power inequality and arguments. Originally a TV movie by Steven Spielberg, its popularity eventually led to its being screened in movie theaters. This is an overlooked classic from Hollywood’s pre-code era. The film takes a hard look at the difficulties of eking out a living on the road, as the teenagers face hunger, physical violence, and lack of shelter. When Eddie and Tommy meet Sally, their luck seems as if it might change however, this feeling is fleeting. Like many other kids, they get around by sneaking onto railroad trains and surviving any way they can. Both boys feel they’ll be less of a burden if they leave and go out in search of a job. It doesn’t take long for the story to shift gears when first Tommy’s, then Eddie’s father loses his job. Set during the Depression, the film starts out as a lighthearted look at teenagers going to their school dance. A few references to Easy Rider also give the film a self-reflexive aspect and nod to the road movie genre. What seems like a welcome opportunity to abandon their middle class lifestyle turns into a series of unexpected and unfortunate events accompanied by honest reflection about themselves and their relationship. Not surprisingly, things do not go as planned. Linda and David Howard decide to leave the comfort of their jobs and buy a Winnebago, see the country, and live with fewer obligations and less responsibility in order to capture what they feel they have missed. What makes this film different is the way it questions the idea and myth central to the American Dream. When couples and families in road films embark on a trip, it is often to go on vacation. ![]() However, like all genres, it is constantly being redefined and evolving according to the cultural, social, and political changes of the time to include different voices and perspectives. Perhaps for this reason, the genre often connotes an alignment with masculinity where male desire and privilege take center stage. The increase in the production of automobiles and car ownership after World War II, coupled with government-subsidized road construction, ensured that more Americans would prefer the independence, control, and freedom of traveling on the open road. The car has always been a symbol of American independence and freedom: one can explore the vast landscape (reminiscent of the Western genre and Western expansionism and conquest) and discover one’s self through others. With an increasingly mobile population and routes throughout the country connecting small towns to large cities, this genre has some very American roots. highways and the proliferation and affordability of automobiles. Road films owe a lot of their success and development to the expansion of U.S. Not surprisingly, they often become signifiers of social upheaval and economic catastrophe, most notably The Great Depression and the turbulent era of the 1960s. Road films are about individuals and an inner metamorphosis that takes place en route, but they are also about a culture and society in a particular time and place. The malleability of the narrative possibilities of the road film enables the genre to meld with and be permeated by other genres, including thrillers, horror, comedies, musicals, and melodrama. Moreover, they are metaphors for human life and inner transformation, which cut across any singular notion of genre. Ultimately, such stories fuel both our imagination about what is possible, and about how our lives can be changed through experiences of travel, meeting new people and visiting unfamiliar places. What is more important than the actual means of conveyance-road, ocean, railway track, car, ship, or airplane-is the idea of the road as metaphor. What is The Odyssey if not an Ancient Greek version of the modern-day road trip? Some might wonder whether such a journey must entail an actual road, or in modern times, a car. ![]() While films have portrayed these wanderings for little over a century, the concept has been in literature for millennia. Movies that emphasize both an inward and outward journey, on a conscious level, constitute a genre in which people travel, often to escape, vacation, see something new, have an adventure, or satisfy their own wanderlust. “The theme of the journey,” Federico Fellini once stated in an interview, “is one of the great foundations of the art of narration.” This idea proves true in road films, both literally and figuratively.
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