Road Movie

Occupying that particular niche where the grindhouse and the art-house overlap and sharing an ambiguous air of the American dream turned South with such distinctly 70's underground classics like TWO-LANE BLACKTOP and VANISHING POINT, ROAD MOVIE, although far from a rousing success even as a cult exploitation movie, its obscure, almost forgotten, status fully justified, enhanced by haphazard directing and storytelling deficiencies of all calibre, is a peculiar beast: moody and evocative enough to dismiss as without merits, but too technically challenged to ever come into its own or become visceral or absorbing enough to make its roughshod nature work in its favour.

The story of two independent truck drivers making their way to Chicago to deliver a meat cargo who pick up on their way a whore all out of luck plays second fiddle to the moody portrait of the squalid underbelly of 70's industrial America captured through grainy guerilla tactics. Huge factories smoking in the distance, old iron barrels rusting away in garbage heaps, derelict warehouses, small, nameless towns and cheap motels - all captured from the windows of a moving truck give to the movie a raw, bleak atmosphere that ends up being its strongest point. The director tries for something 'artsier', and while he's no Werner Herzog and the movie is no STROSZEK, the found locations in all their seemy glory enhance an otherwise lackluster film.

What should i say about this movie. Overall it's a good movie. The actors are doing a great job and the story is interesting. Two hardworking men, working as independent truckdrivers picks up a prostitute on their journey to Chicago. The movie is about what happens during that trip. The movie is an adventure, a dramatic roadmovie sort to say and the director is very good mixing the elements of exploitation and art and does it in a very talented way. And i think those last elements makes the movie a bit unique. But i think the end of the movie is the weak part. I think it's a bit over-dramatic and can't figure out why things needed to end the way it did in the absolute finale. Just when you thought things was gonna calm down a bit and the situation would get solved, that "thing" suddenly occurred that made it even worse (a bit illogic in my opinion but what the heck). i grade it only 6/10 cause of that (Not that bad grade anyway).

This is a great little movie and, judging by the lack of comment and sparse reviews here, unjustly neglected.

Apart from the three leads, the main protagonist here is America, the real USA where most people live and work and not the munchkin-land depicted in most Hollywood movies. And what a desolate wasteland it is! So that's where all the Trump supporters come from.

One good aspect of this film is that it does not outstay its welcome. Despite many long sequences of trucks barreling along, and extended views of the landscape from the cab windows, which do not advance the plot at all, the film is done at 88 mins.

One reviewer here criticizes the "unnecessarily" melodramatic ending, which abruptly slams on the handbrake. Perhaps he is right, but having recently watched a string of (mostly French) films with open or ambiguous endings, I am not in the mood to complain.

Although the two male leads are good, the star of the film is Regina Baff as Janice. She is the spiritual successor to Vera, played by Ann Savage, in "Detour" (1945), a similar and even briefer low budget effort now rightly lauded as quintessential Film Noir. She even looks like her, and I am sure Baff must have modeled her performance on that of Savage - cunning, psychotic malice but with streaks of vulnerability.

I bought the DVD hoping to add another gem to my collection of "road movies". In fact, despite more of the action occurring in a moving vehicle that most any film I can recollect, it does not really fall into that genre, in which the journey is a metaphor for spiritual development of the protagonist.

This is pure Film Noir, in which the hero is trapped in a downward spiral by a combination of bad luck and poor choices, the worst of which is usually, as here, getting involved with a Femme Fatale. No hope of spiritual development here, although there are hints that Hank is beginning to see (though too late) what his partner Gil is really like.

In "The Sweet Smell of Success" (1957), Burt Lancaster's character says of Tony Curtis's character "I'd hate to take a bite outta you. You're a cookie full of arsenic." You could not better describe Vera in "Detour", or Janice in this one.

The final shot is ominous, like something from the B-movie SciFi cheapies of the 'fifties. Having wreaked destruction on the truckers, Janice hitches a ride in a private vehicle. It is just like a virus leaving the host it has destroyed to continue its lethal infection within a new one. Which brings us back neatly to "Detour" where the protagonist's downfall is sealed once he picks up the venomous Vera.

Two independent truckies( Bostwick and Drivas) pick up an emotionally battered prostitute(Baff) en route to Chicago. Her presence forces them to change their plans drastically.

Gritty seventies flick has all the hallmarks of the era that make it so great when compared to today's franchised McMovies; excellent performances, gritty characterisation and overall gritty downbeat feel. I found this film to be constantly engaging and intriguing with it's meandering plot taking the viewer on a journey not dissimilar to the film's protaganists. ROAD MOVIE is in a micro genre all by itself and is a fascinating glimpse into the darkside of the truckies' world. The perfs by all three leads are excellent,with Regina Baff a standout as the unstable and unpredictable hooker with a heart of molten lead. The script is solid and the characterisations are full of ambiguity and subtlety. How refreshing to see a flick where the characters aren't cliched cutouts. Cinematography is gritty and portrays the ever changing American landscape as a post apocalyptic wasteland. At times I felt as if I were watching a low key science fiction movie. ROAD MOVIE is an excellent antidote to anyone burnt out by the soulless franchised marketing -driven fx reels that pass for cinema in the current climate.

On the surface there's not much to "Road Movie". Two loser truck drivers pick up a lot lizard and that's where the fun begins. The girl has gangster ties and ends up getting the boys into a lot of trouble...

But the intense mood of this gritty film marks it as different from the rest of the pack. I still think it's one of the most realistic films ever made. There's very few light-hearted scenes and the movie borders on claustrophobic; though the scenery is ever-changing you're drawn into the world inside the truck- everything else is just an obstacle in the way of making a dollar.

As a Class A driver I recommend this film as almost required viewing for anyone planning on getting into the world of trucking. For anyone that thinks life on the road is more like "Smokey and the Bandit" then watch this film. Though some minor things have changed since then a great majority of what still goes on is exactly like it's depicted in the film.

This is one of those films that you watch every five or ten years. Any more then that would probably make you hate it (the sheer bleakness of the picture leaves you little alternative). But once you do see it, you'll never forget it.