Film Genre Presentation

RABBIT PROOF FENCE - GENRE: ROAD MOVIE Production Details: Director:

Phillip Noyce

Date:

Australia 2002

Source:

The screenplay by Christine Olsen is based on a book by Doris Pilkington, telling the story of the experiences of her mother, Molly, her aunt Daisy and their cousin Gracie.

Actors:

Kenneth Branagh (A.O. Neville) and Aboriginal Cast

Soundtrack:

Peter Gabriel

Length:

94 minutes

Premiere:

Dec. 25th, 2002

Awards:

Aspen Filmfest 2002 Won Audience Award Audience Favorite Feature Australian Film Institute 2002 Won AFI Award Best Film, Best Original Music Score, Best Sound, Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design, Best Direction, Best Editing, Best Production Design, Best Screenplay Adapted from Another Source 2002 Won ASPI Award Denver International Film Festival , 2002 Won People's Choice Award Best FeatureLength Fiction Film Edinburgh International Film Festival, 2002 Won Audience Award Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, 2002 Won FCCA Award Best Director, Best Screenplay Golden Globes, USA, 2003 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture If Awards, 2002 Won If Award Best Actress (Everlyn Sampi) London Critics Circle Film Awards, 2003 Won ALFS Award Director of the Year, etc.

Characteristics and Structure of Road Movies: This genre — as most other pure genre films - usually works according to a fixed pattern that consists of various stages, which are stressed in different ways. These stages are: basis — conflict — challenge (usually some journey) — solution combined with a change in character. In the case of Rabbit Proof Fence this structure is as follows: [Frame] — Village — Abduction — Camp — Flight (longest part) — Arrival — [Frame] — Epilogue

Some other typical films of this genre (alphabethic order): The Big Bus (1976): All aboard the bus for this parody of disaster movies. Better yet, take the airplane. Boys on the Side (1995): Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker, and Drew Barrymore have 3,000 miles of bonding experiences while driving across the country. Breaking the Rules (1992): Jason Bateman, C. Thomas Howell, and Annie Potts in a film about two friends who want to take their dying friend on his last journey. Cannonball (1976): David Carradine and Veronica Hamel in a cross-country road race.

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Film Genre Presentation The Chase (1994): Charlie Sheen, having escaped from imprisonment on a false charge, takes Kristy Swanson on the lam with him, traveling the highways, setting off a media frenzy above and behind them, and basically bonding like crazy. Convoy (1978): Ali McGraw and truck driver Kris Kristofferson "meet cute" in a not entirely horrible trucker-with-CB-radio movie based on C.W. McCall's hit song of the same name. Diarios de motocicleta (2004) The Motorcycle Diaries" is based on the journals of Che Guevara, leader of the Cuban Revolution. In his memoirs, Guevara recounts adventures he, and best friend Alberto Granado, had while crossing South America by motorcycle in the early 1950s. Duel (1971): TV movie by Steven Spielberg pits a business man against a mysterious trucker. Easy Rider (1969): Peter Fonda, Dennis Hopper, and Jack Nicholson in a classic search for America on motorcycle. The Grapes of Wrath (1940): The Joad family, including son Henry Fonda, heads for California on Route 66 in this classic film version of John Steinbeck's classic novel. The Great Race (1965): This comic auto race stars everyone from Jack Lemmon to Dorothy Provine. Hell's Angels on Wheels (1967): Jack Nicholson is a gas station attendant named Poet in this movie about the biker gang. Highway 61 (1991): From Ontario to New Orleans on the blues highways, with a coffin on the roof of the car. The Hitch-Hiker (1953): The last thing these businessmen wanted to pick up was a murderous hitchhiker. Indien (1993) the story of two simple men on their journey through Austria they get to know and like each other. The movie starts out funny and gets very sad in the end. Intersection (1994): You'll want to buckle your safety belt after Richard Gere, Sharon Stone, and Lolita Davidovich show what can happen after an accident. It Happened One Night (1934): Clark Gable and Claudette Colbert fall in love on a rural bus trip. Includes hitchhiking tips. It's a Gift (1934): W.C. Fields and family hit the road for California, where things aren't as advertised. Kalifornia (1993): Brad Pitt stars in a movie that illustrates why a couple researching a coffee table book on serial killers should be very careful in selecting travel companions. Roadgames (1981): Stacey Keach is a truck driver who picks up hitchhiking Jamie Lee Curtis. Six of a Kind (1934): George Burns and Gracie Allen travel west for a vacation. Smokey and the Bandit (1977): A cross-country car and truck chase with Burt Reynolds, Jerry Reed, Sally Field, and Jackie Gleason. Inspired 1980 and 1983 sequels (although "inspired" is probably not the correct word for Smokey III). Something Wild (1986): Jeff Daniels and Melanie Griffith demonstrate why a straight arrow businessman should think twice before driving cross country with a flaky woman he just met. Song of the Open Road (1944): A juvenile film star takes to the road and joins the Civilian Conservation Corps. Speed (1994): Keanu Reeves, Dennis Hopper, and Sandra Bullock demonstrate the perils of The Sugarland Express (1974): Stephen Spielberg's first theatrical release follows a fugitive couple fleeing to Sugarland, Texas. Goldie Hawn stars. The Sure Thing (1985): If your dream is across the country, one way of finding her is to hit the road. Thelma and Louise (1991): Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis hit the highway but take a wrong turn. They Drive by Night (1940): Melodrama of truck driving brothers, with George Raft, Ann Sheridan, and Humphrey Bogart. Thieves' Highway (1949): Underworld mobsters move in on the California trucking business. Those Daring Young Men in Their Jaunty Jalopies (1969): International cast in a 1920s auto race to Monte Carlo. Thunder Road (1958): Bootleggers versus the Feds, with Robert Mitchum. Tommy Boy (1995): Two bumblers, Chris Farley and David Spade, become traveling salesmen as a last resort to save their auto parts manufacturing company. If they are the last resort, perhaps the firm is not really worth saving, but they bond, become better human beings, and save the company anyway.

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Film Genre Presentation To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995): Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo travel across the country disguised as women. The title probably should have been sufficient warning for all three as well as the financial backers. Truck Stop Women (1974): This is a movie about truck-stop women. The Wayward Bus (1957): Joan Collins and Jayne Mansfield in an adaptation of John Steinbeck's novel about passengers on a bus. White Line Fever (1975): Jan-Michael Vincent is a young trucker who, accompanied by his diesel truck, fights the forces of evil. The Wild One (1954): Marlon Brando and his motorcycle pals terrorize a small town. The Motor Cycle Diaries (2004) The journey of young Che and how he got to know the world.

Some other films directed by Phillip Noyce (chronological order): Bielski Brothers, The (2006) Quiet American, The (2002) Rabbit-Proof Fence (2002) Bone Collector, The (1999) Saint, The (1997) Clear and Present Danger (1994) Sliver (1993) Patriot Games (1992) Blind Fury (1989) Dead Calm (1989) Echoes of Paradise (1987) Heatwave (1982) That's Showbiz (1973)

Historical Background: The most astonishing words in "Rabbit-Proof Fence" come right at the end, printed on the screen as a historical footnote. The policies depicted in the movie were enforced by the Australian government, we are told, until 1970. Aboriginal children of mixed race were taken by force from their mothers and raised in training schools that would prepare them for lives as factory workers or domestic servants. More than a century after slavery was abolished in the Western world, a Western democracy was still practicing racism of the most cruel description. The children's fathers were long gone--white construction workers or government employees who enjoyed sex with local aboriginal women and then moved on. But why could the mixed-race children not stay where they were? The offered explanations are equally vile. One is that a half-white child must be rescued from a black society. Another was that too many "white genes" would by their presumed superiority increase the power and ability of the aborigines to cause trouble by insisting on their rights. A third is that, by requiring the lighter-skinned children to marry each other, blackness could eventually be bred out of them. Of course it went without saying that the "schools" they were held in prepared them only for menial labor. These are the shocking facts behind the movie: during the early years of the 20th century, white Australians panicked about the supposed disaster of an "unwanted third race" of "half-caste" Aborigine children. Special detention centres were set up across the continent to keep the mixed race children from "contaminating" the rest of Australian society, and orders were given to forcibly remove "half-caste" children from their families. The children affected are known today in Australia as the Stolen Generations. The current Australian government of Prime Minster John Howard actually still refuses to apologize for these policies. Synopsis: In 1930s Australia, Molly Craig, a young aboriginal girl, led her younger sister and cousin in an escape from a government camp where they were being trained as domestic workers to be integrated into white society. Led by Molly, the girls embark on a dangerous journey, eluding the authorities for over 1,500 miles as they follow the rabbit-proof fence that bisects the continent and will lead them home.

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Film Genre Presentation Presented Excerpts: 00:06:28 — 00:11:16 Jigalong three girls ask how long the rabbit fence is. Constable Riggs arrives by car and forcefully takes away the three girls from their mother and grandmother. 01:20:08 — 01:22:27 Perth Neville’s office, Neville dictating a letter, giving instructions for a future abduction of the girls. Voice over: Molly tells about their journey and their further lives. Landscape views — documentary shots — factual text-inserts. Film Language: Parallel montage of hunters and persons hunted. Subjective camera perspective through close-up of protagonists inter-change with far-angle total shots. Use of symbolism: •

landscape reflects the situation of protagonists (green, fertile country at the beginning, life-less deserts towards the end. Slow-motion is sometime used to stress the emotional effect.

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Rabbit proof fence separates but also helps finding way back. Menace and symbol of freedom.

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Molly’s “soulbird” in intercuts and as personified flying camera-eye.

Music mixes world-music sounds with Australian elements (didgeridoo), electronic keyboard, drums and strings. Sounds of nature (twittering birds, crickets) are mixed with gospel-like chorals. All this stressing the unending power and myths of aboriginal people. Evaluation: Generally this film is given very high marks at imdb.com. This film gives us a perceptive, uplifting drama that highlights - and overcomes - racist policy. By highlighting the realities of this hidden genocide (unbelievably, the policy continued until the early 70s), "Rabbit-Proof Fence" stands as a powerful, worthy testimony to the suffering of the stolen generations. Nearly everything about "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is astonishing. Acting doesn't get much better than this. The tracker, played by David Gulpilil, says few words, but his performance -- through gestures and expressions -- is unforgettable. The panoramic scenes of the Australian outback and the close-in shots of Molly's village are visually searing. The soundtrack by Peter Gabriel is both haunting and majestic. "Rabbit-Proof Fence" is a wonderful film. It's sad and interesting, a definite “must-see”!

Sources for further investigation: http://imdb.com/title/tt0252444/ Commentary sound tracks on DVD edition 2004 http://www.apology.west.net.au/ http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/24/088.html http://library.trinity.wa.edu.au/aborigines/stolen.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolen_Generation http://www.tim-richardson.net/misc/stolen_generation.html http://www.eniar.org/stolen.html http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/special/rsjproject/rsjlibrary/hreoc/stolen/ http://www.hreoc.gov.au/social_justice/stolen_children http://www.aph.gov.au/library/intguide/SP/Stolen.htm http://www.australianpolitics.com/issues/aborigines/stolen.shtml http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/10/17/1034561266360.html

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Film Genre Presentation Viewing Tasks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Try to figure out the number of cuts in sequence 1 (abduction) What is remarkable about or typical of the camera-work in this scene? How is Constable Riggs characterized through camera positioning? Does the film have a happy end (sequence 2)? What significance do the documentary shots at the end of the film have?

Follow-up Tasks: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

What did the Bringing-Them-Home-Report reveal? What was the purpose of the Rabbit Proof Fence? What is the momentary rabbit population of Australia and where does it come from? Which other ways of cutting down the rabbit population have been practiced so far? Since when and why has the “National-Sorry-Day” been celebrated?

Additional Information: The Stolen Generations Between 1910 and 1970 up to 100,000 Aboriginal children were taken forcibly or under duress from their families by police or welfare officers . Most were under 5 years old. They are known as the ‘stolen generations’. There was rarely any judicial process. To be Aboriginal was enough. Most were raised in Church or state institutions. Some were fostered or adopted by white parents. Many suffered physical and sexual abuse. Food and living conditions were poor. They received little education, and were expected to go into low grade domestic and farming work. They were taken because it was Federal and State Government policy that Aboriginal children - especially those of mixed Aboriginal and European descent - should be removed from their parents. Between 10 and 30% of all Aboriginal children were removed, and in some places these policies continued into the 1970s. The main motive was to ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal children into European society over one or two generations by denying and destroying their Aboriginality. • • • • • • • • •

Speaking their languages and practising their ceremonies was forbidden They were taken miles from their country, some overseas Parents were not told where their children were and could not trace them Children were told that they were orphans Family visits were discouraged or forbidden; letters were destroyed. The results The physical and emotional damage to those taken away was profound and lasting: Most grew up in a hostile environment without family ties or cultural identity. As adults, many suffered insecurity, lack of self esteem, feelings of worthlessness, depression, suicide, violence, delinquency, abuse of alcohol and drugs and inability to trust. • Lacking a parental model, many had difficulty bringing up their own children. • The scale of separation also had profound consequences for the whole Aboriginal community - anger, powerlessness and lack of purpose as well as an abiding distrust of Government, police and officials. A National Inquiry was set up in 1995. Its 1997 Report ‘Bringing them Home’ contained harrowing evidence. It found that forcible removal of indigenous children was a gross violation of human rights which continued well after Australia had undertaken international human rights commitments.

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It was racially discriminatory, because it only applied to Aboriginal children on that scale, and It was an act of genocide contrary to the Convention on Genocide, (which forbids ‘forcibly transferring children of [a] group to another group’ with the intention of destroying the group.) The Report made 54 recommendations, including opening of records, family tracing and reunion services and the need for reparations’ (including acknowledgement and apology by Governments and institutions concerned, restitution, rehabilitation and compensation). The Government increased some

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Film Genre Presentation funding but has refused to apologise or offer compensation. A Senate committee is investigating the Government’s response to the Report. People of the stolen generation have started legal actions for compensation against the Government . The cases are likely to be hard fought, as Government lawyers are arguing that removal of children was done for their own good. A statement by Aboriginal Affairs Minister John Herron denying the ‘stolen generations’ caused distress and anger among those affected. Moving forward: achieving reparations is a project conducted in partnership with ATSIC, the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission, the National Sorry Day Committee and Northern Territory stolen generation groups. It's report 'Restoring identity', proposing a reparations tribunal for the stolen generations, has widespread support by Indigenous people. Ministers for Aboriginal Affairs in Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia issued public statements welcoming the report and detailing their initiatives to implement the recommendations.

Sam North: Road Movies From the earliest days of American cinema, the road movie has been synonymous with American culture and the image of America to the world. By my definition, the road movie is a vehicle for either one or a small group of individuals who seek to escape the world they are living in and set out towards redemption on the road. Who were most likely to be on the road? The strong or the weak? The irony of the road movie is that the weak leave, but only the strong survive. The road either makes or breaks a person. One might have the intelligence to recognise that in a difficult situation it would be best to move on, but leaving for the future without a map can be a daunting task. The road movie reflects a cultural psychosis that not only is tomorrow another day, but the road is the passage to which a new beginning is possible, free from the bonds of the past. In this article I will explore the development of the 'Road movie' and highlight some of the many films that had been made within the genre. One might argue that the 'road movie' is not a specific genre, that because it reflects the styles of 'Film noir' or the thriller, as in Hitchcocks 'North By Northwest' or comedy, such as 'It's mad, mad,mad world.' There is the gangster road movie, the trucker road movie, even the horror road movie such as 'Kalifornia'. Some might say it is impossible to so categorise the road movie, lump all of them together and call it a genre. Nevertheless, from the darkest, to the most banal, all road movies have something in common, a road and a socio-economic reason d'etre. If Myerson's 'Steelyard Blues" is a road movie and a post-industrial essay, it matters not if it doesn't seem so easily connected to Speilberg's "The Sugarland Express' or Tati's 'Traffic' which is more about alienation with the road than a desire to get on it. All are road movies because they reflect the times they are made in and the road is the great leveller. Yet, for the sake of this article, however, I shall tend to exclude many so-called road-movies, such as McEveety's ' Herbie Goes Bananna's' a film about a Volkswagen that talks, or Hewitt's 'The Girl's from Thunder Strip' a rockerfilm. Indeed, one could argue that most rocker, biker, trucker films are not 'road-movies' in the spirit or style that I define the 'road movie'. Just because there is a road and someone is driving on it, does not, I would argue, make it a 'road movie'. There are always exceptions. 'Gas-Oil' directed by Gilles Grangier in 1955, is a trucker film, but it has the essential elements of searching for meaning of life and economic poignancy that mark the essential road movie. Yet, Cahn's "Dragstrip Girl' 1957, which is a hot-rod film where boy has car and girl gets hot, is not really within the scope of this article. Niether would Walter Hill's otherwise excellent 'The Driver' which though certainly about a skilled driver for a bank-heist gang and has some thrilling driving in it, overall, the film has no heart and soul and it is simply a cop chasing a bad guy movie and going absolutely nowhere. Road movies such as Hopper's "Easy Rider', or Sarafian's 'Vanishing Point', and Scott's 'Thelma and Louise' reflect characters trapped in lives that seem pointless, rootless, intellectually stifling. The road seems to offer an easy escape, set within a western landscape that is at once beautiful, but, as is the nature of the convention of a road movie, all manners of dangers may lurk. Not all characters in road movies have to be helpless. That is not really what these people are. These people who seek escape often have courage and determination they never knew they had. It is just that the road is there. It is the

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Film Genre Presentation road movie that enables them to find that courage, but there is always a warning. Taking a cult movie, Guerico's 'Electra Glide in Blue' from 1972, there, for all those who would ride the road to freedom, lies a cop in wait (Robert Blake), knowing his job is to frustrate those who seek freedom. The cop as menace, frustrator and obstacle to freedom is a common theme of the road movie. In Ridley Scott's 'Thelma and Louise' an early 1990's movie, two women escape their petty, nowhere lives, hit the road and find 'liberation'. Niether woman is weak, or stupid, or dim, but somehow life has conspired to make one a waitress and one a housewife married to a overpowering moron who has seemingly crushed her identity. These two wounded creatures are not to be pitied. They always knew the road was there, only now, as circumstances have arisen, has the opportunity come that could give them the breath of fresh air they need. The convention of the road movie however is to allow a little freedom and then let it bite you and bite hard. In 'Thelma and Louise', the two protagonists discover freedom for a mere moment, but a foolish encounter with a 'rapist' which leads to a lethal shooting in a car park outside a dance hall, will haunt them for the rest of their journey. It matters not that the characters seek escape and not danger, in the road movie, danger seeks them. The road, it seems, is always a dead end. The Road Movie is not a new phenonemon, however. The need to escape, the lure of the open road, or undiscovered trail, is not a uniquely American trait, but one firmly established in folklore. It belongs to a society that was initially based upon religious freedom. America of the seventeenth century was peopled with settlers who had escaped European religious oppression and founded a society based upon their own concept of what culture should be. That these new 'societies' produced their own kind of internal oppression, or intolerance meant that for those who could not abide by these rules sought escape. Escape could be West or South, there was no going back to Europe. There were economic factors too. From early days, the American settler was a farmer and something of an all rounder. The conditions from the beginning were immensely different to Europe. There, good land was scarce and almost impossible to own. In America land was plentiful and almost free. The American settler would simply burn the forest and plant in the ashes. Slash and burn agriculture became systemised. When the new soil was exhausted, the farmer or settler would move on. Waste and a lack of appreciation for the local landscape was almost genetically implanted into the American mindset from the seventeenth century onwards. In seeking new pastures, people were no longer restricted by borders, or petty bureaucracy, the only limit was the terrain, or absence of roads. The early road movie was possibly the travelling panorama, a popular cultural event in the 1850's. The showman, or orator would slowly unfold a lavish, often completely exaggerated or fictitious panorama, sometimes a hundred of feet long, and tell the tale of travelling down the Mississippi River or crossing the Rockies to California. Here, the punters could experience the dangers and wonders of travel without personal loss. But for many, this introduction to 'travel' was inspiring and possibly triggered a desire to see more of their unexplored country. The literature of the time was often about making trails, finding a way to an imagined paradise, overcoming the hostile 'natives' and wild animals. The West had not yet been perceived as a panacea for all problems. As yet California lay in Mexican hands and seemingly had no value. Freedom and wealth were associated with land grabs, farming, the coming railways, cattle. America was ever expanding and filled with vast hope. One would travel a little further west and found a new city. The Mormons after several bad starts were one of the great forerunners of taking the known boundaries of the West and building a new life for everyone. Salt Lake City was considered remote enough to be safe from the influences of others and other religions, but it was as west as one could go at that time and hope to make a go of things. For at least the first one hundred years of American history, the chances of making a fortune by travelling west were limited by the absence of communications, hostile native Americans, harsh weather and ill health. Yet, the West, and the road west were always perceived as the way of escape. For heroes and villains. The Wagon Train was not just a manifestation of a population seeking new opportunities, it was a public confirmation that the new American society was not actually able to provide for all and the route west was considered always as liberation from poverty, or reality, or both. The first road stories are Wa-

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Film Genre Presentation gon Train yarns, not stories about lone fur trappers, or Lewis and Clarke geological expeditions. They were stories of people seeking escape and a change of luck. Often they would be new immigrants who had found that the East Coast lacked the space or career chances they had sought. These people would pack all they had into fancy wagons, join the next 'train' leaving St Louis and hope God would provide. Quite often, many never reached the West. Disease, corrupt or inept wagon masters, misfortune, bad weather, discontent, or just the plain reality of seeing the desert and hostile terrain of the Rockies would make people turn back, or try to settle the plains. That they'd try to do this in places that had no access to cities, markets, schools, doctors says something about the hardiness of these settlers or their foolishness. As Americans sought a new life, a parallel experience was going on in South Africa where the Boer farmer, who did not like the British was trekking north to seek a new land where they could selfgovern with God and no English rules. Their harrowing stories where dead babies are tossed out of the wagon as drought and starvation grip the trekkers was mirrored many times by American Wagon train settlers. It formed the basis of many legends (not least the horror of Cutter's Pass where one Wagon Train were caught out by the onset of winter and resorted to cannibalism). For the generations that followed, the monumental experiences of their forbears in getting West provided them with a moral justification for their own existence. The real change to the perception of the West came when California was bought from the Mexican Government in 1848. What looked like a huge expense then, looked to be the bargain of the century six months later when gold was discovered. One of the first successful works of literature to fully address the hope and despair of the move west was Mark Twain's ( Roughing It) ' where he travels out West to witnesses the gold rush and the newly formed wild and lawless society that was evolving. It was a time of magnificent opportunity riding on a crest of endless optimism and chronic failures. The discovery of gold in 1849 created a world-wide fantasy with 'going west' that was to continue up until the present day. The West at once became mythic and psychologically linked with success. It was the nineteenth century lottery ticket to a new life and the 'road west' is forever linked in American minds with escape. Slash and Burn culture had already ensured that 'moving on' was a way of life, but now, here was a chance to take a short cut on life, get rich quick. The road became a signifier for freedom and the romance of the 'road' became a way of life that would be celebrated in literature and film for the entire twentieth century. One might never call Charlie Chaplin's film 'The Gold Rush' a road movie, yet, many of his films were directly associated with the road. The opportunities and pitfalls that come to the lone tramp walking the road were understood by the first cinema-goers. Rootless men, unemployed men travelled the roads and rails in search of a life, little understanding that their very rootlessness was a causal factor in their never ending poverty. Men and women all over the world laughed at Chaplin, but equally understood that the road and poverty was never distant from their own lives. D.W. Griffith understood the lure of the unknown place. His film 'The Wind' manifestly opened out cinema, took it into hostile territory and proved that film could go on location. But 'The Wind' is not a 'road movie'. One of the most successful early road movies is John Ford's 'The Grapes of Wrath'. Based upon Steinbecks's novel about the great social disaster that followed with the clearing of vegetation and people from farmlands to create vast farms. Without trees, the soil began to literally blow away to create huge duststorms. This, combined with the Wall Street crash of '29, resulted in the great clearing. People literally left the land in hundreds of thousands. They all headed to the land of opportunity California, and took whatever they could with them, on the road. It isn't known how many died, or even how many eventually succeeded, but the influx into California of millions of impoverished people who needed food, schooling and hospitals was a great shock. It was a society ill-equiped to deal with this influx. Yet for all the immediate suffering those migrants must have felt, history was on their side. When the second world war came to the USA , it was California that had the massive pool of cheap labour that could be put to work in the Navy yards, aircraft manufacturing and vehicle production. For these people, a golden age was about to begin. Once again, California was to provide sustenance to the myth that there really was a pot of gold at the end of the road. There were dissenters from this view however. In the 1973 Robert Altman's film 'Thieves Like Us' about criminals on the run in the impoverished 1930's landscape provided a brilliant companion piece to the earlier film 'The Grapes of Wrath, which was more about dignity among the poor, than honour

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Film Genre Presentation among thieves. The atmosphere of poverty and lack of trust combined with the quite vicious desperation of Carradine and Duvall's characters seems now to be a more accurate portrayal of what really happened in the depression than Hollywood was prepared to let their audiences know at the time. 'Thieves' Like Us' with it's haunted characters, the car and the sleazy motels, they are all part of the essential constituents of the road movie. The impending sense of doom is another. Authur Penn's 'Bonnie and Clyde' 1969 was another stylish take on the road/gangster movie in the same vein and of the same period. Made at around the same time as the 'Grapes of Wrath', 'The Wizard of Oz' was a road movie with a difference. Dorothy takes the yellow-brick road and finds herself in Oz. The great adventures she has, the wonderful friends she meets, wicked witches aside, all leads her to the city where all mysteries will be explained, all problems will be solved, all prayers answered. For Oz one might read Jerusalem, or Mecca, or Las Vegas. Each one, just like Oz, turns out to be an illusion. Dorothy not only gets no answers, but discovers the wizard of Oz is a phony. The Wizard of Oz has just one message for the people of America, 'There's no place like home.' Tell that to the people driven off the land by the dustbowl. The Wizard of Oz has a happy ending, and a message that seemed at odds with the times it was made (1939). Perhaps it was addressing a wider audience, that of America versus Europe. For eyes looking East to Europe where Fascism was sweeping all before it, perhaps 'No place like home', meant more to an American faced with a millions of immigrants from Europe. That and the building resentment that came with 'cheap labour' displacing 'American' jobs. The net effect to the explosion of Europeans arriving was to trigger more people on the East Coast having to go on the road to seek their fortunes West. Not all the people travelling the highway were angels, or economic victims. Some were villains. In the film 'Petrified Forest' starring Bogart in his first villain role and Leslie Howard as a poverty stricken English poet and migrant, here emerged another icon of the road movie. The Roadhouse. The dusty roads had yet to be beaten into highways, the Roadhouse was the lone refuge in a hostile environment. Here be shelter, food and gasoline. 'Petrified Forest' was itself a neat metaphor for a lost world. It is a place where Duke Mantee takes a stand against the cops in a dust storm. The bad guy takes over the Roadhouse and a philosophical discussion takes place between the sucker, the guy on the road, and the criminal, who is just taking advantage of what ever comes his way. Here, at last is a road movie that exposes the heart of what forms the basis of its structure. The arduous journey, the scent of hope and the bitter cup of reality when the seeker of freedom comes up against nemesis. The road movie is very rarely about the road, or even the journey. Even then, it was about hope and despair. Another film that covers the heart of darkness that is the Roadhouse is 'The Postman always Rings Twice'. Here, when a drifter comes by , the roadhouse owner's wife bored by her situation and married to an 'older' man, seizes her opportunity. Passion with the stranger leads inevitably to murder. If 'Petrified Forest' didn't signal enough, Postman told it in neon, the road movie was a phenonemon and was always going to be an article of the state of society, America and a reflection that told the truth about it, cold heart and all. It could be argued that the road movie must, to be true to the genre, involve a road. Yet, many of the essential ingredients of the road movie were and are encompassed by the 'Western'. 'The Searchers' may be about a man searching for his niece, but nevertheless it is also about a man on a horse, on a trail, meeting with hostile elements and the outcome isn't necessarily what the protagonist desired. From John Ford's 'Stagecoach', to 'Butch and Sundance' and Eastwood's 'Josey Wales', men, on horses, on the trail, encounter always more than they bargained for and the trail might not always lead West, but in all cases, they hope it might lead to El Dorado. For comic relief one can add Laurel and Hardy's 'Way out West' or Bob Hope's 'The Paleface'. No not exactly road movies, but all the elements are in place a dusty road a small town, hostile receptions and the strength to surmount all obstacles. Road movies are in the end about searching for Utopia and the West was synonymous with that search. Jack Kerouac's 'On the road' written in the early fifties is just the start of a long tradition in fiction where people sought a solution to the answers of life, or an escape from responsibilities. In the sixties fiction would again follow Kerouac's lead with Ken Kesey's ' Kandy Coloured Acid test '. Let the acid do the journey, seemed to be the message, who needs a road? In the 1997 David Lynch, whose own films

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Film Genre Presentation seem to borrow much from the road movie genre, has finally made the road movie from hell which is close to the atmosphere that Ulmer tried to capture. 'Lost Highway' is the roadhouse/motel on the highway from hell where nightmares begin and reality seeps away to pure horror. Although his film has not proved popular, he has never shied away from showing the uncomfortable and perverse. He later made ammends with 'The Straight Story' almost an anti-road movie, but a road movie all the same, about a man called George Straight who drives a lawnmower clear across state to see his sick brother. This strange but compelling film has all the ingredients of the road journey as a metaphor for resilience, stubborness and perhaps futility, but you can't but help be transfixed by the ultimate perversity of it, yet admiration for the old man's doggedness. In the late nineties, David Kronenberg has given us 'Crash', and although at first glance one could possibly claim this to be a road movie since it involves cars and roads, it is as far from the ethos of the road movie genre as is possible. This is a nihilistic film, where no one seeks redemption. Characters seek perverted sex and are stimulated by the thought of death and maimed or severed limbs. Crash is less about the road than sexual obsessions. In a landscape shaped by eight lane highways and concrete ghettos. It is a film without hope and broadcasts an anti-utopian, fin de siecle message. The road movie concept has not been confined to the USA. However, it ill suited the British landscape. For one thing, until the 1960's, there was no highway in England at all. The very concept of open roads, 'Diners', strangers encountering anything more lethal than an AA man was alien. 'Soft top, hard shoulder' is a brave attempt and funny, but driving through Scotland in a Triumph Herald is as inappropriate to the genre as scenes of Jim Carey on a bicycle on the highway in 'Dumb and Dumber', it adds nothing to the genre and takes much away. Nevertheless when its a comedy done well the road movie is a great vehicle. Planes Trains and Automobiles is a classic of strangers on the road desperate to get hom against all odds bonding despire everthing. Something Wild in 1986 reasserted the dangers on why straight businenessmen shouldn't give damels in a distress a ride. Is Speed a 'road movie' just because there is a road? I don't think so. But John Cusaks's first starrer 'The Sure Thing' in 1985 was. Any guy worth his salt has gone clean across the USA for a girl and of course you're going to meet someone else in such a long journey. Ten years later in To Wong Foo, Thanks for everything Julie Newmar the road is long, bus and its occupants are bad temptered cross-dressers but neverthless, it works. I guess we can't forget 'Midnight Run' starring De Niro and the wonderful Charles Grodin. A classic cat and mouse road movie. In Europe however, where roads were straighter, autobahn culture grew up around the new roads. With many shifting populations made rootless by war and the post-war prosperity, the road movie found favour. For post-war European audiences, they would look at a Robert Mitchum movie such as 'Build My Gallows High', (Dir Geoffrey Homes) perhaps one of the best film noir movies of that time and pick up all kinds of inferences. Audiences see the open road, the Californian desert, the roadhouses and they would see adventure and romance. Perhaps they wouldn't recognise the despair, the feckless, rootlessness and restlessness underlying it all. America was the victor, in any case, people saw what they wanted to see. 'Il Strada' by Antonioni was a literal reinterpretation of the American experience. The German's later responded with Wim Wenders aimless characters riding the German landscape. Other film-makers too used the autobhan, it became the escape route for would be rebels or even innocents who befriended them in 'The Lost honour of Katerina Blum' and new German cinema 'Run Lola Run'. The French in particular took up the highway and despair as a metaphor for all that troubled France. Goddard with 'Weekend' the famous endless traffic jam and the horrendous outcome of terrorists eating random 'motorists.' Latterly 'Betty Blue' set a kind of European blueprint for disaffected youth searching for a new life. Only partly a road movie, yet 'Blue' reflects all the values of its American ancestry but perhaps too quickly reaches a destination to play out the impending tragedy. The Conformist (1971) Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Stefania Sandrelli Director: Bernardo Bertolucci Synopsis: A sensual and beautifuly shot thriller about a man who joins Mussolini's secret police and has to betray all. The Europeans experimented with the surreal and satiric. Bertolucci's film ' The Conformist' uses the road as a theme to link the past and the future, pre-war Italy and the changed circumstances

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Film Genre Presentation during the war. 'The Conformist ' is yet not quite a 'road' movie either, but an interpretation of the American road movie, using the journey to an assination to reveal the past. By coincidence, the same star, Jean-Louis Trintingnant was involved in another road movie 'Un Home and et Femme', not so much about the road, but using the same reflective elements of past and future, love, danger and car racing. More recently ' Betrand Blier's 'Mercie la Vie' brought the road movie an extraordinary slant, with two girls on the road hitching, causing mayhem whilst running parallel is a paranoid story about AIDS and a time warp with the Nazi occupation of France. Daring and perplexing, 'Mercie La Vie' is also compulsive viewing. The Americans meanwhile refined the nightmare that the highway had come to represent. One of the first to reflect the new style was 'Midnight Cowboy', realism and despair were the elements and New York as the 'fantasy' place where they would find salvation. Terence Malicks evocative film "Badlands' used the poetic and lavish scenery of the mid-west as a backdrop to the relentless horror of a passionless killer who model's himself on James Dean and his under-aged girlfriend on the run. The film is redeemed by embracing the beauty of the landscape, truly incorporating it into the text of the filmic experience. This would again be true of his next film, ' Days of Heaven' which although about people who rode the rails in the depression and worked as seasonal farm labour, it again evokes the essence of the road movie and the keen desperation to belong, to have something, even if it isn't yours. By now though the road movie was turning sour and this theme would be again explored by such films as Tony Scott's 'True Romance' (literally a reworking of Badlands by the writer Tarantino, who is quite inventive with other peoples work.) This is funny and quirky with a fine keynote scene with Dennis Hopper and Christopher Walkman. This film appreciates with age and there is a great affection for all the characters involved. With the film 'Kalifornia' and Oliver Stone's 'Natural Born Killers' the ultimate sickness here is that the highway is peopled with serial killers who will strike at anyone, care nothing for life at all. It eliminates all hope for salvation and mocks those who are foolish enough to seek the 'good life' or lead honourable lives. This is the road movie as dead end, for if there is no hope, why risk your life on the road at all? Perhaps it is a good thing that audiences have not responded to these later films, recognising them for the aberration they are. In a quite different spieces of road movie, Spielberg's 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind' , exposes the paranoia that is all to persistent under the surface of American society. The road is a pathway now to a different kind of salvation. The aliens have become the cavalry who will at any moment come over the hill to save us from ourselves. Even Germany's Wim Wenders came to America to make his peon to despair 'Paris Texas'. The road movie became less a journey west to seek utopia, than movies about people trapped on the highway with no sense of direction, or purpose, who perhaps didn't even want to arrive. Paris Texas also models itself on Ford's 'The Searchers' in that a man searches for his wife, but not amongst the hostile native Americans, but the arid and neon jungle of the sex-industry. It is more than most a film about America's lost innocence. Some attempt has been made to revivify the genre. Such films as 'Red Rock West' where the small town on the highway represents the roadhouse and adventurers exploit each other in the manner of the Ulmer films of the fifties. Others, such as George Lucas, look to boyhood memories (American Graffiti) but in reality his film is a hot-rod movie and is more about small-town America and a certain lack of courage to actually get out of town and seek ones fortune. Perhaps that is why road movies are so resilient, for many, the road is too great an obstacle, the dangers too intimidating, we let the character's in these films travel for us and if they encounter trouble and death, then we have the satisfaction of knowing 'we told you so' and we lock our doors at night, keeping 'adventure' at a distance, on the outside. *(Certainly, if you look at a whole raft of movies showing at the turn of the century, the road movie is not a 'popular' choice. Of fifty titles showing in multiplex's and art houses across the States,in May 2000 ,there was not one that could be defined as a 'road movie'. Some might be about journeys, but that alone is not sufficient. This doesn't mean the road movie is dead, merely unfashionable.) Since I wrote this the admirable 'Y Tu Madre Tambien' a Mexican Road movie became a big success and the Director went on to direct the upcoming Harry Potter. (Go figure.) And your Mama too was a gem be-

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Film Genre Presentation cause it gave us a new culture to explore , had characters that you could like and it was an adventure about sex, the road, love and finally death. A road movie about growing up. What more could you want. We are left with others to give us the road. 'The Wild One' may have been about bikers, but again, they didn't really get far out of town and besides, what was their goal? Nothing grander than selfgratification and gang rivalry. This in turn led to 'Easy Rider' which started a string of drugs, good times and stoned Kerouac styled philosophy movies. Peter Fonda in discussing this film has said that he pushed these characters as far as they could go and his character's suicide at the end was a metaphor for the end of the road movie, the end of freedom, rather than a celebration of it. One star of 'Easy Rider' (Jack Nicholson) moved onto another road movie, 'Five Easy Pieces' which unusually trekked North. As did another more unusual European movie 'Strozek'. Directed by Werner-Herzog, it told the tale of a German immigrant to the North-West who finds American life a complete dead-end, not at all what he expected. Road movies were no longer confined to going West, but could travel in almost every direction. Even Australia where the 'Mad Max' series posted an apocalyptic postscript to the road movie. The future has a road, but it goes nowhere. In 1969, another European, Antonioni made 'Zabriskie Point'. Something of a seminal work and breathtaking to watch even now, it is nevertheless very much of its time. It captures the empty shallowness of the 70's so well you can taste it. The sixties and seventies sought to redefine the road movie and were successful in many ways. 'Vanishing Point' exploited speed and nihilism. Goddard's 'A bout de Souffle' (Breathless) the illusion of freedom and easy living without responsibility. 'Paper Moon' nostalgia for a lost world, as is 'Bonnie and Clyde', one of the most successful road movies, although arguably is just a movie where the road is less about destination, than destiny with eventual death. The eighties gave us 'Baghdad Cafe' and David Lynch's 'Wild at Heart'. Both popular and strange. There are even Japanese road movies. 'Sonatine' in the 1990's mirrors 'Bonnie and Clyde'. Not in that is about random crimes, but it asks when bad guys hit the road, what is the element that binds them together. The destination, or their shared ideals? The road reveals an absence of moral virtues, it exposes people to their bare essentials and philosophy is often the outcome when men leave the comfort of what they know for the unexplored. It answers another question as well. What do Gangsters do on vacation? They shoot at each other with fireworks. Sonatine picks on on another theme of the 'Road Movie', often these people are bored. With life, with themselves. The road, to keep moving to avoid confrontation with the self is a key to their motivation. Other road movies have explored social issues, 'Rain Man' the first autistic road movie. 'From Dusk till Dawn', horror, but most simply, 'El Mariachi' by Robert Rodriguez encapsulates all the elements of the road movie. The young hopeful man walks into town from nowhere and is immediately beset by a multitude of problems. 'My Private Idaho' and 'Whatever Happened to Gilbert Grape' uses the road merely as a prop, these are not really road movies as such, lacking the road as a central character. The road in 'Gilbert Grape' is the way in and the way out of town, most of the characters in the film would like to leave, but fear of change holds them in place. There is a world of difference to America of the 1930's where the road was seen as a conduit to escape from all the ills of society, to the present where the road brings nothing but trouble, serial killers, disease and despair. If anything, many towns would now welcome a by-pass, so no one will notice that they have a good life that they would be reluctant to share. Jim Jarmusch approached the ultimate road movie with 'Night on Earth' possibly the longest taxi-ride in any movie. But again, it doesn't really satisfy as a road movie as it is more about the taxi than the social or environment surrounding it. But who has anything fresh to say about the road movie? Is there a writer/director in America who can explore the context of the road movie and bring a new look to it? 'Even Cowgirls Get the blues' is a road movie with a difference. Written in the 1970's it was then a brave and shocking tale of a girl with a big thumb and sexual appetite, but as a road movie at the box office, it failed. Possibly it is necessary to be able to identify with the main protagonists. That was the secret of 'Thelma and Louise'. The audience for the film perhaps should have been predominantly female, yet it was film much favoured by men and women, mostly because, one suspects that the women seemed so real and the story so believable. It's a

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Film Genre Presentation film that has found a following, not so much because of feminism, but simply because the road movie, done well appeals to the adventure and longing in us all. See also the wonderful 'O Brother Where art Thou' by the Coen Brothers a classic throwback to 1930's road trips and prison escape movies. Everything about this movie worked and even the soundtrack reached the top of the CD charts. A student asled me if 'Road to Perdition' is a 'road movie'. Well it has Road in the title and Tom Hanks gets to drive a lot. But essentially it is a gangster movie and that comes with a whole different set of luggage. Many gangster moves use 'the road'. After all they began shifting liquor by road from Canada during Prohition, so the road is key. But the ethos is different. No one in a gangster movie is searching for the meaning of life and that essentially is the what a road movie is about. The director Hal Hartley comes close to a genuine road movie with his 1991 film 'Simple Men'. It is certainly one of the most interesting attempt of our times. The characters seek not salvation, but in the tradition of Ford's 'The Searchers' these are people who are in search of someone and must hit the road to find a solution. Two brothers, one an unsuccessful crook, who has just been betrayed by his girlfriend and lost out on a successful computer heist, hears from his younger brother that their father, a political radical and terrorist has been captured by the police 20 years after he allegedly bombed the Pentagon. When the younger brother arrives at the police station he is surprised to find that his father has already escaped. The two brothers unite and set off to find their father. Broke, they have just $15 bucks between them to get them to Long Island. It doesn't get them far. From the first stop on the island, they will have to walk the rest. They know their father is somewhere on Long Island and at the first town they come to, serendipity comes to their aide. A broken down motorcycle, a schoolgirl willing to help and a wrestling Nun all make this interlude entirely memorable. When they finally get on the road, naturally there will be something or someone to impede their progress. Lying in wait are two women, one who has just had an epileptic fit and just so happens to be their father's radical girlfriend and the other, who, naturally owns a roadhouse. The roadhouse is the honeytrap of all road movies. It is where everything gets turned around. At the roadhouse, the men wait, always on tenterhooks as the woman who owns it is waiting for her ex-lover to return at any minute since he's been released from jail (for a violent crime) and there is the jealous but spurned lover also hanging in the wind ... The brothers find themselves caught in the vortex of these women's lives, but can't leave, as they know one day soon, their father will reclaim his young lover. 'Simple Men' is a true but quirky road movie, filled with waiting and longing, philosophic musing and the threat of violence, like a heavy purple sky on a balmy summer afternoon. These are people no lounger in control of their lives, caught in the headlights of impending doom. All the while, the law, in the background, is slowly making their way to the conclusion that the brothers are wanted men .... Hal Hartley's 'Simple Men' is a classic example of the 'Road movie' yet somehow reinvents it, brings to it a look and feel quite utterly contemporary without seeming to be either a copy of others, or overly influenced by film noir style. Unlike 'Kalifornia' - the serial killers on the road film that tries to recreate the atmosphere of the old road movies whilst adding a wholly grotesque atmosphere to the proceedings, 'Simple Men' succeeds in reminding us that normal people ride the roads and they are not just ciphers waiting for a bullet to blow their heads off, but thinking people, unable to accept the mundane kind of life usually on offer. They live for what all characters live for in a road movie, the horizon, the next sunset, the new dawn, but remember, the next roadhouse will be waiting, to ensnare you; stop there, if you dare ...(Also See Identity starring John Cusak for a 2003 update of the Petrified Forest with a big twist directed by Tom Mangold. The road cut off by bad weather, travellers stop at a lonely motel where it so happens a cop drops by with a serial killer in chains. You can guess the rest...

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