On the Road again...

Of Cars, Rafts & Camels: On the Road with Road Movies

"Well, I'm so tired of crying / But I'm out on the road again" (Canned Heat, 1967) Film is movement! Ever since pictures learned to run, audiences have been fascinated by stampeding trains, galloping horses and speeding cars. At some point, the road movie grew out of such fascination, quasi as a creative countermovement: Journey into the Interior. The movement from place A to place B becomes a way of life; being on the road, often restless, is more appealing than "simply" arriving or even settling down. Above all, the road becomes the central perspective, the symbol of departure and breaking out, of (quiet) rebellion against orders and norms. In the end, road movies are purely a matter of feeling: the road could just as easily be a railway line, a river or a path through a desert. Or a place of social nowhere. The departures, the escapes from everyday life, the desire for adventure, the longing for freedom or a life for the moment: road movies make you mobile in many ways, free and yet with a goal in mind - almost as a global metaphor of life.

"Well, I'm so tired of crying /

But I'm out on the road again"

(Canned Heat, 1967)

Film is movement! Ever since pictures learned to run, audiences have been fascinated by stampeding trains, galloping horses and speeding cars. At some point, the road movie grew out of such fascination, quasi as a creative countermovement: Journey into the Interior. The movement from place A to place B becomes a way of life; being on the road, often restless, is more appealing than "simply" arriving or even settling down. Above all, the road becomes the central perspective, the symbol of departure and breaking out, of (quiet) rebellion against orders and norms.

In the end, road movies are purely a matter of feeling: the road could just as easily be a railway line, a river or a path through a desert. Or a place of social nowhere. The departures, the escapes from everyday life, the desire for adventure, the longing for freedom or a life for the moment: road movies make you mobile in many ways, free and yet with a goal in mind - almost as a global metaphor of life.

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