All text is written by and copyrighted to D S Brown. Images of book covers and movie posters are copyrighted to the various studios which released them and have no affiliation with OOCC.  

MESSAGE ROAD TRIP MOVIES use travel to make observations about society or life in general. The road trip is a catalyst or allegory in many cases. This list doesn't address movies that have incidental road trip scenes, just ones where the trip is integral to the theme. There are separate sections for Crime Road trip movies, chase movies and so on.

EASY RIDER (Jul 14, 1969) was a low budget film that became a giant hit catapulting director star Dennis Hopper back into the limelight. After starting in films as a youngster in the 1950s Hopper was banned from mainstream films, spending the 1960s doing grade Z films. Working in low budget motorcycle counterculture exploitation films resulted in Peter Fonda and Jack Nicholson helping Hopper make EASY RIDER into a 'message film'. Hopper and Fonda ride Harleys across America from the west coast to New Orleans.

Hopper involved locals in the film. The small town vignettes, communes and open highways capture the feeling of the road as well as documenting society of the 1960s. The 'Easy Riders' are intended to mirror the loss of American freedom which Hopper perceived to have sprung from people taking shortcuts. Selling the drugs bought a tainted freedom which is summed up by Fonda's line, "We blew it." Universal compromise and selling out is picked up in Dylan's lyrics in the closing, "Ballad of Easy Rider". At other times Hopper has stated that the film was a semi documentary of the war between youth culture and traditionalists in USA.

Dennis Hopper broke new ground when he selected popular songs for his soundtrack instead of having a score specifically written for his film. The LP was released by Reprise. It substitutes The Band's version of The Weight with a facsimile version by Smith. 

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MIDNIGHT COWBOY (May 25, 1969) was based upon a book by James Leo Herlihy. It follows Texan Joe Buck's adventures in underworld NYC attempting to make it as a gigolo. The friendship between him and street scuffler "Ratso" Rizzo changes him. The film opens with a long Greyhound bus trip from Texas to NYC. Buck encounters various people and places, lapsing into dreams of his past. The movie ends with a bus trip from NYC to Florida with Rizzo. Both of the trips feature scenes that chronicle the wandering of Buck's mind through memory and fantasy as the bus churns down the road.

The soundtrack to MIDNIGHT COWBOY had big hits with "Everybody's Talkin" sung by Nilsson, and the haunting harmonica theme song "Midnight Cowboy". The soundtrack LP was released by United Artists.

TWO LANE BLACKTOP (July 7, 1971) follows the travels of The Driver (James Taylor) and The Mechanic (Dennis Wilson) cruising USA seeking drag races for The Car, a 55 Chevy with a built 454. The Girl (Laurie Bird) tags along with them, frustrated by their distant personalities and their narrow focus entirely on cars. They goad the driver of a 1970 Orbit Orange GTO with a 455 into a race to Washington, DC against The Car. The GTO driver is named of course, GTO, played in a wonderfully amusing and touching performance by Warren Oates. Oates and director Monte Hellman paired repeatedly, creating a team similar to DeNiro and Scorcese. GTO spins outrageous tales about his past to various hitchhikers as he teeters on the verge of a total breakdown.

Most of the film has wide open vistas and driving scenes, sparse dialogue, capturing the openness of the road as well as depicting the vacuum within the characters. The film verges on being an art film as minimalist dialogue allows overwhelming views of the open space to dominate. The space that characters must fill highlights their inner shortcomings.

The film is also a nice documentary of the racing subculture and life of nomads, using real street racers and drag strips. Much of the touted austere style of the film is credited to the low budget, as attested to by an amused Hellman in interviews, but it serves to capture the loneliness of the drifters. Conversations in the film contrast the readymade factory supercar GTO unfavorably to the home grown custom Chevy. The race disintegrates and is essentially dropped. Neither of the racers ever goes to Washington, DC which is significantly the source of legislation that was crushing the muscle car culture.

THE PASSENGER (Apr 9, 1975) follows Jack Nicholson's rambling trip after he impulsively assumes the identity of a dead gun runner. Maria Schneider, fresh out of LAST TANGO IN PARIS joins the trek around Europe in a convertible. Antonioni pulls the camera back on a conversation to put it into its perspective amongst the vastness of the landscape. He seems to be saying that we put meaning into our communications, which are just one fragment of the huge world with all of its other sounds and motions. There are incredibly long shots that emphasize the slow undulating movements across the earth that Nicholson is making. The last scene is very long with intricate camera work that works in tandem with some great non verbal acting on Jack's part.

IL GRIDO (Jun 22, 1957) is an earlier road trip movie by Antonioni which is far more bleak and depressing. Don't take a date to see this film. I made that mistake. After several hours of gloomy black and white angst, we staggered out shell shocked and romance was no longer in the air. Once again Antonioni uses the aimless road trip to dissect a modern condition bereft of belief which is mirrored in the pointless wandering of the hero.

By now you must be wondering, is this a Jack Nicholson section? He was in several cult road movies following his sudden stardom with EASY RIDER.  FIVE EASY PIECES (Sep 12, 1970) follows the travels of Jack as Bobby as he works odd jobs and hangs out with regular folks in an attempt to distance himself from his intellectual, artistic family. The road trip to visit his family features a pair of memorable hitchhikers and a famous scene in a diner. The movie ends with an open road. For Jacks' character the road is not a true escape but rather plunging into oblivion without destination or purpose.

BONNEVILLE (Feb 29, 2008) follows three friends who are driving from Pocatello, to deliver the ashes of Jessica Lange's husband to Santa Barbara, CA. The film manages to expand beyond the usual constraints of the chick flick and road movie genres through some good character acting. And, yes, they take the Bonneville to Bonneville Salt Flats. A hitchhiker and a trucker reinforce Lange's character in her quest remain true to herself and the spirit of her dead husband.