Getting Away from Things That Get Bad: The ILX Road-Movie Poll Results Thread

"A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives." -- Wikipedia

"They were drifters and searchers and they looked for something. The journey was a state of mind for them...In a road movie you really go into the adventure, you go into the unknown, and you are faced with the unknown." -- Wim Wenders

"You know, it’s funny--you come to someplace new, and everything looks just the same." -- Eddie, Stranger Than Paradise

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/title_zps2cg1tklc.jpg

I just wanted to get this opened up--I’m not going to start until tomorrow, sometime close to noon. Twenty voters listed 157 different films. Two films, including the winner, showed up on half the ballots. There’s a film in the Top 10 with four votes, and a film with five votes that finished 67th. Travels with Anna finished 51st, just outside the countdown, and I’m not sure if it exists--is it the same thing as The Art of Travel?

Les rendez-vous d'Anna/The Meetings of Anna: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0078152/

Okay...Google kept taking me to The Art of Travel.

50. Children of Men
27 points/3 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/50-children.jpg

Lol missed the vote

I'll post two or three before work starts today, another five-ten during the day, and finish the first 20 when I get home. Sporadic, I know.

I've only seen Children of Men once, on DVD. I didn't really connect with it, but I understand why people do; I do have that connection with Michael Radford's Nineteen Eighty-Four, which has the same washed-out look. As a road film, I can see that.

A true road-movie character--aimless, ducking in and out of life--would miss the vote, so that okay.

it's a fine film but I wouldn't file it under road movies - I get why you could, but it's not platonically the right form

I missed this too.

49. Thelma & Louise
28 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/49-thelma.jpg

I wanted to get a still of them line-dancing but couldn't. I remember a fair amount of commentary on this when I came out...I think it held up pretty well when I went back to it a few years later.

"when it came out"--I've Kevin Kline'd myself!

I love how T&L still angries up the blood of all the right misogynists

48. Sideways
28 points/7 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/48-sideways.jpg

"Angries up the blood"--Satchel Paige!

Sideways got as many or more votes than four films in the Top 10. Nebraska, which finished 67th, received 5 votes. The points for the two Payne films went like this: 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 8. I think I voted for both myself. They're liked, just not passionately.

Or, they're hated.

By some people, sure. To state the obvious, not by the people who voted for them here.

Voted for this. Balances humor and melancholic truth on middle age and friendships/loneliness and habit gone bad.

Need to see Nebraska.

Aw, shame about Nebraska. I said this on another thread but while the rest of Payne's ouevre doesn't move me (I don't hate any of the ones I've seen, I just don't care about them), Nebraska completely won me over. But I went for the option of giving loads of points to my top five, so everything else suffered with small points.

47. The Sugarland Express
29 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/47-sugarland.jpg

I liked Nebraska fine (better than the album, I think). Been meaning to watch it again.

As I've said many times, my favourite Spielberg film, also my favourite of Goldie Hawn's (would take her over Gena Rowlads for the Academy Award that year...not even nominated). Twenty-five when he made it, I think.

The first #1 vote is coming up. I assigned #1s to 14 of the 20 ballots, where there was a clear ranking. With the other six, there would be a group of films at the top with the most points--I wasn't sure if the first one listed was #1 or not. I broke ties by most voters.

45. (tie) No Country for Old Men
30 points/5 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/45-country.jpg

45. (tie) Alice in the Cities
30 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/45-alice.jpg

Busy day at work--I'll finish up to #31 when I get home.

Love both these films.

No Country and Children both made my ballot at the 'oh yeah i guess this kind of is a road movie' tier.

44. Old Joy
32 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/44-joy.jpg

Squeeze in one before I head home. I think three of the images are screenshots of my own; wish I'd learned how simple this was a long time ago.

I don't know how many of these films fall into the love-it-or-hate-it category, but this one would be near the top of that list. I loved it, helped immensely by the Yo La Tengo soundtrack; absent that, very doubtful.

43. The Passenger
33 points/3 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/43-passenger.jpg

I'd have to check, but I think Nicholson handily accumulated the most acting points for this poll. He personifies roadiness.

Wanted to watch this one but didn't get round to it. In fact, I've only seen two of the list so far, hence me not commenting much, sorry!

I've seen The Passenger two or three times. For me, kind of a slog, although I like the Michael Snow-influence final shot. Maria Schneider is such a '70s icon.

Someone will make a documentary about her at some point.

42. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
33 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/42-alfredo.jpg

I'll be honest, this one had me giggling the one time I saw it--the conversations with the head. Maybe that's the intended reaction, I don't know. I was probably influenced by its inclusion in that first Harry Medved book. Greil Marcus mentioned it recently:

"Alfredo Garcia is one of a kind--hypnotic, fatalistic, cruel, hard to take, impossible to forget."

need to rewatch this, remember really liking it but not much else.

41. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
36 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/41-aguirre.jpg

Sorry to say I've never seen this. I've had a DVD on the shelf for a couple of years, but I'll only see it for the first time if it's in a theatre. It screened here a few months ago--I know that whatever it was that prevented me from going was something I couldn't duck out of.

39. (tie) Midnight Cowboy
37 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/39-midnight.jpg

39. (tie) Dead Man
37 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/39-dead.jpg

I still waver a bit on the idea of Midnight Cowboy as a road film, so I put it somewhere in the middle of my ballot, below films I'd rank lower if I were just listing favourites. I tried to balance the two: "How much do I like this film?" with "How well does it capture what I think a road movie is?"

I like Dead Man, although it took a second try. I remember some interesting millennial commentary on it at the time.

Never seen the Dead Man but the soundtrack is road movie as hell.

Oh yay, two of mine - Aguirre and Midnight Cowboy.

I tried to balance the two: "How much do I like this film?" with "How well does it capture what I think a road movie is?"

Yeah, this was my approach too, and I also bumped down Midnight Cowboy because of it. Though I'm sure you'd get some people thinking a lot of my top votes are not really 'classic style' road movies and so I shouldn't talk - even though I respect the American car movie as the Platonic version of a road movie I think 'expansive philosophical journey films' are my preferred angle to take. Aguirre for instance, I felt completely sure about including as a road movie, but as I wasn't able to give it a re-watch it fell out of my top five, and I'm kind of regretting that now.

I want a road, but I don't need a car--tractor, bus, by foot, they're all good.

In my own life, I have more peace of mind when I'm driving (around dusk, no traffic) that at any other time.

Aguirre, Alfredo Garcia and Dead Man are incredible (although I didn't vote for Aguirre). The rape in Alfredo Garcia is v unpleasant and the one thing that really bugs me about the film. the rest is k-lassic.

https://templinbrand.files.wordpress.com/2012/11/aguirre.png

good example of a trope key to the genre: the characters pass by something bizarre or unexplainable but make no comment on it.

haha yes

Great image, don't recognize it.

No one nominated The Wild Bunch...That has a some road-film in it, no? (I did put up a post early expressing skepticism as to whether most any western is inherently a road film, and that this would then turn into a greatest western poll.)

36. (tie) Vagabond
38 points/4 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/36-vagabond.jpg

36. (tie) Down by Law
38 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/36-law.jpg

xp it's a shot from Aguirre.

Realised Hell or High Water should have been nominated as well.

Haven't seen Down by Law, which is strange in view of much I love Stranger Than Paradise. Maybe Excitable Italian Man has kept me away. The thing I remember about Vagabond is thinking that the ending may have partly inspired Twin Peaks.

"how much"

Benigni is fine in the movie. Perhaps assisted by the other characters treating him as the inconvenient annoyance that he is

I have a lifetime grudge against the man for stealing Nick Nolte's Academy Award.

good example of a trope key to the genre: the characters pass by something bizarre or unexplainable but make no comment on it.

Oh yes, definitely. Also made me lol @ RPG memory where I was GMing and made the characters drive past a Jurassic Park minigolf for literally no reason (this is probably only funny to me).

I did think about nominating Wise Blood as there's a lot of driving, but he doesn't ever actually manage to go anywhere. The line "a man doesn't need to be justified if he's got a good car" is A++ material for the poll, though.

35. Sullivan’s Travels
39 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/35-sullivan.jpg

I want to finish this up before 8:00...Thought this was great the one time I saw it years ago--clearly the blueprint for Bill Forsyth's great Comfort and Joy. Veronica Lake...sigh.

Wise Blood's another one I've got revisit.

I'm in typos-every-other-word mode.

Was thinking about A Good Man is Hard to Find as stuff in other mediums that would fit.

I remember reading a short story that I think was Flannery O'Connor--a mom and her adult son on a bus, arguing the whole way. It's not that, is it?

34. Inside Llewyn Davis
40 points/3 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/34-llewyn.jpg

xp that's Everything That Rises Must Converge.

Love Llewyn <3

Woah, didn't realize that we started this!

Catching up: Thelma and Louise and Sideways both came in towards the end of my ballot. The former might of ranked a little higher had I seen it more recently, and the latter I had already designated as the last film on my ballot because I see it as something as a thematic bookend to my #1 film (but more on that later, hopefully).

Aguirre, Children of Men and No Country For Old Men are all movies I love, but they didn't fit my own personal criterial for a road movie for one reason or another. I like Sullivan's Travels well enough, but didn't vote for it.

Need to see all the others.

As for Llewyn, I still haven't really warmed to it after a couple of re-watches in which I was expecting to do just that, but I'll likely give it another whirl some time down the, er, road.

(xpost) Right--memorable story.

Great film, although the explicitly road-film 20 minutes is my least favourite part.

Just checked your list--I haven't seen your #1, but the Sideways connection is intriguing.

32. Goin’ Down the Road
42 points/3 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/32-goin.jpg

Too many Canadians voting in this poll...The woman in the still, Sheila White, died within a year or two of Goin' Down the Road's release. If you ever see it, whatever you think of the film itself, you will never forget her or the one scene she's in.

Not enough road for me, but I adore it. And yes, that scene is absolutely gorgeous and haunting.

missed 33?

33. Kings of the Road
40 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/33-kings.jpg

Oops--you're right! Too anxious to get to Goin' Down the Road.

I had this pretty high. I think it's almost too self-conscious about its roadiness--Wenders clearly set out to make the definitive road film--but so many great moments and images.

31. Pierrot le Fou
42 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/31-pierrot.jpg

One of four directors to place three films, I think.

I'll resume tomorrow with #30-11. Same sporadic posting schedule during the day.

Nicholson's commentary track on The Passenger DVD is a model of intelligence. He shuts up when necessary, and can discuss shots and dissolves.

He also sounds like he's getting over the flu.

I didn't realize we had to designate a #1, and I gave equal high points to three films, so let the record show Kings of the Road had at least one #1. I thought it would place higher.

That was an easy fix the way I set up images.

If anyone else meant for something to be #1 and I didn't count it as such, let me know and I'll drop a revised image in there.

Um...I also missed #38 yesterday.

38. Into the Night
38 points/2 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/38-night.jpg

Good thing I meticulously set up a chart the night before, with everything that needed to be cut-and-paste all set ahead of time, including the image links. That way there'd be no foul-ups. (Other than skipping two spots, the results have been correct.)

This was the hardest image for me to figure out. I haven't seen the film, and I don't really have any sense of it. And a search didn't turn up anything that striking.

Here's #50-31:
50. Children of Men
49. Thelma and Louise
48. Sideways
47. The Sugarland Express
45. (tie) No Country for Old Men
          Alice in the Cities
44. Old Joy
43. The Passenger
42. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia
41. Aguirre, the Wrath of God
39. (tie) Midnight Cowboy
          Dead Man
38. Into the Night
36. (tie) Down by Law
          Vagabond
35. Sullivan’s Travels
34. Inside Llewyn Davis
33. Kings of the Road
32. Goin' Down the Road
31. Pierrot le Fou

30. It Happened One Night
42 points/6 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/30-happened.jpg

I think it's been 40 years since I saw this--likely on Elwy Yost's show (Canada's venerable Robert Osborne-type movie host) in the late '70s. Don't remember much except the most famous scene (which I tried to avoid for the image).

29. Sightseers
43 points/4 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/29-sightseers.jpg

Hadn't even heard of this film until this poll--looked into ordering it, but a little pricey on Amazon.

28. The Wizard of Oz
43 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/28-wizard.jpg

Before my own munchkins arrive...I have seen this one.

Sightseers was another of mine - basically Nuts In May as serial killers.

if I'd voted I'd have put It Happened One Night very near the top, it invented so much

and is brilliant, not giving out marks just for being early

27. Vanishing Point
44 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/27-vanishing.jpg

Bought the DVD many years ago...I don't why, I just haven't been that keen on watching it.

Ok who was the other Into the Night voter

Sightseers is good but may actually be my least favoritr Jump/Wheatley movie

Vanishing Point also a winner in the "action narrated/directed by radio DJ" poll.

I can't fathom Into the Night as a road movie. Or a good movie.

It Happened One Night is one that I meant to rewatch for this poll, and I probably would have voted for it if I did.

Vanishing Point is another blind spot for me. Isn't that the one with the "tossing the homos out of the car" though?

love that description of Sightseers, Emily. didn't make my list, but even lesser Jump/Wheatley is great in my book.

Was unaware of Goin' Down the Road, but will search out, been enjoying Michel Brault and Jutra recently.

26. The Milky Way
45 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/26-milky.jpg

Like Fellini, not for me.

25. The Last Detail
47 points/6 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/25-detail.jpg

I'm not sure if I'd have it in my Top 20 American films for the decade, yet it's pretty much perfect.

The highest rated Jack on my ballot.

Glad I managed to re-watch the Milky Way before voting, it's a fascinating and beautiful piece and wound up in my top five.

Vanishing Point is another blind spot for me. Isn't that the one with the "tossing the homos out of the car" though?

I don't remember this! I gave it points based on what I did remember from when I last saw it as a teen, and that sense of epic expanse and nihilistic speeding.

I only know VP from the scene that's excerpted in The Celluloid Closet (if I'm thinking of the right film, that is)

I can't fathom Into the Night as a road movie. Or a good movie.

film consists entirely of driving around LA at night running into wacky characters/situations

I think that scene's pretty notorious--shows up in The Celluloid Closet. (The same scene is basically in Mean Streets.)

Well, I feel a bit gross about myself now. I mean, I know some of my favourites are problematic but at least I remember and note their problems, but here I just idly tossed off a vote for something without any reflection.

Don't feel gross. I don't even remember the similar scene in Mean Streets.

(not that I voted for MS in this poll of course, but I like it)

I don't remember the VP scene in question at all.

So much questionable shit in the 70s lol

23. (tie) Stranger Than Paradise
49 points/7 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/23-paradise.jpg

23. (tie) Wild Strawberries
49 points/7 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/23-strawberries.jpg

Let me post this tie, and that'll be it till I get home later.

It's been quite a while since I saw Wild Strawberries; I like how the bickering couple is borrowed by Five Easy Pieces. (Great parody by Woody in...Love and Death?) Stranger Than Paradise is one of my decade favourites. Would have been neat if it had been the veener.

Vanishing Point is another blind spot for me. Isn't that the one with the "tossing the homos out of the car" though?

― some sad trombone Twilight Zone shit (cryptosicko)

Yes, but they get tossed because they pull a gun on Kowalski. (definite homophobia in the lead up, though)

https://qph.ec.quoracdn.net/main-qimg-82fd3e9d5a4677642c69ff33082fafa5-c

mostly blanks tho

So much questionable shit in the 70s lol

That's it. I'm not excusing it, but you could spend a week picking out similar transgressions in '70s American films. Besides the times, that was a really self-styled macho group of directors--Altman, Peckinpah, Eastwood, Walter Hill, etc. Not all of them, but a high percentage. Probably comparable to the '50s abstract expressionist painters.

huh that's an interesting parallel

Yeah, I wasn't at all saying "lets burn Vanishing Point, or anything. I get that a lot of the films of this era were characterized by some combination of a masculinist homophobia (and misogyny) and a general not-qutie-thereness on queer issues. And it isn't like there aren't moments in this body of films that trouble this: the kooky yet non-stereotypical lesbian couple in Five Easy Pieces, the observation of a happy gay couple in The Last Detail (ridiculed by one character, but defended by the film's most sympathetic one), and probably several others that I can't remember right now.

Then there is the homoeroticism that has been read into "buddy" films like Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (which I haven't seen). So, yeah, I'm probably doing a disservice to Vanishing Point by mentioning this, but it has been tainted for me by the Celluloid Closet clip being the only thing that I knew about it for many years.

Relevant:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVXIK1xCRpY

^^Should note: Video has spoilers for anyone who hasn't seen Vanishing Point.

22. The Wages of Fear
51 points/7 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/22-wages.jpg

I'll carry on to #11 over the next couple of hours. I'm trying my best to take the world's mind off Washington.

Another one I saw so long ago (along with Diabolique, on the aforementioned Elwy Yost's show), I don't remember anything. I saw the re-release of Sorcerer three or four years ago and thought it was okay.

21. Breathless
54 points/4 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/21-breathless.jpg

There's a great close-up of the gun just before they murder the guy; couldn't find it online...First time I saw this, in 1979, it was on some contraption at a campus library that played cartridges that were twice the size of a VHS cassette.

Breathless feels like more of a car movie than a road movie, not sure how I'd define the distinction though.

I've never seen most of these Euro films that are placing. I am an ignorant savage I guess

I mean I've seen Aguirre and Wild Strawberries but Godard and the Italian neo-realists like Antonioni never appealed to me

Breathless feels like more of a car movie than a road movie, not sure how I'd define the distinction though.

― devvvine, Thursday, May 18, 2017 11:56 PM (yesterday)

Actually, I would probably agree with this (still voted for it tho').

I think road-movie and car-movie is a meaningful distinction (obviously with lots of overlap.)

yeah Christine is not a road movie, for ex.

20. O Brother, Where Art Thou?
56 points/6 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/20-brother.jpg

Surprised this finished so high. I think it's okay.

Will fix that date posthaste...

19. American Honey
58 points/4 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/19-honey.jpg

Still think about this periodically; will see it again next time it shows up in a theatre. I think it'd make a great double-bill with Boyhood, although I'm not sure I could explain that.

YUP

(one of my top votes)

Hate leaving Sasha Lane out of the image, but I used up the best one in the previous thread. The one above is the second screen-shot of my own.

18. La Strada
60 points/5 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/18-strada.jpg

I've seen it. Long ago. Remember nothing.

It's great altho tbh I prefer Nights of Cabiria

Haven't seen that. Of the five or six Fellinis I've seen, La Dolce Vita is the only one I want to see again.

17. Wendy and Lucy
62 points/6 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/17-wendy.jpg

Love this. I don't think her three since have come close, although Certain Women finally gets an opening here next week, and I expect it will look great on a big screen. Took me about twenty tries before I stopped referring to this as Wendy and Lisa.

You're being a bit hard on yourself, Οὖτις, saying you've not seen much of the Euro stuff when you've watched Herzog and Bergman and Fellini! I obviously have a Euro bias but I haven't seen a lot of these films either, and am trying hard not to point the finger of disgusting savagery and filmic naïveté at myself.

xpost lol, clemenza, going through the list I wondered what 'this film about Wendy & Lisa' was, multiple times.

Just a beautiful film, have been putting off watching this for years and had to read the ending first as well.

It's outtakes from the Purple Rain tour, with random backseat shots of Michelle Williams mixed in.

Spoiler alert.

16. Two-Lane Blacktop
62 points/7 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/16-blacktop.jpg

Lol

Yay! for Wages and Brother, both of which I voted for. Boo for the first hour of American Honey, which I got through about an hour of before abandoning (it was during a stressful time of my life; I probably would have watched the whole thing at any other time, though I highly doubt that I would have liked it).

Need to see La Strada, and I guess I need to see Wendy and Lucy as well, though it never looked that interesting to me.

Breathless is not a road film.

Sorry for the redundancies in my above post. Too much wine with dinner.

I haven't seen 2LB either, though it is the film that I often confuse with Vanishing Point.

15. Something Wild
63 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/15-wild.jpg

This was really lagging for the first half of the ballots; picked up towards the end and finished about where I thought it would, maybe a little lower. Missed my own ballot, but not by much.

The complete surprise of Two-Lane Blacktop's last minute remains one the best dumbfounding experiences I've ever had in a movie theatre. (It and Vanishing Point and Drive, He Said have always existed alongside each other in my mind, although I still haven't seen the other two.)

A shameful blindspot. Particularly in light of recent events.

Ray Liotta's terrifying in it. Not even sure if I made the connection to his character here when Goodfellas came out.

14. Wanda
64 points/6 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/14-wanda.jpg

"Goddamn it, it was 'Wanda, Wander.'"
"It was 'Wonder, Wanda.'"
"'Wanda, Wander'! 'Wanda, Wander'!"
"'Wonder, Wanda.'"
"What difference does it make? It was a hit!"

(Henry Gibson and Barbara Baxley in Nashville.)

Would love to read a book on the making of this.

Well, yep. Only saw it for the first time during nominations but it went straight into my top five. Barbara Loden is amazing.

She made two more shorts, both 1975, and nothing else till her death in 1980 (age 48). Married Kazan in 1968, was still with him when she died. I got some of the background when I saw someone introduce this a couple of years ago, but what a story.

13. Paris, Texas
64 points/8 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/13-paris.jpg

As good as it gets when Ry Cooder's playing and they're driving at night. Some of the last third loses me.

Two more I need to see. I PVR'd Wanda a while ago and must have accidentally erased it.

12. Weekend
67 points/6 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/12-weekend.jpg

There's a road, and there are cars.

Another one I've never seen, but I'm right in the middle of reading Laura Mulvey on Godard, so I'm gearing up for a big JLC catch-up soon.

Paris was another one of my top votes, love it.

also hoping this gets some kind of uk release: http://variety.com/2017/film/festivals/lucky-sxsw-film-review-1202008227/

John Carroll Lynch, wow. His parts in Fargo and Zodiac make for one of the most schizophrenic pairings I can think of.

xp
I remember seeing a DVD of Wanda in a Tower Records when they were doing their going out of business sale, and I thought if a waited a few more days it'll be cheaper, but when I went back it was gone. They also had a Ross McElwee box set I planned to do the same with, also gone.

11. Five Easy Pieces
67 points/9 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/11-easy.jpg

Perfect place to end for today. I had it fifth on my ballot, but any one of my top five could have been #1. I realize that part of why I think of this as a road movie actually has to do with the first paragraph of Stanley Kauffmann's review, reprinted in Living Images:

Two months ago I was driving down through the Grand Tetons and gave a lift to a young man. He turned out to be a Ph.D. candidate from an eastern university who had just finished his course work and couldn't get up enough interest to write his dissertation. The whole process had turned futile on him. He had come out to Wyoming to get a job with his hands; he didn't know how long it would be before he went back. Perhaps never.

I thought of him when I saw Five Easy Pieces.

I'm conflating an anecdote in a review with the film itself, but that opening has always stayed with me. In my mind, the part of me that wishes I were Bobby Dupea has this whole separate life that bears little resemblance to the one I actually lead.

Weekend or The Freewheelin' Jean Luc Godard is the bratty inversion of the genre i think, kind of a big fuck you to the romance of the car and the road, but it still manages to be soaked with the romance of the car and the road. i love how at this point onwards in his career JLG pushes boredom as a formal quality and still fills up on beautiful shot-framing. plus the notorious tracking shot near the beginning is everything that a road movie ought to be and kids really love it if you make them sit and watch it all in class. think i'm just back in a phase where he chimes with my shitty mood, wd've made this my own number 1 i think.

oh and that song the female protagonist sings periodically sticks in my head all day

I come at Weekend from two angles: the experience of watching it, and conceptually. I've seen it four or five times: sequences and images that stay with you forever, also boredom and impatience and befuddlement. It's not one of my favourite films, or even one of my favourite Godards.

Conceptually, though, everything NV says and more--as one person's response to 1968 (something that clearly starts building in his work as the decade goes along, all of it coalescing in Weekend), there aren't many films I hold in higher esteem.

10. Lost in America
68 points/8 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/10-lost.jpg

"Why are you treating me like an animal?"
"I'll explain it to you later."

If that makes you inexplicably smile, you're on this film's unique wavelength.

It'll be scattershot, but I've got to finish this during the day. I promise you the most downbeat, anti-climactic Top 10 ever.

downbeat and anti-climactic are key notes of the true road movie

think 4 Mad Max films in the top 10 or just 3?

Weekend is far and away my favourite Godard of the ones I've seen, btw.

9. L’Avventura
69 points/5 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/9-lavventura.jpg

There's no film I've tried harder to connect with. Seven or eight times I've gone back to it (unlike, say, 8-1/2, which I realized after a couple of tries was of a temperament far from my own). L’Avventura isn't. But I come up short every time.

(My favourite Godard is one of My Life to Live, Band of Outsiders, or Masculin Féminin. But I realize he had to get all of the Truffaut that flits in and out of those films out of his system before he could make Weekend.)

8. Stroszek
72 points/7 votes/two #1s

http://phildellio.tripod.com/8-stroszek.jpg

I wrote about the music in this after re-watching it last week. I find Herzog himself a little cartoonish in his recent documentaries--find it hard to put together his persona there with this film.

(Sorry for rushing this along...I've got to get most of this finished before 9:00.)

Would have been my no. 1 on a straight ballot, the last act is just unforgettable and it also includes the funniest jump cut in history.

Trying to think of which jump-cut you mean...That auctioneer's amazing. Was surprised to see Errol Morris's name in the opening credits.

Stroszek is probably my favorite Herzog movie

xp The cut from Strozsek gazing out at where his house used to be to him and in the car with the old man holding a rifle. Just the most perfectly comic/tragic ending to what came before.

to him in the car*

The old guy kills me. There was a short film they were playing throughout Toronto's Hot Docs this year that I'm pretty sure was inspired by the old guy's research project on "animal magnetism."

7. Y Tu Mamá También
73 points/8 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/7-tambien.jpg

Haven't seen this. I have it home, so I'll look after that shortly.

...That auctioneer's amazing

you might be interested in this... a number of people appearing in it also show up in stroszek including the auctioneer and the banker dude.

Thanks, that looks great--will download it tonight.

6. The Straight Story
82 points/8 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/6-straight.jpg

I've got to duck out for a couple of hours. This was my #1. I'm sure there are comparable examples if I gave it some thought, but the most anomalous film I can think of in anyone's filmography.

i reeeeeally hated Y Tu Mamá También

Me too

Fuuuuuuuuck guys. I have this thing, consistently, where I confuse Y Tu Mama Tambien with another film (I believe the film I confuse it with is A Ma Soeur because they're both foreign language titles with family members in them?). I voted for it. I've never seen it. Sorry I completely goddamn fucked up my ballot.

5. Easy Rider
82 points/10 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/5-easy.jpg

Sorry--two-hour assembly. Wouldn't worry about it, Emily, it would have been high anyway.

Probably the only film countdown we've had where one film in the Top 10 references another one in the Top 10.

I like this okay. Some incredible cinematography, love the use of "Wasn't Born to Follow." Some of it, obviously, a little dated. Still haven't seen The Last Movie, although I saw Kit Carson's making-of documentary last year.

If it had finished first, I might have been tempted to say "We blew it."

4. Walkabout
93 points/7 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/4-walkabout.jpg

honestly my favorite scene in Easy Rider is the opening scene w Spector

so many things I've never even heard of placing

mostly all the ones that start w/ the letter "W" - Wanda, Weekend, Walkabout

Forgot about Spector--great casting.

Have you seen Wild Strawberries or Wizard of Oz, The?

Yay, Walkabout. I wondered if people were gonna be 'not road movie enough' about that one. Completely excellent in every way.

Also Easy Rider deserves to be so high even if it is dated and a clichéd film to like etc, because part of the reason it is those things is that it is one of the Platonic ideals of the whole road movie concept.

mostly all the ones that start w/ the letter "W" - Wanda, Weekend, Walkabout

Fun fact - three fifths of my top five began with W. And yes, it was those three.

Also the Milky Way, which has one of its words beginning with W.

Have you seen Wild Strawberries or Wizard of Oz, The?

well yeah

respect

http://torrentking.eu/covers/movies/79/69/0027969.jpg

3. Bonnie and Clyde
98 points/9 votes/one #1

http://phildellio.tripod.com/3-bonnie.jpg

Just kidding, Οὖτις.

Again wavering on this as a road film--not sure if being chased is qualitatively a different kind of film--but I voted for it. (Surprised that neither They Live by Night nor Thieves Like Us got a vote.) Alice's Restaurant sounds more roady, but I haven't seen it.

Alice's Restaurant is another one where I don't think they actually leave town...?

Bonnie & Clyde has them going cross-country picking up/meeting people and robbing banks and getting into trouble, I think it definitely qualifies. Great screen cap too btw

I was really disappointed in Thieves Like Us when I finally got around to it.

Bonnie & Clyde is definitely a road movie!

I don't know--I kept running into references to Alice's Restaurant as a road film. (From Ebert's original review: "Alice's Restaurant is at its best when Arlo is on the road, going to college, hitchhiking, playing his guitar, getting drafted, taking his Army physical, going to see his friends Ray and Alice and things like that.")

Thieves Like Us is not high on my Altman list either. Kael's review is great, makes me wish I loved it.

Huh granted I haven't seen it in 20 years but I don't remember a lot of being on the road (I do remember the draft/army physical stuff and him playing his guitar duh. also something about everybody living in a church and a junkie that dies)

2. Stalker
105 points/4 votes/two #1s

http://phildellio.tripod.com/2-stalker.jpg

My other L'Avventura. I've tried, and I will try again. Obvious still, I know, but the one moment I unequivocally love. All the online stills are as dingy as the film...which I realize is intentional. Wins the enthusiasm vote going away.

No film conveys cockeyed, unbridled enthusiasm like Stalker.

Not entirely sure it's a road movie because so much of the journey is restrictive but voted for it anyway. Is definitely a masterpiece though.

Kael's review is great, makes me wish I loved it.

That's how I feel about Bonnie & Clyde.

gtfo w Stalker

so Badlands, huh?

seeing Stalker on the big screen for the first time next week :D

bit of a stretch to call it a road movie though, yeah.

also i don't think Bonnie & Clyde is that great, but it's been years.

YTMT was my #1. Had Lost in America really high up too, so yay for those. Curious what the YTMT haters hate about it so much. The ending?

More on the arbitrary nature of what counts: I like Bonnie and Clyde, Stroszek and Walkabout about equally as movies, but only the former counted as a road movie for me.

I remember liking Easy Rider well enough when I finally saw it years ago, but its another one that needs a rewatch.

This list has given me a bunch of movies to check out. I didn't vote, but suspect I would have put It Happened One Night at the top.

Shit missed the countdown! There wasn't a link in the voting thread so I completely forgot about it. Would have voted Stalker high up but it didn't feel like a road film. Glad Badlands will take it. Sightseers was my number one. It's the only Wheatley I like and I love it completely. Need to see Lost In America and Goin' Down the Road.

Stalker was my number one and I gave it the maximum points I could. It might not have much in the way of cars, but to me it is definitely a road movie. My criteria for "what is a road movie" went something like:

* Is a journey the main narrative device in the film? Is the end point of that journey either unknown, futile, or non-existent?
* Is the landscape and its changing/unchanging nature a main feature of the film? Is it vast?
* Do the characters have existential crises? Are they unsure or afraid of being-in-the-world?
* Does the exterior echo/reflect/distort the interior? (aka the pathetic fallacy clause.) Does the movement through geographic location have an analogue in the instability of the self?

Things that don't meet all of those criteria may still be a road movie, but those things were the most important elements for me.

I hated the contrivance of YTMT, the heavy-handed allegorical stuff, the treatment of sexuality, p much all of it

xp

shit, just realized I should've voted for "Roadie"

1. Badlands
114 points/10 votes

http://phildellio.tripod.com/1-badlands.jpg

Didn't vote for it, but good #1. It overtook Stalker on the last couple of ballots. Which I was glad of--not that Stalker wouldn't be an interesting #1, but I always prefer many voters/modest vote-totals to few voters/major-points.

forgot to vote for this but it's great

a good winner, thanks for doing this clemenza!

Fair enough. I figure that if YTMT's use of allegory and treatment of sexuality don't work for you, the whole thing is pretty much lost. I'm not even sure I could defend it much beyond saying that the things you didn't like about it are the things that I liked.

I have heard the film's treatment of queerness challenged as homophobic, which I don't agree with (a film that is about homophobia is different than a film that embraces homophobia) but it certainly isn't clear cut enough to be undebatable.

Mostly, I put it at #1 (over, say, The Grapes of Wrath or Lost in America or something) because its just the movie that hit all of my own personal road movie sweet spots the hardest.

Watched Badlands long enough ago that I've retained very little memory of it, but I do remember it not doing much for me. Rinse and repeat for pretty much every other Malick I've seen, though (which is everything up until Tree of Life).

Great poll, though! Lots I need to watch. Thanks clem!

Badlands probably woulda been my #1 if I voted.

Pretty much a perfect film. Beautiful, haunting, savage, hilarious, uniquely strange. Wish Malick could've given us more than two films in the 70s.

Being "whatever" about Badlands is crazy to me.

maybe Morbz has different objections to YTMT idk. I did find its treatment of the homoeroticism kind of offensive, the build up to this big moment of OMG TWO MEN ARE KISSING ONSCREEN was just ridiculous

xp

I made a Letterboxd list. I've seen 24/50.

Emil.y, I was the other #1 for Stalker for exactly the reasons you laid out. Hi 5!

Never change ilx, this is a really great list

Didn't get around to voting, wonder if my vote would've been enough to get a dumb & dumber or pt&a sitting next to these films where they belong

still want to know who the other Into the Night voter was lol

Clemenza, thanks for running this poll -- fun to ponder, fun to vote, fun to watch the results.

I should mention re: Badlands that I was like 17 when I saw it, ditto Days of Heaven. The two 70s Malicks are the only two of his I feel at all compelled to give another shot, so I'll get to them. Maybe they'll open up the rest of his filmography to me?

wins: I had PT&A pretty high on my ballot!

Definitely give those two another shot. Even though you see the roots of latter day Malick in them (well, mostly in DoH), they're different animals.

High five back atcha, WmC!

Also I have pretty much the same thing as cryptosicko wrt Badlands - saw it when I was around 17, don't recall it having a major impression on me, have disliked all other Malick films I've seen so I didn't prioritise giving it a rewatch.

I know PT&A will be something obvious but all I can read right now is "Paul Thomas & Anderson".

OH DUH, Planes, Trains... - I didn't vote for it but I do have a soft spot.

Badlands is interesting, but not one I really treasure. I've always felt a detachment from its fantasy.

i guess i will admit when i first saw Badlands in my late teens i thought it was just decent, but really fell in love with it on rewatch a few years later. has grown in stature with each successive viewing.

basically saying if you saw this at 17 and thought "whatever" you are missing out

parents teachers and association

My first allegiance was to the platonic ideal of the road movie rather than great film, period, so there are a few that couldn't show up on any other list (Leningrad Cowboys), but here's my ballot and points.

Stalker - 30
Walkabout - 25
Easy Rider - 25
The Straight Story - 20
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 15
Dead Man - 8
Paris, Texas - 8
Stagecoach 8
Two-Lane Blacktop - 8
Wild Strawberries - 7
Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure - 6
The Brave Little Toaster - 5
Badlands - 4
Leningrad Cowboys Go America - 4
Planes, Trains and Automobiles - 3
Lost in America - 3
Alice in the Cities - 3
The Sugarland Express - 3
Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas - 3
Down by Law - 2
Rain Man - 2
Taste of Cherry - 2
Smokey and the Bandit - 2
The Wages of Fear - 2
Slow West -2

Thanks for voting, everyone. Really enjoyed looking around for the images (sizing them and whatnot is a lot of work, for sure). I'll put the full list and a few extra stats up later...And my own ballot, which I don't have here.

still want to know who the other Into the Night voter was lol
― Οὖτις

The other person had it in his/her Top 5, each film getting 20 points. I'll leave it up to whomever to post if he/she wants to.

Thanks for the Letterboxd list, cryptosicko. I've seen 44, although again, a handful so long ago they may as well not even count.

My 15:

Y Tu Mamá También
The Grapes of Wrath
Lost in America
Paper Moon
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Wild Strawberries
The Wizard of Oz
The Last Detail
Five Easy Pieces
The Wages of Fear
Bonnie and Clyde
National Lampoon's Vacation
Thelma and Louise
Sideways

Funny that After Hours didn't place but Into The Night did after the discussion at the top. I like AH but it doesn't qualify enough for me and I haven't seen ITN.

Here's mine

Stroszek
Stalker
The passenger
Aguirre the wrath of god
Weekend
Midnight run
Five easy pieces
Two-lane blacktop
Badlands
Taste of cherry
L'avventura
Walkabout
Kill list
Gallivant
Radio on
No country for old men
The wages of fear
American honey
Duel
Sightseers
Certified copy
Wanda
Paris, Texas
Planes trains and automobiles
Twentynine palms

Didn't contribute anything beyond a ballot but looking forward to checking out some of the list, Goin Down the Road is on Youtube I notice

Sad Midnight Run didn't make it. That being an 18 is v lol 80s

Stroszek - 20
American Honey - 20
Paris, Texas - 20
Wild Strawberries - 15
Wendy & Lucy - 15
Stalker - 15
Five Easy Pieces - 15
Inside Llewyn Davis - 15
L’Avventura - 15
Badlands - 15
Messidor - 5
Stranger than Paradise - 5
Children of Men - 5
Aguirre, The Wrath of God - 5
No Country for Old Men - 5
La Strada - 5
Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia - 1
Embrace of the Serpent - 1
Branded to Kill - 1
Mad Max: Fury Road - 1
Fitzcarraldo - 1

Mine:

Stalker - 40
The Milky Way - 20
Walkabout - 20
Wanda - 20
Weekend - 20
Aguirre, the Wrath of God - 5
El Topo - 5
Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! - 5
Breathless (À bout de souffle) - 5
Easy Rider - 5
Midnight Cowboy - 5
Nebraska - 5
Carnival of Souls - 5
Sightseers - 5
Bonnie and Clyde - 5
Vanishing Point - 5
The Straight Story - 5
Y Tu Mamá También - 5 <---- not actually the right film b/c I am an idiot
Zabriskie Point - 5
The Hitch-Hiker - 5
Stroszek - 1
Paper Moon - 1
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - 1
Stand by Me - 1
Kill List - 1

I would've like to have more of an arc to my points distribution but my maths is bad so I just went with one of clemenza's suggestions of blocks of the same points for a load of them.

*liked

Stranger Than Paradise
Breathless (1960)
La Strada
L’Avventura
Withnail and I
Something Wild
Corridor of Faces
The Trip (2010)
Badlands
Paris, Texas
Sullivan's Travels
The Milky Way
Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore
Drugstore Cowboy
Sideways
Easy Rider
Lost in America
Kings of the Road
Stagecoach
Pierrot le Fou
Leningrad Cowboys Go America
Flirting with Disaster
The Wages of Fear
Harry and Tonto
Bonnie and Clyde

Also thought about voting for: Stalker, La Nuit de Varennes, Palm Beach Story, Buffalo ‘66 (but, ugh, gallo), Wild Strawberries, Scarecrow, Aguirre, Ride the High Country, It Happened One Night.

Didn't think about Walkabout, but that likely would have bumped its way in.

Oh, I didn't vote, but Stalker is possibly the best movie ever so

I did not vote but had I voted stranger than paradise and Wendy & Lucy would've got some big bumps up the ladder

My ballot:

Vagabond / 30
Sullivan's Travels / 16
Two Lane Blacktop / 11
Pierrot le Fou / 11
Paris, Texas / 10
La Strada / 10
It Happened One Night / 10
Je Tu Il Elle / 6
Stranger than Paradise / 6
Withnail & I / 6
The Straight Story / 6
Alice in the Cities / 6
Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert / 6
The Wizard of Oz / 6
My Own Private Idaho / 6
Repo Man / 6
Stroszek / 6
The Last Detail / 6
Weekend / 6
Five Easy Pieces / 6
Dead Man / 6
Les rendez-vous d'Anna / 6
Wanda / 6
Y Tu Mama Tambien / 3
Easy Rider / 3

I bashed this out in five minutes just before the deadline on a day where I'd lived a mini-road movie in rural Texas

20 Point Films:

Two-Lane Blacktop
Something Wild
I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You*
Travels With Anna
Pierrot le fou

5 Point Films:

Easy Rider
Vanishing Point
Paper Moon
Wrong Move
Alice In The Cities
Paris, Texas
The Last Detail
La strada
Five Easy Pieces
Stranger Than Paradise
Y tu mama tambien
Bring Me The Head of Alfredo Garcia
The Straight Story
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles
Harry and Tonto
Lost In America
Je Tu Il Elle
The Sugarland Express
Two For The Road
Weekend

*My go for broke passion vote. A Brazilian movie from 2009 that I saw (twice!) at a festival, on paper this looks like a boilerplate quirky road pic: a recently divorced geologist is sent out for an environmental impact research study Re:the building of a canal, which he semi-derails by going on a lengthy bender. What sets it apart is the execution. The whole thing is presented as a collage of home movies, faux-found footage, and POV shots, with most of the dialog being log entries read in voiceover by the unseen protagonist, a mixed bag of travelog descriptions of what's happening, memories of his wife, and fragments of the study he's supposed to be conducting. One of the best films I've ever seen on the function of memory, and a refreshingly successful genre de/reconstruction.

xp

Oh, nice that you were the #1 for Vagabond, ows - I'd love to see it, partly because as of now I've only watched one Agnes Varda film, but also I usually trust your taste in things.

didn't vote, but would probly have included this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGXOeBw8ZQ

Thanks, emil.y: for the same reason, yr ballot reminds me how much I need to finally see Walkabout.

Xp

Also, thanks for running this poll, clemenza! Since you mentioned being interested in reading more about Wanda, it might be worth looking at Nathalie Léger's Suite for Barbara Loden, an excerpt from which is available here:

https://www.theparisreview.org/letters-essays/6820/barbara-wanda-nathalie-leger

I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You*
*My go for broke passion vote. A Brazilian movie from 2009 that I saw (twice!) at a festival, on paper this looks like a boilerplate quirky road pic: a recently divorced geologist is sent out for an environmental impact research study Re:the building of a canal, which he semi-derails by going on a lengthy bender. What sets it apart is the execution. The whole thing is presented as a collage of home movies, faux-found footage, and POV shots, with most of the dialog being log entries read in voiceover by the unseen protagonist, a mixed bag of travelog descriptions of what's happening, memories of his wife, and fragments of the study he's supposed to be conducting. One of the best films I've ever seen on the function of memory, and a refreshingly successful genre de/reconstruction.

This sounds brilliant, btw.

Sad Midnight Run didn't make it.

I really wanted to rewatch it for the poll, but couldn't find it anywhere. Haven't seen it since it whenever it was last in regular rotation on cable.

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/wanda_zpsxcrjmeyg.png
http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/badlands_zpsyo4g7clj.jpg

Maybe road films are primarily about the secret contempt women harbor for the men they find themselves stuck in cars with.

1. The Straight Story – 23
2. The Sugarland Express – 20
3. Lost in America – 18
4. Goin’ Down the Road – 16
5. Five Easy Pieces – 13
6. Wendy and Lucy – 12
7. Stranger Than Paradise – 11
8. Kings of the Road – 10
9. American Honey – 9
10. Paris, Texas – 8
11. Midnight Cowboy – 7
12. Alice in the Cities – 6
13. Stroszek – 6
14. Wanda – 6
15. Jesus’ Son – 5
16. Almost Famous – 5
17. Aloha, Bobby and Rose – 4
18. Old Joy – 4
19. Bonnie and Clyde – 4
20. Sideways – 3
21. Lolita – 3
22. The Last Detail – 2
23. Harry and Tonto – 2
24. Nebraska – 2
25. Gerry – 1

I thought Jesus’ Son might sneak into the top 40 or 50. I'll post the full list shortly.

Am I the only one who voted for Into The Wild and Sherman's March? I expected the former to make the 20s or 30s rank.

ctrl+f dumb and dumber "Not found" ノಠ_ಠノ

Nick: each had you plus one other vote. Nothing for Dumb and Dumber.

I'm heading out right now, so I won't have the full list till later--sorry.

Shout Factory TV, of all places, has a ton of Herzog films free to watch — I'll try to catch Stroszek sometime soon.

Seriously, the print (if that's the right word) on YouTube is perfect.

My list. I judged based on having seen it (duh, but this eliminated a lot of them), how much I liked it (also duh, but qualified by how much it affected me at the time, so Vanishing Point, which I saw as a 14-year old, got a boost), and how "roady" it was. Several films I had seen and loved but couldn't remember what made them road movie worthy (L'Avventura), or disagreed with that status (Midnight Cowboy, Alice's Restaurant, Drugstore Cowboy).

Bless the Beasts I saw in high school, so is a sentimental YA favorite, and Crystal Fairy I watched on cable at random and was impressed by, though it's not a better movie than any of my lower-ranked movies. I just think it's very roady, and needs more publicity.

24 films, 200 points.

20 Kings of the Road (my #1, though not noted as such in my ballot)
20 Vanishing Point
20 Walkabout

15 Into the Wild
15 Sherman’s March
15 Two-Lane Blacktop

8 Badlands
8 Bless the Beasts and Children
8 Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus
8 Detour
8 Easy Rider

5 Duel
5 Lost in America
5 Old Joy
5 Stranger Than Paradise
5 The Passenger
5 Two for the Road
5 Wanda
5 Wendy and Lucy

3 Buffalo ‘66
3 Freeway
3 Electra Glide in Blue
3 Five Easy Pieces
3 The Milky Way

1. Badlands (114 points/10 votes)
2. Stalker  (105/4)
3. Bonnie and Clyde  (98/9)
4. Walkabout  (93/7)
5. Easy Rider  (82/10)
6. The Straight Story  (82/8)
7. Y Tu Mamá También  (73/8)
8. Stroszek  (72/7)
9. L’Avventura  (69/5)
10. Lost In America  (68/8)
11. Five Easy Pieces  (67/9)
12. Weekend  (67/6)
13. Paris, Texas  (64/8)
14. Wanda  (64/6)
15. Something Wild  (63/5)
16. Two-Lane Blacktop  (62/7)
17. Wendy and Lucy  (62/6)
18. La Strada  (60/5)
19. American Honey  (58/4)
20. O Brother, Where Art Thou?  (56/6)
21. Breathless  (54/4)
22. The Wages of Fear  (51/7)
23. Stranger Than Paradise  (49/7)
    Wild Strawberries  (49/7)
25. The Last Detail  (47/6)
26. The Milky Way  (45/4)
27. Vanishing Point  (44/5)
28. The Wizard of Oz  (43/5)
29.  Sightseers  (43/4)
30. It Happened One Night  (42/6)
31. Pierrot le Fou  (42/5)
32. Goin’ Down the Road  (42/3)
33. Kings of the Road  (40/4)
34. Inside Llewyn Davis  (40/3)
35. Sullivan’s Travels  (39/4)
36. Down by Law  (38/4)
    Vagabond  (38/4)
38. Into the Night  (38/2)
39. Dead Man  (37/4)
    Midnight Cowboy  (37/4)
41. Aguirre, the Wrath of God  (36/4)
42. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia  (33/5)
43. The Passenger  (33/3)
44. Old Joy  (32/4)
45. Alice in the Cities  (30/5)
    No Country for Old Men  (30/5)
47. The Sugarland Express  (29/4)
48. Sideways  (28/7)
49. Thelma and Louise  (28/4)
50. Children of Men  (27/3)
------------------------------------------------------------------
51. Travels with Anna  (26/2)
52. The Bird People in China  (25/1)
53. Drugstore Cowboy  (24/3)
54. The Muppet Movie  (24/2)
55. Planes, Trains and Automobiles  (21/4)
56. Pee Wee’s Big Adventure  (21/3)
    The Grapes of Wrath  (21/3)
58. Broken Flowers  (21/1)
    Going Places  (21/1)
60. Taste of Cherry  (20/3)
61. Into the Wild  (20/2)
    Sherman's March  (20/2)
    The Road Warrior  (20/2)
64. I Travel Because I Have To, I Come Back Because I Love You  (20/1)
65. Midnight Run  (19/2)
66. Roadside Prophets  (19/1)
67. Nebraska  (18/5)
68. Paper Moon  (18/3)
69. Stand by Me  (17/3)
70. Almost Famous  (16/3)
    El Topo  (16/3)
72. Death Proof  (16/2)
    Mad Max: Fury Road  (16/2)
74. Festival Express  (15/2)
75. Goodbye Pork Pie  (15/1)
76. Scarecrow  (14/2)
    Stagecoach  (14/2)
78. Repo Man  (13/2)
79. Entertainment  (13/1)
80. The Darjeeling Limited  (12/1)
    Traffic  (12/1)
82. Harry and Tonto  (11/3)
    Freeway  (11/3)
84. Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert  (11/2)
    Detour  (11/2)
    Hair  (11/2)
    Je Tu Il Elle  (11/2)
    Withnail & I  (11/2)
89. 12 Monkeys  (10/2)
    Adventures in Babysitting  (10/2)
    Jesus’ Son  (10/2)
    The Brave Little Toaster  (10/2)
    Two for the Road  (10/2)
94. Corridor of Faces  (10/1)
    El Norte  (10/1)
    Güeros  (10/1)
    Man Push Cart  (10/1)
    The Night of the Hunter  (10/1)
    The Trip  (10/1)
    True Romance  (10/1)
    Until the End of the World  (10/1)
102. Duel  (9/1)
103. Electra Glide in Blue  (8/2)
    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas  (8/2)
    Fitzcarraldo  (8/2)
    Leningrad Cowboys Go America  (8/2)
    National Lampoon’s Vacation  (8/2)
108. Alice Doesn’t Live Here Anymore  (8/1)
    Bless the Beasts and the Children  (8/1)
    Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus  (8/1)
    Natural Born Killers  (8/1)
112. Certified Copy  (7/2)
    Kill List  (7/2)
    Rain Man  (7/2)
115. Smoke Signals  (7/1)
116. Gerry  (6/2)
    It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World  (6/2)
    Slow West  (6/2)
119. Gallivant  (6/1)
    My Own Private Idaho  (6/1)
121. Borat  (5/2)
    Lolita  (5/2)
123. Beavis and Butt-head Do America  (5/1)
    Carnival of Souls  (5/1)
    Collateral  (5/1)
    Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill!   (5/1)
    Follow That Bird  (5/1)
    Highway 61 (5/1)
    Kikujiro  (5/1)
    Life of Pi  (5/1)
    Messidor  (5/1)
    Radio On  (5/1)
    Raising Arizona  (5/1)
    Road to Singapore  (5/1)
    Road Trip  (5/1)
    The Hitch-Hiker  (5/1)
    Under the Skin  (5/1)
    Zabriskie Point  (5/1)
    Wrong Move  (5/1)
140. Aloha, Bobby and Rose  (4/1)
    Flirting with Disaster  (4/1)
    Hideous Kinky  (4/1)
    Landscape in the Mist  (4/1)
    Simple Men  (4/1)
    The Getaway  (4/1)
    They Drive by Night  (4/1)
147. Buffalo '66  (3/1)
    The Sure Thing  (3/1)
149. Journey to Italy  (2/1)
    Little Miss Sunshine  (2/1)
    Smokey and the Bandit  (2/1)
    Starman  (2/1)
153. Branded to Kill  (1/1)
    Embrace of the Serpent  (1/1)
    Magical Mystery Tour  (1/1)
    The Blues Brother  (1/1)
    Twentynine Palms  (1/1)

Enthusiasm (two or more votes):

1. Stalker (26.25 points/vote)
2. Into the Night (19.00)
3. American Honey (14.50)
4. Goin' Down the Road (14.00)
5. L'Avventura (13.80)
6. Breathless (13.50)
7. Inside Llewyn Davis (13.33)
8. Walkabout (13.29)
9. Travels with Anna (13.00)
10. Something Wild (12.60)

Too lazy to do directors. I know Wenders led with five of his films getting votes, and I think Jarmusch, Godard, and the Coens all had three. Pretty sure Nicholson led actors--four lead roles, one supporting--unless there's someone who was in all five Wenders.

Wenders - 5

Jarmusch - 4

Godard - 3
Coens - 3
Gus Van Sant - 3
Antonioni - 3
Herzog - 3

Go to bed, dummy.

I see Duel has 9 points but only one voter. I voted for it but I only gave it 5 points.

I see or something also had it in his/her list.

Yeah, that should say 9/2--you gave it 5, someone else 4. The points and the placement are right, though.

Since you mentioned being interested in reading more about Wanda, it might be worth looking at Nathalie Léger's Suite for Barbara Loden

Thanks--ordered a copy from Abe.

Second viewing of Certain Women, this time in a theatre. Felt about the same--great movie, wish I felt more strongly about it. It did really come through this time how much of a road movie it is. Lots of drivin', on four wheels and on four legs. Best shot is of Michelle Williams after they leave the guy with all the sandstone, everything reflected in the passenger window as she and her husband mildly argue. Can't find it online.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/content/dam/films/2017/03/02/JS121527482_Handout-small_trans_NvBQzQNjv4BqpiVx42joSuAkZ0bE9ijUnGH28ZiNHzwg9svuZLxrn1U.jpg

Went to a rep screening (sort of--they played the Criterion disc) of Something Wild tonight, first time I've seen it in 25 years at least. Liked it fine then and still do, although I like Married to the Mob even more.

Total road-movie material, with many requisite shots of rolling scenery. The darker, Ray Liotta section of the film was longer than I remembered. Affinities I felt with Blue Velvet at the time were still there. I'm sure the film has something to do with the Reagan moment, but seeing as I don't have any feel for that, the connection escapes me. I've seen Demme criticized for his weird treatment of African-Americans, but I think there's a basic generosity there.

So much music. There are only three or four things that really stood out for me, though. The one appearance of the Troggs is great, with Daniels sprawled all over the front seat and an overhead shot, timed to the music, as they pull out of frame. Beyond the reunion, there's some actual Feelies music--something really good from The Good Earth--as they're driving along. And Sister Carol.

Prompted by that ugly first post, I just looked around a bit and Photobucket is now asking you to pay $399 a year for third-party hosting.

Will get on that right away, Photobucket.

(xpost) "Slipping (Into Something)," my favourite song on The Good Earth.

http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/90772/Something-Wild/music.html

TCM has The Rain People, Harry and Tonto, and Lost in America tonight; taking a wild guess that the theme is road movies .

I wish they were showing Joseph Strick’s Road Movie (1974), which is brilliant and has never had a video release in its proper aspect ratio

This poll was great. I have now seen Vagabond and would definitely have voted for it.

I remember liking <i>Fandago</i> when I was in high school. Yeah, it's Costner, but it's a good road movie.

Fandango is wonderful. One of Costner’s best performances. I’m very fond of the USC thesis film it was born from as well, Proof (1981)