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

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.