You Think We’re in Ohio Yet? Road Movie Nominating/Voting Thread - VOTING CLOSES MIDNIGHT, MAY 15th

Oh, good shout!

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/reminder_zpsezt0xis9.jpg

I'll do my best to get something in to you by the end of the weekend. I love the idea of this poll and really wanna participate, but this week has turned out to be a shitshow in both expected and unexpected ways.

You know what'll clear your head? Get in the car and drive.

There are ten things I want to vote for but 25 is just too much. Will sit this one out.

No problem at all with a ballot of 10--take 100 points and split them up.

Because I suck so bad at math, I have to ask: how would I split up the points for a ballot of 15?

I've had a couple of 20 films/200-point ballots...For 15 films, I'd say 150?

If a 25-film ballot gets 200 points, a 15-film ballot (60% of 25) should get 60% of the points, or 120. Sorry not sorry to be a pedant, but it's worth doing the math to make sure that short ballots aren't disproportionately weighted.

Fair enough. I'll do 120 pts.

So 8 points per film in your list? Is there a maximum votes per film in a list? Like, could someone list 10 films, give 71 pts to one and 1 point each to the other 9? I thought I saw a 20-pt max per film early in the thread, though that may have just been an example.

Ok, I see 40 points max in the original post.

Driving Visions, that book I ordered, got here today. The key films from each chapter are highlighted upfront--these five weren't nominated, so I added them to the list.

The Wild One
The Wild Angels
Repo Man
Raising Arizona
Delusion

Haven't seen Repo Man in ages, but I don't remember it being a road movie myself.

From the first chapter ("Paving the Way"):

"The road movie appears a a dynamic manifestation of American society's fascination with the road. Comprised of an intricate matrix of cultural predilections, the genre of the road movie explores the 'borders' (the status quo conventions) of American society. Often from a culturally critical perspective, the road movie asks, What does it mean to exceed the boundaries, to transgress the limits, of American society?"

My brain doesn't really work that way--and "transgress" is something close to a red-flag word--but I guess that's an accurate enough description of the Bobby Dupeas and Willies and Stars who capture a kind of aimlessness I find very appealing (even if I don't live that out in real life--I do partly).

Just past halfway to 20 ballots. We're taking the Alvin Straight route.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fryGyqTJPU

Wtf Raising Arizona? No.

That seems pretty dubious too. I mean, I know there's stuff with choppers, but Nicholas Cage and Holly Hunter don't really go anywhere, do they? Again, it's been a while for me.

Nobody goes anywhere!

They go to pick up some Huggies...

apologies for dallying, rather than posting my ballot, but two that I very much love and had overlooked: Coogan/Brydon's The Trip and The Trip to Italy.

Wait, what? Isn't that a TV series? Did they make a film too?

Hey, The Straight Story sits at #1,000 right now on TSPDT's big list:

http://www.theyshootpictures.com/gf1000_all1000films_table.php

xp

yes, both series were edited and released as films. that's the way I saw them. loved them enough that I will eventually get around to watching the original episodes.

Just finished Stroszek, which I hadn't seen since '79 or '80. I remember that my university roommate and I thought it was pretty much the damnedest thing we'd ever seen. I'm sure that whatever print we saw wasn't nearly as beautiful as what I lifted off YouTube.

The bank guy reminded me a lot of Harold Ramis in the earliest SCTV episodes. Like some of the Wenders films from the same era, felt like a European attempt at one of the early '70s American attempts at a '60s European art film. Which probably sounds negative, but no, not at all--liked it a lot. The ending was like a perfect mix of Fassbinder and Five Easy Pieces. Was just reminded of the Ian Curtis connection.

Made me feel nostalgic for that first viewing. I would have 18 or 19--everything was new, everything was ahead.

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_n35PfUpWyak/SeM4xSxyOdI/AAAAAAAANIw/NarqzAm1XSY/s1600-h/Stroszek+6.JPG

"would have been"

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

It's a lovely film, but like Goin' Down The Road, one of those that doesn't feature quite enough road to qualify as a road movie for me. But then again, at this point, I gotta stop being so picky if I'm ever gonna get a ballot together.

Actual on-the-road footage probably totals two or three minutes. But I think emotionally it fits perfectly--unhappiness, leaving one bad situation and finding something just as bad or worse--and some of those road shots look incredible.

Completely fits the emotional character for me because Stroszek is permanently out of place. Even if most of the travel happens offscreen America seems to be arbitrarily moving around him and his 'family' and home are ultimately transitory. Also for me the most poignant scenes all happen on the road: driving out of New York, Eva leaving with the truckers, the house driven off, Stroszek's final drive.

Yeah, it definitely feels like a road movie. And the feel is honestly the most important factor to me.

(I am gonna try to get this done by tonight, I swear!)

It's definitely a matter of feel for me. A vague, amorphous definition of a vague, amorphous genre.

Goin' Down the Road comes and goes on YouTube. If you've got the capability of downloading it and watching it on a big screen, it's up there at the moment.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khvy2-Qxuzw

Errr... it looks like my top five might all be 'road movies on foot'. Is that okay?

Of course! Planes and boats would seem weird, but on foot works.

Finally took a couple of minutes to learn how to grab screenshots. This is the kind of thing I'll obsess over. Stroszek:

http://i1059.photobucket.com/albums/t427/sayhey1/screenshot_zpsswfc3e1x.jpg

Yeah, I've actually cut out Fitzcarraldo entirely in favour of other Herzog, and iirc I refrained from nominating Knife in the Water because "too boaty, not roady enough".

I always like to use song lyrics or quoted dialogue for poll titles, otherwise I'd go with "Too Boaty, Not Roady Enough."

Funny that there are three movies in release right now that qualify - Like Crazy, Folk Hero & Funny Guy, and Paris Can Wait.

I had planned to watch Je, tu, il, elle tonight, but turns out the YouTube I lifted is without subtitles. I take it there's not a whole lot of dialogue anyway, but I still need subtitles. Then I went to watch The American Friend--not nominated, but I came across a couple of great road images online--same thing. (And when I realized I had it on DVD anyway, I couldn't find it after a 20-minute search--maddening.) So I'm going with what I know.

Up to 13 ballots--would really appreciate seven more tomorrow. Coming up a bit short won't be all that bad--there are 40 films with at least three votes right now, and 25 with at least four--but I always think of 20 ballots as a reasonable floor for these polls.

(Looks like Like Crazy came out six years ago, unless it's a different one.)

Because I can't deal with numbers right now--my mathematical incompetence + this week's stress has left my brain fried--would it be cool if I just sent you a list of 15 and then you can assign points accordingly? Obviously, I don't care much about point distribution, just that I like my #1 film better than my #9 film and so forth (and even that I'm not all that fussy about).

That's no problem. Actually, if you take 120 points, 15 + 14 + 13 ... + 1 works out to exactly 120.

This Like Crazy is in Italian - two women from mental facility take car on the road. It's being presented as new here in Los Angeles.

Also, I just sent my ballot via your ILX email.

Got it--thanks, appreciate that.

Oh! That's great. I'll get this to you tomorrow, then (one more thing I wanna rewatch first).

Just sent one in there. Didn't say but just weight it equally, 1 most points to 25 least ta

Would you like me to change the title to give a finishing date for ballots?

Thanks, that'd be great: midnight, May 15.

or something: 25-1 doesn't work--it adds up to 325 points. I sent you an alternative, see if that works.

Watched The Scarecrow (1973) for this last night. Previously unaware of it, shared the grand prize at Cannes. Hackman and a nice comic turn from Pacino, beautifully shot by Vilmos Zsigmond. A happy find.

Also saw Lupino's The Hitch-Hiker. William Talman (the DA on Perry Mason) has a great time playing the baddie.

nobody's mentioned "Dumb and Dumber" yet.

It's in the nomination list.

http://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Vo7swLaeS1ZCbciqrHKrSzlOm-DozyZBi_lpKIGGtI/edit

Emil.y and cryptsicko, wherever I may find them: we're on the clock now--get those damn ballots in! I do appreciate that you're putting care and thought into this. But if your third favourite is actually your fifth favourite, or if you leave off something that should have been #22, it's not a big deal. On the road of life, this poll is but a five-minute detour for drive-through coffee in the middle of Wisconsin.

Hoping for those two, plus two more--that'd be 20.

Coming up shortly! Btw, I read 'midnight, May 15th' as being midnight tomorrow, not midnight tonight, if you get what I mean?