BARBELITH underground
 

Subcultural engagement for the 21st Century...
Barbelith is a new kind of community (find out more)...
You can login or register.


Underground > Film, TV & Theatre >

Post-Easy Rider 70s Road Movies

  
 
rizla mission
15:50 / 23.08.03
from the Neil Young thread in the Music forum;

Me:I've got a massive soft spot for all those post-Easy Rider 70s hipster road movies..

Mystery Gypytost-easy riders 70s road movies is a HUGE genre -- that movie made megabucks and had megainfluence.

So let's list 'em, discuss 'em..

I'll be first with; VANISHING POINT, which I watched yet again today. So cool it's completely off the scale. so. damn. cool. I don't think I'll start trying to kist all the reasons why, or I'll be going on all day..

More!
 
 
Mystery Gypt
19:34 / 25.08.03
TWO LANE BLACKTOP is a definative member of this elite club. Monte Hellman (who made the awesome Cockfighter) turns what was supposed to be a high-action race flick into a strange anti-movie.

i think it could be accurately described as waiting for godot speeding across country in a stripped down chevy. the plot disintigrates as it moves forward in a way that suggests the disintigration of purpose in america. the very last few moments turn the whole thing into an abstract experimental film.

and who woulda thunk james taylor could be so cool?
 
 
The Strobe
20:23 / 25.08.03
1979: the original Mad Max. Try not to find the atrocious American dub (because Mel's Aussie accent was just so inmcomprehensible) and you've got an awesome proto post-apocalyptic road movie, with great modded Fords, an entire disregard for the scantness of budget, some still eye-popping stunts with cars (the caravan and baby springs to mind) and a raw, edgy plot. It looks awesome, it is the visual equivalent of rock. And Mel wears leather trousers, if that's your bag.

It isn't mine.
 
 
Mystery Gypt
13:41 / 26.08.03
Of course, 5 EASY PIECES is something of a highpoint in the genre and obviously one of the classics of 70s cinema. Raphaelson (the director) and Nicholson had previously made HEAD, the frickin' Monkey's movie, which as it turns out is an unbelievably good and weirdo psychedelic trip.
 
 
Old brown-eye is back
20:54 / 26.08.03
I can't help but think that the best post-Easy Rider hipster road movie was made in the 80s - Ferris Bueller's Day Off. Also, I know it was two years before ER, but what about Bonnie and Clyde?

If I'm complicating things too much, do feel free to slap me.
 
 
Mystery Gypt
22:10 / 26.08.03
Bonnie and Clyde is often credited as starting the short lived revolution in hollywood. Warren Beatty was able to start making amazing things happen, and the success of the film proved that a whole new aesthetic was not only available, but commercial.

ferris bueller, i don't see. its barely a road movie, and it doesnt have anything to do with 70s film, either in aesthetic or technique, as far as i can tell.

another great, great one is BAD LANDS, a beautiful movie that laid the groundwork for a genre (trashyy kids on shooting spree rampage road trip)that would appear decades later in work such as True Romance. Morrison mentions it as his inspiration for Kill Yr Boyfriend, too.
 
 
rizla mission
08:30 / 27.08.03
Yeah, Badlands is one of my favourite films ever. It's weird and beautiful.

How about Ultraglide in Blue or Zabrinskie Point?

I haven't actually seen either of them, but I have a feeling they might qualify..
 
 
illmatic
09:07 / 27.08.03
Would Repo Man count? Alex Cox's finest moment? Surreal trip involving aliens, lots of punk rock, Emilo Estevez telling everybody to fuck off and a seedy hard as nails Harry Dean Stanton? I think so!

I love this film SO MUCH. Wish I knew what had happened to my video copy. Haven't seen it for years - anybody want to refresh my memory with regards to the dialogue?

Another great film which I suppose counts as a road movie is the european version of "The Vanishing", another one missing from my video collection. It's a strange journey across Europe, undertaken by a man searching for his kidnapped girlfriend and uncovering what happens to her. Absolutely brillant and really chilling. Wish I could remember more.
 
 
rizla mission
09:41 / 27.08.03
Well Repo Man is obviously an absolutely amazingly cool badass movie, but I fear it's rather in the wrong decade to fit into the aesthetic I'm looking for: it's fast and punk and crowded and urban and shaved head, rather than slooow and heavy/country rawk and deserted and rural and misguided facial hair..

(if you make it to a big branch of HMV before they give up selling videos altogether, you should be able to pick up a copy of Repo Man for about a fiver, by the way..)
 
 
Mystery Gypt
16:34 / 27.08.03
i remember ELECTRA GLIDE IN BLUE as not being such a hot film.. certianly worth seeing for the 70s completeist, though.

G-A-A-S-S-S is a roger corman road movie (he produced most of the cheepo biker flicks, including Easy Rider) about a post apocalyptic world ruled by hippies, or something, and people fighting over petroleum. or something.

there's a british film, which doesn't quite count, but its about biker kids who turn into zombies... its not fantastic, but not without merit.

THE LAST DETAIL is something of a road movie, it stars Jack Nicholson and was directed by HAL ASHBY (who did SHAMPOO and BEING THERE). its another forgotten classic of the time and place, about two navy officers taking a soldier across country where he is to be imprisoned. Like all of Ashby's movies, its subtle, sad, funny, strange, and performed perfectly.
 
 
pasthair
15:51 / 30.08.03
"Aloha, Bobby and Rose", "Corvette Summer"
 
 
rizla mission
18:03 / 30.08.03
If "Corvette Summer" lives up to it's name, it's gaining entry into this exclusive cinematic club instantly.
 
 
pasthair
23:14 / 02.09.03
"Corvette Summer" stars Mark Hamill right after "Star Wars" and a terrible auto accident. The bottom half of his face hardly moves at all. He builds a Corvette in H.S. shop class that look like a dragon. It's so cool that it get stolen (when Danny Bonaduci gets to drive) and hijacked to Las Vegas. With the help of Annie Potts as a beginner hooker in a bitchin' van, Mark pursue the villans. Cheap movie, fair acting, everybody hated it when it came out, so you know it's great!
 
 
rizla mission
09:30 / 03.09.03
That sounds .. amazing.
 
  
Add Your Reply