SUNDAY, MARCH 5, 2017 . THE WASHINGTON POST EZ EE F5

Like a reel of celluloid, the road stretches on and on Tinseltown long has taken dramatic license with the classic combination of cars and journeys of self-discovery

BY MELANIE D.G. KAPLAN

Last winter, a near-stranger recommended I watch “Paris, Texas,” the 1984 Wim Wenders film about Travis Henderson, who mysteriously wanders out of the desert and finds himself reconnecting with family on two drives through the Southwest. We had been discussing one of my favorite topics: road trips. I never saw the man again, but I watched the movie and found myself spellbound by the big sky, open road and uncomfortably long silences. I know this stretch of road, I thought; the silence feels familiar. I itched to get in the car and go. It was two months before I drove with my beagle from Washington to California to visit my 96-year-old grandmother, one of several epic cross-country trips I’ve made in the last decade. But the film stuck with me. I thought about long drives, in- spiring landscapes and chance encounters, and I realized that many of my favorite movies fea- tured road trips. This winter, homebound with writing deadlines, I devoured road films — more than 30 of them. I watched “Paris, Texas” again. This time, undistracted by the road, I turned my focus to the narrative and the characters. At the end, I wept. Somewhere during my road- movie binge, I realized that — apart from the simple pleasure of watching great films — the on-screen dramas enhanced my own relationship with the open road. I saw parts of myself in some of the characters. The pic- tures kindled my enthusiasm and whet my appetite for the next journey. In a way, they ENTERTAINMENT PICTURES/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO reinforced my wanderlust. To find out what makes a good ol) calls home for news of her road-trip movie, I talked to Leo contentious custody battle. Brundy, a cultural historian at Watching old films, I longed the University of Southern Cali- for the days of pay phones. Dur- fornia. He pointed out that the ing my binge, I counted a num- roots of the genre go back to ber of notable phone booth classical literature such as “The scenes. Recurring themes: men Odyssey” and “Don Quixote.” learning over the phone that Characters are on a quest for their business or big idea has something or someone and what gone bust; and women calling happens, he said, is that they home to cut ties with their men, discover themselves along the sometimes on answering ma- way. “The idea of a road trip is to chines. At the beginning of “The expand your consciousness,” Rain People,” Natalie makes a Brundy said. “The road picture is collect call to her husband from like that — going from place to the Pennsylvania Turnpike, say- place, meeting all sorts of people. ing she has to get away. “Why It’s a cliche, but it’s true — it’s didn’t you talk to me? I would about the journey, not the desti- have gone with you,” he says. nation.” AF ARCHIVE/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO MERIE W. WALLACE/FOX SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS She replies: “I didn’t want to The movies I watched go away with you. I wanted to get spanned more than 80 years, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP: Geena Davis, left, and Susan Sarandon, as the eponymous “Thelma & Louise,” choose a decidedly final away from you.” starting with “Wild Boys of the end to their road trip; on a trek through California’s Santa Ynez Valley, Paul Giamatti, left, tries to help Thomas Haden Church get Road” (1933), a Depression-era the hang of wine snobbery in “Sideways”; Peter Fonda, center, ferries Jack Nicholson while Dennis Hopper rides alongside in “Easy Size matters film about two kids who leave Rider” on their way to road-trip doom; Dean Stockwell and Harry Dean Stanton walk the rails in “Paris, Texas.” A good rule of thumb in road their families and bum their way films: The larger the vehicle, the across the country to find work. greater the focus on what goes Next came “The Grapes of ture, Bundy said, noting that dies crash at the home of a on inside it. If the vehicle is Wrath” (1940), in which Henry bucket lists and heavily pro- friend’s grandparents in “Road small, the lens is focused largely Fonda plays Steinbeck’s Tom grammed travel have killed the Trip” (2000). “Nebraska” (2013) on the outside world. In both Joad, forced out of his Midwest opportunity for spontaneity and is the story of a man driving his “American Honey,” Andrea Ar- home and taking his family to discovery. Mobile phones, digital alcoholic father, played by Bruce nold’s 2016 film about misfit California. mapping and interstate high- Dern, to collect a nonexistent teens selling magazine subscrip- These early films explored ways yield a different kind of million-dollar prize. It’s a gor- tions across the country and “Get westward movement with a trip. Route 66 is romantic; I-40, geous black-and-white film; pan- on the Bus,” Spike Lee’s 1996 sense of adventure we can only not so much. oramic shots of the pair driving offering about a group of Los imagine today. What hasn’t along empty roads look like a Angeles men busing to the Mil- changed is the expansiveness of Stranger days Subaru moving across an Ansel lion Man March in Washington, our country and the universal Adams photograph. The dead- the focus is on the inside. Com- desire to explore it. On the road, we take risks that pan living-room scene at the pare that with “Easy Rider.” In The 1960s and ’70s generated we would never consider at uncle’s house is among the most that film, Dennis Hopper and many road classics. “Easy Rider” home. A few years back in Texas, memorable of film family visits. Peter Fonda’s characters are on captured the spirit of American I traveled for a short time with a the smallest of vehicles, and the culture in the late ’60s as two semi-stranger, an Australian Eating and running scenery plays a starring role. doped-out bikers rode their man I had met the previous year We love the road because it’s Snow-capped peaks dot the hori- choppers from California to New riding Metro. We shared a few nothing like home. Yet we still zon, and the sun sets behind Orleans with a wad of drug motel rooms, and at first, I snuck ASSOCIATED PRESS seek the comfort of shelter and them — the sky turns the color of money. Francis Ford Coppola’s my wallet and phone into the food. Diners are the surrogate pink lemonade, then blueber- “The Rain People” (1969) bathroom when I showered. Per- to Europe. I haven’t been sur- cause Ray is afraid to board a kitchen tables, where we fuel up, ries. brought us another searcher rep- haps I was remembering the prisingly saddled with anyone’s plane to California. As an adult, hold family meetings, set the Arguably, my road trips would resentative of the changing “Thelma & Louise” scene in children on the road, but I have I’ve never road-tripped with my agenda and recap the day. make dull movies. They haven’t times — a Long Island housewife which a drifter steals the pair’s found myself drawn into other family, but I’m considering a In “The Motorcycle Diaries” ended violently or tragically; at who finds out she’s pregnant, money from a motel nightstand. people’s lives in ways I wouldn’t drive with my father this spring. (2004), a film with stunning worst, I nearly run out of gas in feels trapped, panics about mat- Turns out, the Aussie was have chosen. In Portland, Ore., I I wonder if he still drums the scenery and a musical score to the middle of Wyoming or end rimony and motherhood, and trustworthy. And fun. A laugh once helped a photographer lift steering wheel to country music match, a young Che Guevara the trip feeling melancholy. But heads west. Wenders’s low- over dinner one night remains heavy furniture onto a dolly and as he did when I was a kid, or if (Gael Garcia Bernal) and his nowhere do I feel more fully budget ’70s road trip trilogy one of the best of my life. But it maneuver it into the freight ele- I’ll have more patience for it friend spread maps on a cafe myself than when I’m on a road includes “Alice in the Cities,” doesn’t always turn out that way. vator — a backbreaking task I now. My sister and I would fight table to plan their motorcycle adventure, and I’ve found the “The Wrong Move” and “Kings of “Kalifornia” (1993), in which expedition through Patagonia. same to be true for many of the the Road,” which thoughtfully someone in the back seat is a Generally, road-trip food isn’t characters I’ve met this winter. portray three wanderers, all serial killer, reminds us what can anything to write home about. Breathtaking beauty, human played by the same actor, on the happen if we don’t carefully vet The pictures kindled my enthusiasm and whet my Unless that’s your job, like Steve connection and the freedom to road in the United States and our passengers. Coogan, who drives through the detour as one wishes makes a postwar Germany. As for those brushes with the appetite for the next journey. In a way, they British and Italian countryside potent concoction — and a “Thelma & Louise” (1991), law that so often crop up in the with Rob Bryden, the men dining ready-made formula for Holly- about a girl getaway gone bad, movies, mine came in Texas sev- justified my wanderlust. finely and amusing themselves wood. may be the quintessential road eral years ago; an off-duty cop with hilarious imitations and A dozen road movies remain film. What better illustrates free- gave me his pocketknife for pro- one-night romances in “The in my queue, unwatched. But for dom than Susan Sarandon and tection and later taught me to could have done without. But I in the back seat, and more than Trip” (2010) and “The Trip to now, I bid a fond farewell to film. Geena Davis in a 1966 Thunder- two-step. Hollywood’s cops are enjoyed his company, and he once my dad slammed on the Italy” (2014). My compass is set to the west. bird convertible, singing at the less benign. Of course the char- needed a hand; we happened to brakes and pulled over to the We also can’t help connecting Road-trip season is nearly upon top of their lungs, hair blowing acters are, too. They steal cars, meet the week he was moving shoulder, steaming. with home, even as we speed us. in the wind? “You said you and groceries, drugs and corpses, out of his studio. But what’s a road trip without away from it. In “Transamerica” [email protected] me was goin’ to get outta town kidnap police officers and kill Sometimes, the stranger is a someone getting huffy? (2005), Felicity Huffman is driv- and for once just really let our folks at Piggly Wigglys. family member. In “Rain Man” Stopping to visit friends and ing cross-country with a teenage Kaplan is a freelance writer based in hair down,” Thelma tells Louise “Alice in the Cities” tells the (1988), Charlie Babbitt (Tom family along the way is a com- boy she just met and calls to the District. Her website is early in the movie. “Well darlin’ delightful and charming story of Cruise) gets to know his autistic mon theme on the road. Paul check on her pending gender melaniedgkaplan.com. look out, cuz my hair is comin’ a German journalist who tours savant brother Ray (Dustin Hoff- Giamatti’s character makes an reassignment surgery. In “Carol” down.” the United States and meets a man) after picking him up from a obligatory visit to his mother on (2015), a road movie filled with  For a closer look at the author’s These days, road movies are a woman who asks him to chaper- mental institution in Ohio. The a wine country tour in “Side- long silences and seductive ciga- favorite road movies, visit less prominent part of our cul- on her 9-year-old daughter back road trip takes place only be- ways” (2004), and college bud- rette drags, Cate Blanchett (Car- washingtonpost.com/travel