Journey movies

One of things that i just realized is that i love journey movies. Movies in which the protagonist leaves everything for a journey and there are a lot of unknowns. How will the journey end, how will you cope with the dangers of road, food, water, logistics, safety, getting lost, stamina, exhaustion, sleep etc etc. Typically journey movies have these common themes -

1. Stories of life and road - People living in rural places, they have seen life too, a life very different from city life, a life that we can not imagine. These stories make the journey a forever memorable. And you meet so many good people along the way, people whom you will never meet again yet you long for them. In the end you thank them and move on.

2. Beautiful landscape - I have never seen a single road movie where the landscape has not been amazing. Nature is very very beautiful, no matter which country you are in and it always fill you up. Plus the slow moving camera trick, where you mount the camera on a rolling plane and you move it slowly, to give the effect of motion and the beautiful landscape can be seen, passing away slowly. I simply love it!

3. Music - Mainly folk music. Each land has its own music, music changes if you move more than 100 kms, and some of these movies make good use of it.

4. Unknowns - There are always unknowns when you are on road. These are not road journeys with GPS, laptops and other gadgets, these are raw records, people on bikes or motor bikes, or on buses. Bed, food, water are big questions and what happens if it rains. And how will you make money if you do not have much.

So, here are some of my favourite ones -

1. The Straight Story - Directed by David Lynch, a man of 70+ wishes to meet with his brother, so he goes out on a lawn mower and travels about 400 miles. Very beautifully written and directed, the straight story is a delight to watch. And what makes it amazing is that it is based on a true story as well.

2. Central Do Brasil - A woman and a boy give up everything to look for the boy's father. They have to go to Rio and that's all they know. Very good music and road anecdotes are very good.

3. Motorcycle diaries - Based on the true experience of Che Guerera, this road trip happens on motorcycles. And Che didn't had that much money, so they treated patients along the way and made their living. Wonderfully acted by Bernarl Garcia.

4. A bit stretch, but LOTR was also about a journey.


5. The middle of the world - A family of 7 travels on bicycles about 2000 miles so that the father can get a job. See prev blog post.

Have not seen yet, but into the wild looks very good.