The British Road Movie

Must be more than just any movie that features a British road (which would probably be most of them). Perhaps we should set a minimum distance covered within the film...say...30 miles?

Lapping the M25 does count.

Last Orders, perhaps

Would Withnail and I count at all? I'm guessing no, but curious.

maybe!

I do like the bit where they're coming back and Withnail's driving like a maniac, and Marlow wakes up and realises he's driving drunk all over the M1 (?) and asks him what the hell he's doing, and he says sternly "I'm making TIME".

And of course the bit where theyre pulled over and the cop shrieks "GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN!"

fine bits

fine bits all round

I seem to remember Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man was kind of a road movie.

Heartlands
Soft Top, Hard Shoulder

O Lucky Man is Anderson's re-working of the original road movie, Candide. So yeah, somewhat.

Also: Genevieve, obv. But I'm not much into that shit.
A Canterbury Tale: pretty sure this counts, and beats out all others.

Is that thing with Martin Clunes trying to get to his wedding a road movie? Stranded or something? Prob not v. good, I'm guessing.

I'm sure there's at least one Gracie Fields road movie but I can't think which at the mo.

I don't see how A Canterbury Tale counts.

28 Days Later is, sort of, after a while.

Clunes thing = Staggered.

Canterbury Tale happens slow, in stages, but the characters make the trip from London down to Canterbury and stuff happens on the way. Maybe there's a strict difference between Road Movie and Picaresque, but ACT is at the very least a leisurely picaresque.

Lordy O Lucky Man was a strange movie.

Strange? It's almost a bleedin' documentary.

The Earth Dies Screaming threatens to but doesn't quite turn into a road movie. Joseph Andrews - horrible, horrible movie, and Tom Jones are also road movies, except the road has got stagecoaches on it.

http://www.screenonline.org.uk/film/id/502445/

^^ i have heard that this is a road movie. either way, it's seen by those who know as an all-time classic brit crime movie and it has the word 'drive' in the title.

Oh heck yeah, also cited as the best British noir. Don't think I've seen it beginning to end, pretty sure I've seen a chunk of it.

nonfiction but sounds amazing and is on dvd: http://www.bfi.org.uk/features/openroad/

by the grandfather of him out of talk talk.

Did you see the TV series about that movie? It is absolutely stunning.

Basically shot on the fly as an advert for his new colour process, if I remember right.

that john cleese one, clockwise.

monthy python and the holy grail or gulliver's travels

Holy Grail fair enough but I'm not sure there is a UK versh of Gulliver and it isn't really structured like a road movie anyway. He just washes up someplace, has some adventures then buggers off. Especially if you only film the first two Books.

Did you see the TV series about that movie? It is absolutely stunning.

-- Noodle Vague, Friday, April 25, 2008 10:01 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

Basically shot on the fly as an advert for his new colour process, if I remember right.

-- Noodle Vague, Friday, April 25, 2008 10:02 AM (18 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

no -- probably should, what with my 'doing a phd in this shit' thing. i think it's on the dvd too. i think the films were like 10-15min each (ie a reel) and shown as part of the programme for a few months. none other than virginia woolf reviewed (anonymously) them at a special screening, that much i can tell you.

More of a chase than a road movie, The 39 Steps.

I suppose Restless Natives has road movie elements too.

Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

I'm going to stick my neck out and say Local Hero. The journey is Texas to Ferness and it's one many of the characters are forced to make. The scenery may all be round Ferness, and not of the journey itself, but it's one of the main elements of the film.

(I thought of restless Natives too.)

Summer Holiday.

Has anybody ever seen Vroom? (1988, starring Jim Broadbent, David Thewlis and Clive Owen!)

No, but I've seen Brum, the children's road TV series about a loveable car that drives down to Birmingham once a week for inspiring multicultural adventures.

adamrl, did you ever see Gallivant? Would you recommend it?

The Comic Strips "Four men in a car"

Does anyone remember a short film about three old fellas organising a fishing trip out in a small boat. They loaded up with beer but ended up being sick for the fishing part. I'm sure it was something like 3 men in a boat.

Not a road movie at all, but this thread will do to vent my spleen at what an absolutely shit film London to Brighton is. Where on earth did I get the idea that it was supposed to be any good?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2006/dec/01/drama

the dave clarke five vehicle (geddit) 'catch us if you can' (1965)

Does anyone remember a short film about three old fellas organising a fishing trip out in a small boat. They loaded up with beer but ended up being sick for the fishing part. I'm sure it was something like 3 men in a boat.

― Ant Attack.. (Ste), Monday, December 1, 2008 1:49 PM (2 years ago

The Fishing Party (play for today 1972)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAvazN2C1sE

Just watched Radio On for the first time and yeah, why on earth did I wait so long? I want to cut the thing up frame by frame and decorate my house with it.

I posted this on the Sting thread. His intrusion is bizarre but he kind of steals it. (Petit's view: "Sting had a pushy acting agent who wanted him for the lead. Friends of rigorous musical taste told me the band was suspect and the man advertised Brutus jeans, for God’s sake. He wasn’t a star then, but I could see he was going to be one – though I miscalculated what kind of star – so came up with the idea of the Eddie Cochran scene, which previously had been just a passing reference. I had no interest in him singing Three Steps to Heaven. That was the idea of the two German Martins, Schäfer and sound recordist Müller. It was such a miserably cold day and we’d had to go back on our day off to finish the scene, so I thought, ‘Shoot the thing if it makes them happy; I can always not put it in the edit.")

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QqZwjxZuOFc

Petit's film *Content* fits here but probably more a documentary. And, if I may be a contrarian, driving round the M25 totally counts. Petit's film with Sinclair is weird and great.

I reckon *By Our Selves* fits, too - Andrew Kotting's film about John Clare's escape from an asylum in Epping Forest (it's on Vimeo if that's your thing).

(Content is on YouTube. It's terrific. Also love this Mark Fisher essay about it: https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/features/grey-area-chris-petits-content)

i will go back to review this thread later, but upon seeing the threadname i realized that i imagine (on no experience) that a british "road" movie is like, a 1/2 mile walk down a hedged narrow lane to a mostly empty pub or something?

This is one of these I think, Hawks from 1988, with Timothy Dalton and Anthony Edwards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fzv9ggN0STE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh359S3Eg1U

Sometimes think the Great British Movie was actually this 1986 single

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ev_HV90SMzU