Easy Rider
The road trip movie has produced some real classic movies over the years, some real howlers too, but it remains a very popular subject for movie studios.
The release of The Lucky Ones on DVD sees another movie added to this genre. The film follows three soldiers on leave.
Trying to make sense of their lives during an unexpected road trip across the United States, we are taken on a journey of self-discovery as the three main characters try to deal with the challenges of coming home
So FemaleFirst took a look at some of the best road trip movies that have graced the big screen over the years.
- Easy Rider
Easy Rider, which was released way back in 1969, is widely regarded as the ultimate road trip movie as bikers Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper travelled through the American Southwest searching for freedom.
The film, which was also directed by Hopper and produced by Fonda, was a landmark movie of it's time as it opened up the doors for more new and young filmmakers to get behind the camera in the seventies.
But Easy Rider wasn't just a movie about a bunch of guys travelling across America it looked at the tensions that existed in the country at the time as well as looking at the hippie movement and drug culture.
- Thelma & Louise
While Thelma & Louise is one of the best chick flicks it also happens to be one of the finest movies in the road trip genre.
Directed by Ridley Scott and Starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis the film followed two women who leave behind their caged lifestyles and relationships before going on the run after killing a rapist as well as learning about themselves on the way.
Thelma & Louise was a critical and commercial hit and went onto be nominated for six Academy Awards. The film also launched the acting career of Brad Pitt.
- Little Miss Sunshine
A blend of humour and satire Little Miss Sunshine introduces the audience to one of the most fractured, yet human, families in recent years: the Hoovers, who find themselves on a road trip across America to attend a beauty pageant.
The film was the find of the 2006 Sundance Film Festival being met with standing ovations and striking a chord with both audiences and critics alike.
The success at the festival was repeated at the box office as it went on to gross over $100 million a the global box office, easily making back it's modest $8 million budget. Multiple awards followed including Four Oscar nominations, winning two : Best original Screenplay for Michael Arndt and Best Supporting Actor for Alan Arkin.
- Into The Wild
Jon Krakauer's bestselling nonfiction book about the life of Chris McCandless is finally brought to the big screen in Into the Wild with Sean Penn behind the camera.
The film begins in 1992, when Chris (Emile Hirsh) is a promising college graduate. Shortly after graduation, Chris gives his life savings to charity, burns all of his identification, and begins hitchhiking across America, his ultimate goal being Alaska.
The movie was a hit with the critics and received a string of nominations during the awards season however it was overlooked when it came to the Oscars, despite it being some critics favourite to be in with a chance of picking up Best Picture.
- The Motorcycle Diaries
Released in 2003 The Motorcycle Diaries was an adaptation of the novel written by Ernesto Guevara when he was just twenty three years old.
Set in 1952, a young medical student and a biochemist from Argentina set off on a road trip across South America. As they straddled their beaten up motorcycle, the men talked in awed tones of the sights they were about to experience
The Lucky Ones is out on DVD now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Thelma and Louise