The seven best road movies

Ice Cold in Alex – 1958

This might not seem to fit in the conventional mould of a road movie, given its wartime setting and almost complete absence of tarmacadam, but in using a journey to show its protagonists overcoming adversity and growing, it is one of the best. Set in 1941, Ice Cold in Alex follows the alcoholic Captain Anson’s (John Mills) attempts to flee the besieged city of Tobruk and travel across the desert to rejoin the British lines in Alexandria. Their transport is an Austin K2/Y army ambulance, nicknamed ‘Katy’.

The intrepid crew acquire a hitchhiker, a supposed South African officer Captain van der Poel (Anthony Quayle) who may not be all he says and seems very keen to keep prying eyes away from his backpack. After the death of one of the nurses on his crew, Anson vows not to drink again until he can enjoy a frosty lager at their destination – the ‘ice cold in Alex’ of the title. Negotiating minefields, fixing a broken spring, rescuing van der Poel from quicksand and hand-cranking Katy up a sand dune in reverse all make for an epic adventure. But will Captain Anson get his beer?

Monte Carlo or Bust – 1969

A follow-up to Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines (it was called Those Daring Young Men in their Jaunty Jalopies in the US), Monte Carlo or Bust is, like its predecessor, best described as a cartoon filmed with real actors. It follows the attempts of an all-star cast to battle 1,500 miles across Europe and be first across the finishing line in Monte Carlo. It features the typical ‘60s stereotypes of the rich American lothario Chester Schofield (Tony Curtis), the upper class English villain Sir Cuthbert Ware-Armitage (Terry Thomas) and his sinister butler Perkins (Eric Sykes).

Of course there also is a duplicitous German played by Gert Fröbe (of Goldfinger fame) matched by a pair of inventive but hapless British Army officers Major Digby Dawlish (Peter Cooke) and Lieutenant Kit Barrington (Dudley Moore). The last two undoubtedly steal the show with their part in what is an unashamedly absurd slapstick romp across Europe and a great couple of hours of escapism.

Easy Rider – 1969

Consider the fact that Easy Rider was released in the same year as the blockbuster Monte Carlo or Bust and it’s apparent why Dennis Hopper’s counter-culture independent movie sent a shockwave through the cinema industry. Hopper also stars as Billy alongside Peter Fonda as Wyatt or ‘Captain America’, a pair of freewheeling bikers who make their living smuggling drugs across borders. After a big score moving some cocaine from Mexico to Los Angeles, the pair decide to take a cross-country road trip across America to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.

The trip allows Hooper (who wrote the film alongside Fonda and terry Southern) to explore the growing clash between traditional American values and the burgeoning counter-culture or ‘hippy’ movement. The pair encounter free love in a commune, meet alcoholic lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson) after they are thrown in a small-town jail for not fitting in and later introduce him to marijuana. Reaching New Orleans  Billy and Wyatt take LSD in a cemetery with two prostitutes and experience a bad trip. Legend has it that the marijuana and LSD taken in the film were real and not props.

Two Lane Blacktop – 1971

There have been countless attempts to explore the oftentimes odd place that cars have within American culture and Two Lane Blacktop pares it down to the basics with the characters lacking names, identified instead by their roles. The film stars singer songwriter James Taylor as ‘The Driver’ and Beach Boy Dennis Wilson as ‘The Mechanic’ who live out of their 1955 two-door Chevrolet 150 drag car and travel the country challenging locals to street races in order to make a living.

Along the way they pick up a hitchhiker, ‘The Girl’ played by Laurie Bird and, after encountering him several times on their journey through the southern states, become entangled with the driver of a bright yellow Pontiac GTO. Played by Warren Oates, ‘GTO’ challenges the trio to a cross-county race to Washington DC with the prize being the ‘pinks’ or car ownership papers of the loser. A celebration of pre-interstate America, typified by Route 66, Two Lane Blacktop is pared back to the bone in terms of characterisation, dialogue and plot but instead focuses on the landscapes and actions of a cross-country road trip. In 2012 the Library of Congress selected the movie for preservation in the United States National Film Registry as being ‘culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant.’

Vanishing Point – 1971

Not quite as simplistic as Two Lane Blacktop but Vanishing Point is also set in the small town America soon to be bypassed by the roaring interstate system celebrating its quirks but also highlighting its injustices. It features Kowalski, played by Barry Newman, who we find out in flashback is a decorated Vietnam war veteran, former racing driver and ex-cop who was drummed out of the force for preventing his partner assaulting a young woman.

Now a delivery driver, Kowalski is tasked with delivering a white supercharged Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver to Colorado over the course of a weekend. Leaving with the car, Kowalski visits his drug dealer for a supply of Benzedrine to help him stay awake on the journey and bets that he can reach San Francisco by Sunday afternoon rather than Monday morning.

Kowalski tangles with a pair of motorcycle cops in Colorado before racing a battered Jaguar E-type which ends up in a river, setting in motion a police chase across several states. Kowalski’s journey is followed by a blind, small-town DJ named Super Soul (Cleavon Little) who calls him ‘the last American hero’. Pursued relentlessly, Kowalski becomes lost in the desert before being rescued by an old-time prospector and later by a hippie and his naked, motorcycle riding girlfriend. The film has one of the all-time most debated endings as Kowalski crosses into California. Just don’t watch the 1997 remake by mistake.

Smokey and the Bandit – 1977

Clearly, despite the oil crises and worsening economic situation, Hollywood lightened up a bit on the road movie front with Smokey and the Bandit being pretty much the antithesis of the last two films on the list. Like most films from the period, the dialogue and attitudes now seem dated but the sheer sense of fun and the huge charisma of Burt Reynolds as Bo "Bandit" Darville and Sally Fields as Carrie.

Challenged to run a consignment of bootleg beer from Texarkana to Atlanta with his trucker friend Cledus "Snowman" Snow, played by country singer Jerry Reed, Smokey and the Bandit is an unabashed celebration of the South. The Bandit picks up hitchhiking runaway bride Carrie (or Frog’) en route but the wedding she has skipped out on was to the hapless son of the formidable Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason). Whereupon ensues a ridiculous cross-country pursuit with the Bandits ‘Screaming Chicken’ 1977 Pontiac Trans-Am battling Justice’s increasingly battered Pontiac LeMans. I defy anyone to watch it and not want to buy a Trans Am with T-tops and fit a CB radio. It was the second highest grossing movie of the year, topped only by a sci-fi flick called Star Wars.

The Cannonball Run – 1981

This is by no means a great movie but as opening sequences go, a Lamborghini Countach complete with ridiculous aerodynamic aids howling down American highways, pausing only to vandalise the ‘55mph’ speed limit signs is up there. This wasn’t the first movie based on the Cannonball Baker Sea-To-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash but, like Monte Carlo or Bust was an excuse for a sprawling all-star cast, written by the Cannonball’s originator Brock Yates and directed by legendary stuntman Hal Needham.

The Cannonball Run starred Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. disguised as Catholic Priests, Farrah Fawcett as a hippie photographer, Jamie Farr as a hideously caricatured Arab sheikh, Roger Moore in a parody of James Bond and even Jackie Chan as the driver of a gadget-laden Subaru. Even with such a cast, it is Burt Reynolds as racing driver and team owner J.J McClure and sidekick mechanic Victor Prinzi (aka Captain Chaos) played by Dom DeLuise who easily steal the show. Ridiculously dated in its attitudes it is nevertheless a joy to watch because of how apparent it is that the cast were having a ball during filming.