American Road Movies

American road movies are a reflection of American culture, steeped in the particular culture and images of their time. In spite of this, road movies in general have common characteristics. An individual, two people or a small group attempt to escape the world they live in, to find freedom and sometimes redemption. Characters take to the road to "find themselves." Early modern road movies such as The Grapes of Wrath and Easy Rider reflect the social and economic upheaval of their time, the Great Depression in the former and the search for freedom in a conformist and greedy America in the latter. The characters in those films went on the road in search of a better life; adventure was secondary to survival. Postmodern road movies focus on a somewhat different kind of journey, one driven by the postmodern sensibility, a sensibility that conceives of the word as fragmented and meaningless. Postmodernism celebrates the immediate over the distant, the new over the old, the present over the past. In postmodernism the world of images has been strongly embraced, but images are not perceived to be ciphers to some higher spiritual truth; postmodernism lays no claims to such things as higher spiritual truths, so images refer to nothing in particular except perhaps to themselves or to other images (Huyssen). Two road films that reflect the postmodern sensibility are Jim Jarmusch's Stranger Than Paradise, and Wim Wenders Paris, Texas. This paper will discuss and compare the two films i

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me alone in a way that I haven't gotten over" (Paris, Texas). As a true existential character, Travis drives off into the night. Travis' disassociation, his isolation, his search for self-identity and assumption of the role of father make him both a postmodern and an existential character. His despair and alienation, as well as his decision to take responsibility for his actions put him in the existential camp. According the Jean-Paul Sartre, the two main principles of Existentialism are that "existence precedes essence" and that "man is nothing else but that which he makes of himself" (Existentialism is a Humanism). Sartre also states that human beings are not just responsible for their own individuality, but responsible for all people, and Travis' decision to reunite mother and son bears this out. In existential fashion, Travis strives to create moral values that will bring some meaning to his life. Existential characters are men in anguish and despair, and both Travis and Willie fit this description. As a postmodern character, Travis' decision to reconcile his family with each other fits into the postmodern theory that personal and interpersonal dilemmas of the contemporary disordered self has "its roots in the breakdown of

Category: Film - A