Road Movie (1974)

Gil and Hank are two independent truckers who run into problems when they are forced to pay off traffic managers to get loads. They also have to pay off highway cops when their rigs are ... See full summary »

Director:

Joseph Strick

Writers:

Judith Rascoe, Joseph Strick (story)

Stars:

Robert Drivas, Regina Baff, Barry Bostwick

Cast

Credited cast:
Robert Drivas	...	Gil
Regina Baff	...	Janice
Barry Bostwick	...	Hank
David Bauer	...	Harry
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Challis
Rodney Cleghorn
Beatrice Colen
Rik Colitti	...	(as Ric Colitti)
Eileen Dietz
Flip Dumont
Laura Esterman
James Evans
Maxwell Glanville
Richard Goode
Garry Goodrow

Storyline

Gil and Hank are two independent truckers who run into problems when they are forced to pay off traffic managers to get loads. They also have to pay off highway cops when their rigs are overweight and bank loans but consider themselves lucky just to be able to keep up the interest payments. Add to that a small, frizzy-wigged highway hooker named Janice, who tempts them with her lurid charms.

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Plot Keywords:

highway | trucker | hooker | truck | razor | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

3 February 1974 (USA)

Also Known As:

Janice

Company Credits

Production Co:

Grove Press, Laser Film Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

88 min 82 min (DVD)

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Connections

References The Cowboys (1972)

User Reviews

An evocative portrait of the industrial American underbelly of the 70's

Occupying that particular niche where the grindhouse and the art-house overlap and sharing an ambiguous air of the American dream turned South with such distinctly 70's underground classics like TWO-LANE BLACKTOP and VANISHING POINT, ROAD MOVIE, although far from a rousing success even as a cult exploitation movie, its obscure, almost forgotten, status fully justified, enhanced by haphazard directing and storytelling deficiencies of all calibre, is a peculiar beast: moody and evocative enough to dismiss as without merits, but too technically challenged to ever come into its own or become visceral or absorbing enough to make its roughshod nature work in its favour.

The story of two independent truck drivers making their way to Chicago to deliver a meat cargo who pick up on their way a whore all out of luck plays second fiddle to the moody portrait of the squalid underbelly of 70's industrial America captured through grainy guerilla tactics. Huge factories smoking in the distance, old iron barrels rusting away in garbage heaps, derelict warehouses, small, nameless towns and cheap motels - all captured from the windows of a moving truck give to the movie a raw, bleak atmosphere that ends up being its strongest point. The director tries for something 'artsier', and while he's no Werner Herzog and the movie is no STROSZEK, the found locations in all their seemy glory enhance an otherwise lackluster film.