| Reference Type |
Cineaste
journal
|
| Title |
Hot Car Films and Cool Individualism, or 'What We Have Here is a Lack of Respect For the Law' |
| Author(s) | Andrew Horton |
| Volume |
8 |
| Issue |
4 |
| Page Number |
12 - 15 |
| Comments |
Horton's article concentrates upon the 'evolution' of the car film, from the motorcycle flicks of the early 50's through to the testosterone-injected, then modern-day stunt films of the late 70's.
Although Horton makes a number of interesting statements about the genre, the article weighs lightly on the theory side of Road Movies and very heavily on a fan's appreciation. Over four pages, this can become quite tiresome, especially considering Horton's concept of the influences behind what he has coined "hot car films" is quite limited and tends to repeat the notion of the road movie being a modernized version of the Western several times too often! |
| Synopsis |
In his article, Horton appropriates his own moniker for Road Movies, 'Hot Car Films', as being a more succinct way of describing car culture in films, as the notion of being simply "...on-the-road is too broad a category. Everyone from Odysseus, Don Quixote and Lolita... have been on the road of adventure, or misadventure or spiritual odyssey"(p. 13)
Horton makes the dubious (yet widely held) claim that "hot car films are a particularly American genre... which seems unadaptable to other cultures and landscapes [as for Americans]... cars are motorized for of [their] national psyches"(p 14).
Throughout the article, Horton concentrates on the concept of 'the car as spectacle' in such stunt car films as 'Smokey and the Bandit' and 'Sugarland Express', whereby the primary objective of the films was to outrun everyone, including the police. |
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