- Thunder Road
The summer movie season officially starts this weekend with the release of Furious 7, the latest installment in the remarkably durable action franchise that’s drawn think pieces and hot takes galore. The series is a Hollywood staple, a bloated and bombastic moneymaking machine that shows no signs of slowing down, but its roots are found in cheapo B-pictures. The 2001 film that started this whole thing borrows its title from the Roger Corman-produced 1955 cheapie The Fast and the Furious, one of the many automotive adventures that make up the surprisingly diverse car genre, whose varied canon is shaped by exploitation absurdity, art film sophistication, and everything in between. The Furious franchise ultimately owes little to classic car movies—they’re essentially superhero films, at this point—but cars no doubt remain central to the series, a testament to American audiences’ enduring fascination with onscreen portrayals of fast, loud vehicles driven at reckless speeds. You can see my five favorite car movies below.
- Thunder Road (dir. Arthur Ripley, 1958) Dave Kehr calls this the “definitive road movie,” perhaps because it’s the one that most thrillingly and artistically replicates the feeling of living life one mile at a time. It’s impossible to imagine anyone besides Robert Mitchum in the lead role, playing one of those “wild and reckless men who transport illegal whiskey from its source to its point of distribution.” The “oil slick” scene still amazes, partly due to its unabashed absurdity, a cartoon moment in an otherwise realistic and somewhat misanthropic film.
