Genre Research Road Trip

What is a Road Trip movie? A road film is a film genre in which the film's plot takes place during a journey. The genre has its roots in spoken and written tales of epic journeys, such as the Odyssey and the Aeneid. It is a story in which the hero changes, grows or improves over the course of the story. The on-the-road plot was used in American Cinema but grew in the years after World War II, reflecting a boom in automobile production and the growth of youth culture. Even so, awareness of the "road picture" as a genre came only in the 1960s with Easy Rider and Bonnie and Clyde.

Repertoire of Elements Like their past history, the road movie tends towards an episodic structure. In each episode, there is a challenge to be met, although not all of them will be met successfully. In most episodes, a piece of the plot is revealed - knowledge or allies are gained, and so on. Sometimes this progress is inverted, and each episode represents a loss rather than a gain.

Road movies traditionally end in one of four ways: 1)having met with triumph at their ultimate destination, the protagonists return home, wiser for their experiences. 2)at the end of the journey, the protagonists find a new home at their destination. 3)the journey continues endlessly. 4)having realized that, as a result of their journey, they can never go home, the protagonists either choose death or are killed.

Technical Aspects As always, there is some form of transport (usually a car) as well as other things such as maps and alcohol. Clothes are always modern and lighting tends to natural. Different angles aren’t usually used, especially in comedy road trip films such as “Euro Trip” as there is no real need for tension.

The majority of the films are edited as continuity whilst high action films such as terminator use montage editing. The music used in road trip films vary from what sub genres. For example, comedies with have more uplifting songs with funny lyrics. Action movies with have music that's harsher and have a tough sound. Special Effects are not commonly used but films with other sub genres may have special effects such as blood and weird green fairies that appear when strong alcohol is drunk.

Below are some of the highest grossing road trip films (amount to date) Euro trip - $20,796,847 Wild Hogs - $253,625,427 Dumb and Dumber - $247,275,374 Borat -$261,572,744 Are We There Yet? -$97,918,663 RV - $87,528,173 Hangover - $459,089,818