In French, the word for being in neutral is 'au point mort', i.e. dead. This anti-Western road movie is touted as being Existentialist and Absurdist, where American history and progress is shown to be pointless (remember Vietnam?) and the only way to stave off the abyss is to concentrate on the job in hand.
What saves this film from stifling pretentiousness a la 'Zabriskie Point' is Warren Oates, who gives a great comic performance of middle-age impotence and insecurity. He turns an academic exercise in Euro-chic into something much more moving, as Hellman recreates Ford's America as a giant, surreal ghost town.
Oates' falling asleep when illegally changing plates, and the Harry Dean Stanton scenes are priceless, and something you'd never see in an Antonioni movie. Some have seen the ending as a cop-out, but only if you haven't noticed how Hellman has used the car as a metonym for the camera (and vice versa) throughout. Which brings me to my first sentence...
What saves this film from stifling pretentiousness a la 'Zabriskie Point' is Warren Oates, who gives a great comic performance of middle-age impotence and insecurity. He turns an academic exercise in Euro-chic into something much more moving, as Hellman recreates Ford's America as a giant, surreal ghost town.
Oates' falling asleep when illegally changing plates, and the Harry Dean Stanton scenes are priceless, and something you'd never see in an Antonioni movie. Some have seen the ending as a cop-out, but only if you haven't noticed how Hellman has used the car as a metonym for the camera (and vice versa) throughout. Which brings me to my first sentence...