BBC Rich Hall's Continental Drifters

Rich Hall's Continental Drifters
BBC 4
Wed 16 Nov 2011

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BBC 4

Comedian Rich Hall hits the road as he takes us on his
personal journey through the road movie, which, from
the earliest days of American cinema has been synonymous
with American culture. With his customary wit and
intelligence, Rich takes us through films such as Bonnie
and Clyde, The Grapes of Wrath, Thelma and Louise,
Vanishing Point, Five Easy Pieces and even The Wizard of
Oz. He explores what makes a road movie and how the
American social, economic and political landscape has
defined the genre.

Filmed on location in South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana,
the film incorporates interviews, archive footage and
clips of some of cinemas best-loved films as it gives
us another of Rich Hall's unique insights into American
culture.

With his series of essays on American culture, comedian
and QI regular Rich Hall is setting himself up as an
impassioned commentator on the state of his homeland.
But as reasoned as his arguments may be, he also enjoys
nothing more than a good olΓΓé¼Γäó comic rant. So for this
treatise on the romance of the road movie he takes apart
the beat poets, delivers a hilarious diatribe against
Jeremy Clarkson, and rounds it all off with a sublime
Star Wars as highway-diner cheesecake metaphor.

The spacious vistas so beloved of road-movie directors
give the film a sumptuous, widescreen feel.

The comedian presents a history of the American road movie.
He travels through South Dakota, Wyoming and Montana to
explore how the country's culture has both shaped and
been shaped by the genre, and analyses films including
Bonnie and Clyde, The Grapes of Wrath, Thelma & Louise,
Vanishing Point, Five Easy Pieces and The Wizard of Oz.