I wrote one script that could be classified as a road picture but it was probably way too esoteric for its own good. Two quarreling brothers off to find their dad who had disappeared into the bayou country, having joined a violent anti-government militia movement. It kinda' played, ultimately, like O Brother Where Art Thou, but not nearly as clever or cool.

It was, however, to answer your question Scott, fun and easy to write.

Let's face it, you put two characters in a car and ladle on the conflict, the thing is mostly going to write itself.

My old collaborator was a "road movie" junkie and every third script he proposed was out on the open highways. Kinda' made me nuts at the time.

For me, the best road films happen to also have the word "road" in the title... give me Bob and Bing any day!

Crosby & Hope. Movies like Road to Singapore (1940), Road to Zanzibar (1941), Road to Morocco (1942), Road to Utopia (1946), Road to Rio (1947), and Road to Bali (1952). That's a lot of road pictures.

Would you classify Kevin Costner's "A Perfect World" as a road picture? How 'bout Martin Lawrence/John Travolta's "Wild Hogs?"

NEVER written a "road picture." My favorite "road" movie, would have to be "The Road Warrior"
(1982), but I highly doubt that's the kind of "road picture" you're talkin' about here.

- E.C. Henry from Bonney Lake, WA

P.S. GREAT job identifying "Sideways" as a "road picture." I got locked into thinking of it only as a buddy comedy, quasi romantic comedy. Funny how some movies can be looked at through different genre lenses.

E.C., I would definitely categorize A Perfect World as a road picture. But it's also got a buddy picture dynamic at play as well. That's one of the beauties of these story types: You can mix and match them. In fact, I think you can argue that Thelma & Louise is a road picture, a buddy picture, a FOOW picture (formerly law abiding women now lawbreakers), even an underdog picture (another story type we'll be looking at soon).

I've got a soft spot for Two-Lane Blacktop, with some fine minimalist acting performances by James Taylor and Dennis Wilson.

I think the road picture also follows the picaresque Spain tale of the XVIth century, Lazarillo de Tormes (1554) Guzmán of Alfarache (1599), and also the Golden Ass of Apuleius and if you go back in time, in France later with Gil Blas of Lesage, not to mention Moll Flanders by Daniel Defoe.

I also see a kinship with The Heptaméron of Marguerite de Navarre, with de Maupassant Boule de Suif which served as the model for John Ford's Stagecoach.

What is wonderful with this type of story is that you can put other varied genres, even the western, which is very exciting!

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I'm working on a road picture right now. You know what? These lists are helping me because It's hard to remember some films when I'm trying to remember them. BTW, A Perfect World is an understated Eastwood Classic. one of Costner's best too.