Travel Movies in Leyburn Library
Feature Films:
Meek’s Cutoff Family migration in 1845 Oregon. Traveling without a map and landmarks, to a vague destination, unable to trust either the racist American guide (Stephen Meek) or the mysterious Indian they meet. Torn between advice from a bigoted American and the ignorant encounter with a foreign landscape and a foreign people who might give help or might lead the travelers to more danger. The travel becomes more and more worrisome as supplies of water are depleted, the route is always uncertain, the travelers argue, worry, and tire. Biblical readings suggest imagery of an Eden from which humans are expelled and an Eden (in Oregon) to which they aspire. Focused on the details of everyday slow-moving determined travel, while suggesting a political parable of contemporary America and its leadership, or a general parable of human life. An reduction of complex historical events and characters, to an essentialist interpretation. Screenplay by Jon Raymond, directed by Kelly Reichardt (2010, 104 min.)
Travellers and Magicians A film by the Buddhist lama, Khyentse Norbu, who learned film-making in England. Two stories are intertwined. In both, travel is about escaping the boredom of home and seeking fulfillment of one’s desires in another land. A government officer, wanting to find a way to enter the USA, leaves his small village, and with other travelers he meets on the road, gradually gets closer to the big city where he will obtain an American visa, while a Buddhist monk tells a magic-tinged story. The story, the other travellers, and events on the road gradually change the officer, perhaps changing his decision to leave the country. The plot seems incomplete, but the film’s message is voiced by the monk at the end — a Buddhist teaching on impermanence and transitory desires. Filmed in Bhutan, the director’s home, with beautiful scenery, excellent non-professional actors, and a professional Western film crew. Viewers will learn a lot about the scenery and culture of distant Bhutan. (2005, 108 min.)
Que Tan Lejos (How Much Further?) Why travel? How should we travel? Esperanza (Hope) is a travel agent from Spain who comes to Ecuador to see the tourist sites; she panics if she doesn’t follow her tour book. She meets “Sadness” (Tristeza), an Ecuadorian student and free spirit, jilted by her lover, on a journey through the Andes to Cuenca. A mysterious guide (like the spirit guides of hero tales) named Jesus, who travels to the same destination with ashes of his grandmother, advises them and disappears. Both of them change through the journey (e.g., Sadness changes her name), and the travel and the destination gain a different meaning for each. (Ecuador, in Spanish, 2006, 105 min.)
The Way Written and directed by Emilio Estevez, based on stories in Off the road: a modern-day walk down the pilgrim’s route by Jack Hitt. Four seekers from four countries travel the Camino de Santiago, a Christian pilgrimage path in Spain. They gradually change during passage over the path, and discover their true goals as they reach Compostela – not religious goals but various kinds of healing, especially for the main character, a grieving father. (2011, 2 hours)
The Namesake Based on the book by Jhumpa Lahiri (2007, 2 hrs.)
The Human Resources Manager Based on a novel by Abraham B. Yehoshua. A bitter Israeli, distant from wife and job, travels to Romania and within the country, meeting members of a grieving family, passing through the countryside, entering the life of a Romanian woman killed in a suicide attack in Jerusalem, and making decisions on the road which gradually bring him back to life. (2010, Israeli, 110 min.)
E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial Story of a traveler stranded in a very strange land where he must adjust, learn the language, understand and befriend the “Other,” and manage to return home. He is an immigrant, a refugee stalked by government agents, an Odysseus longing for home.
Apocalypse Now The location of Vietnam and the particular conditions of the American war there, change American soldiers, almost always for the worse, revealing hearts of darkness. Captain Willard and a crew of young sailors journey up the Nung River through increasing social and moral chaos, finally to encounter Colonel Kurtz, whom foreign travel, war, and ambition have transformed into a madman who sees the emptiness and horror of Western civilization. (1979 and 2001; 150 and 200 min.)
The African Queen Based on the 1935 novel by C.S. Forester; directed by John Huston. Traveling by steamboat on a dangerous river in Africa brings together a man and woman, and changes their relation with each other, but the travel itself is not the essential cause of change. The dangers seem unrealistic because the camera shows the audience the lucky events which will save the couple from death. The actual setting in Africa, other than the wildlife, appears only superficially and has no effect upon them. Humphrey Bogart won Best Actor for his performance. Shot on location in Uganda and the Congo; also in a studio for special effects. (1952, Technicolor, 100 min.)
Dead Man - entirely movement, into and through a strange and hostile environment, and toward death. William Blake travels to Northwest by train. He is wounded in a gunfight and dies slowly on a journey to the Pacific ocean on which he floats outward on a boat/bier. The West is a locale of death: burnt homes and canoes, cattle skulls, quick meaningless violence, constant killing, by others and then by Blake too. A character on train says Blake is going to the end of the line, only to his grave, only hell there. Blake is more asleep than awake throughout the film – carried along either by train through desolate scenery, or on horse by an Indian guide (Nobody) who sees the truth about him (Blake’s face becomes a skull; he says Blake is dead; is rebirth of the poet Blake in the wrong century). This is a journey of death, dying, through living hell, to final silence [peace?] (only after everyone dies, friends and enemies).
Razor’s Edge, based on novel by Evelyn Waugh – Larry travels to Europe, experiences crisis of meaning, returns home but can’t stay, travels to Europe to find answers, works there, reads, then travels to Tibet to experience truth beyond books (burns books). Action continues in Europe, and after crisis, Larry says he’s going home, to the U.S. – so all important learning occurs through travel, home is something you can return to only by going through education and testing and maturing of travel first.
The Painted Veil, in which a husband shows his admirable character as a missionary in rural China, after which his new wife, who had never loved him, falls in love and learns to act selflessly during an outbreak of cholera.
Unforgiven William Munny (Clint Eastwood) faces temptations and the consequences of past violence during his journey to the town of Big Whiskey, and while he is there. The journey and the evil of that town refine him to his essence, and reveal to Munny’s partners their own abhorrence of violence. They return home changed.
The Motorcycle Diaries Diaries based on the books Notas de viaje, by Ernesto Guevara, and Con el Che por Sudamérica, by Alberto Granado. Two young men take a road trip across Latin America (2004, 2 hours)
Intimate Stories = Historias mínimas Stories of three people, each traveling to the big city of San Julian for different reasons, intersecting in small ways. Travel reveals character rather than causing changes in character. (Argentina, 2002, 94 min.)
Europa Europa Based on the memoirs of the German Jew, Solomon Perel. As a teenager he flees Nazi hunters throughout the film. He survives as a communist in Poland under Russian rule and then as a Nazi interpreting for a military unit and later joining a Nazi Youth school in Berlin where he is considered a patriotic hero. Begins with a scene of his ritual circumcision, the later threat to his secret. Best Foreign Film Golden Globe Award. (German, 115 min., 1991) D810.J4 P473 2003
Everything is Illuminated Based on the novel by Jonathan Safran Foer. A young American man, with the help of a local who speaks weirdly broken English, journeys to find the woman who saved his grandfather during World War II in a Ukrainian village (205, 105 min.)
In this World The hazardous journey of two Afghan boys as they travel from Pakistan through Iran, Turkey, Italy, France and the UK in search of refuge, revealing the desperate measures people take to escape persecution and life-threatening conditions. The script is based on first-hand accounts of refugees’ journeys. (2002, 88 min.)
Into the Wild Based on the book by Jon Krakauer about Christopher McCandless, a real person. A contemporary “On the Road.” Travel conceived as passage through stages of birth and maturing (notice the chapter headings). Memorable characters, lovingly filmed on location at many sites in the western states and Alaska, constant movement, many scenes of movement, respectful portrayal of McCandless. (2008, 148 min.)
The last samurai As a captive of the samurai leader, the American soldier, Algren, learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone’s honor to the ultimate test (2003, 150 min.)
Ten Items or Less An aging African-American actor (Morgan Freeman) and a young Latino clerk (Paz Vega) “begin a trek through Los Angeles finding unexpected situations, chance encounters, and personal revelations that neither could ever have anticipated” (2006, 98 min.)
Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama Animation of the Ramayana by a Japanese-Indian collaborative effort. Lots of singing; children’s level of interpretation. Ends as Rama and Sita board the flying chariot to return home from Lanka. (Hindi, 170 min.)
The Monkey Goes West Based loosely on the Chinese classic, Journey to the West by Wu Cheng’en. This is version of the story is filled with music and singing, and the acting is mannered, somewhat like Chinese opera. Pigsy is more lustful and gluttonous, Monkey more quarrelsome and rebellious than in the novel. Tells only the story (although much changed) of the assembling of the four travelers as the set out on their journey. A cheerful scene of movement throught the countryside towards the end, with Pigsy singing about his heavy load. Quaint special effects. (1966, Chinese, Region 3 formatting only, 111 min.)
The new world
Under the Tuscan Sun
The Last Samurai
Lost in Translation
Seven Years in Tibet
Lawrence of Arabia
Indiana Jones
Up in the Air Constant air travel, detachment: home? commitment? (2010, 109 min.)
Easy Rider An influential film reflecting and influencing the youth movement of the 60’s and 70’s. A road trip across America by motorcycle (1969, 94 min.)
Darjeeling Limited directed by Wes Anderson. At the end of their journey through northern India, the three brothers symbolically throw away their excess baggage. (2007, 90 min.)
The way back A treacherous 4,500-mile trek to freedom across the world’s most merciless landscapes, based on true story. (2010, 133 min.)
Thelma and Louise
Outsourced
Whale Rider
South Pacific
Y Tu Mamá También
Lord of the Rings
Out of Africa
A Room with a View
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Deliverance
M*A*S*H (VHS)
Munich
The Sheltering Sky
Nowhere in Africa
The English Patient
Wizard of Oz Dorothy’s journey (at home) about staying home. (1939, 100 min.)
In this World
Dogme 4. The king is alive
Now voyager (1942)
The Frisco Kid (VHS)
The Accidental Tourist (VHS)
Sullivan’s Travels
Enchanted April
Murder on the Orient Express
James’ journey to Jerusalem James, an African Christian, comes to Israel as a pilgrim but ends up working for Israeli families in Tel Aviv. (2003, in Hebrew with subtitles, 87 min.)
Father Sergius (1917)
Slaughterhouse Five based on the novel by Kurt Vonnegut. Travel across time and space, related to the American bombing of Dresden. (1972, 104 min.)
Christopher Columbus
1492: conquest of paradise
I am David
The road
Erleuchtung garantiert (Enlightenment Guaranteed)
Titanic
Journey to the center of the earth
Mutiny on the Bounty
Silent running
Smoke Signals
A Passage to India — based on the novel by E.M. Forester. British women in India, foreign truths (1984, 160 min.)
The trip to Bountiful
Le destin = Destiny
Peaceful Warrior, an internal journey, life as journey without destination, the eternal now-and-here as the meaning of life and of the journey
Eat Pray Love (2010, 133 min.)
Documentaries:
The Story of India
Legacy: the origins of civilization / written by Michael Wood
Naked in Ashes directed, produced & written by Paula Fouce
Wheel of Time written, directed and narrated by Werner Herzog. Portrays Buddhist pilgrimage to Bodh Gaya for a Kalachakra (wheel of time) initiation and to the sacred Himalayan mountain named Kailash, slowly showing the small actions of daily life among the pilgrims, monks engaged in repetitive rites, the movement of multitudes, construction of a sand mandala, a vociferous debate among Tibetan scholars, cooking, laughing children. (2003, 80 min.)
Sliding Liberia
The Hajj: one American’s pilgrimage to Mecca
Yippee: A Journey to Jewish Joy. Paul Mazursky talks us through his visit to Uman in the Ukraine where he joined a pilgrimage of 25,000 Hasidic Jews who come to the tomb of Rebbe Nachman of Bratzlav during the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). Rebbe Nachman had promised that whoever comes to him at that time would receive his help in gaining a good “judgment” for the coming year. Mazursky, who talks so much that he drowns out other people’s viewpoints, rejects this claim, the beliefs of the Hasidim, and Judaism in general. He calls himself a secular Jew, which seems to consist of Jewish jokes and identification with other Jews . The film contains some good interviews with a variety of Hasidic Jews who explain why they travel to Uman and how it has changed them, and we see some moving pilgrimage scenes, such as men praying before the rebbe’s tomb and especially the pilgrims gathering en masse around Uman’s lake at the end of Rosh Hashanah, and Mazursky himself finally claims that his trip made him more respectful of religious Jews, but Mazursky’s understanding of Judaism is pretty ignorant and his clowning gets boring. (2006, 74 min.)
Inside Mecca
Around the World in 72 Days PBS documentary on the life of journalist, Nelly Bly (1864-1922), with a long section on one of the most highly publicized journeys in history, Bly’s unchaperoned trip around the world in 72 days of 1889-1890. (1 hour, 1997)
Shackleton’s Antarctic adventure
Shackleton
Route 11
The Jew in the Lotus purports to show how travel changed Rodger Kamanetz, who was going through a personal and artistic crisis before joining the trip to Daramsala. He undergoes a crisis on the night before the dialogue with the Dalai Lama begins, but somehow the experience starts changing him. The mechanism, the process, never becomes clear, but he’s a happy guy when he returns to Dharamsala to give a copy of his book to the DL, and as he lectures to an audience at a synagogue. Film tries to suggest the strangeness of India and Tibetan culture. Shows different approaches (Zalman and Yitz, also Joy Levitt) of the Jewish visitors to this journey. There’s a definite religious aspect to it.
Lewis & Clark: the journey of the Corps of Discovery / a film by Ken Burns (VHS, 2 tapes)
Between two worlds: a Japanese pilgrimage
Sadhana – a Canadian seeker’s journey in India along the Ganges to the Himalayas to learn from Hindu sages and ascetics.
Huichol sacred pilgrimage to Wirkuta
Pilgrimage 1987, pilgrimages to Tianzhu and Putuo
Japanese pilgrimage : the pilgrimage to the eighty-eight sacred places of Shikoku
An Indian pilgrimage–Kashi
The Buddha: the story of Siddhartha / a film by David Grubin
The Shrine
In the footsteps of Alexander the Great
Ten who dared (VHS)
The Voyage of Charles Darwin.
From the Earth to the Moon