MovieChat Forums > They Live by Night (1949) Discussion > Road movie

Road movie

posted 17 years ago by AlanSquier
1 reply | jump to latest

I love, sometimes, to look at the various genres a particular film fits into, and then watch it multiple times, each time from the viewpoint of a different genre. This is a rewarding movie to view this way, and one of the surrising genres it fits is "road movie" Even if you've seen this before, I do recommend sometime watching it from this particular view, and even compare it with other road movies.

Captain Warren 'Rip' Murdock: I'm the brass-knuckles-in-the-teeth-to-dance-time type.

[–] pillfeast 15 years ago

It's interesting how little road is actually shown too, almost every time they're driving and it's light enough to see anything Ray chooses to keep the camera in tight focus on the car from that overhead angle that shows as little landscape as possible. It gives the movie a narrow, claustrophobic, running-in-circles feel, I think. Robert Altman's version 'Thieves Like Us' doesn't do this.

Boys from the city feed soda pop to a thirsty pig.