Updated July 31, 2025 at 4:01 AM CDT
If there's one thing the United States has got down to a science, it's roads, cars and the great American road trip, baybee!
Clearly we're not shy about displaying that in our media, with a variety of vehicular classics like The Grapes of Wrath, Easy Rider, and even Dumb and Dumber, movies that focus on hitting the road and being a dude.
But what about the less explored journeys taken by women behind the wheel? That's what this week's film panel discussed, plus the nuances in the genre as it has grown and evolved.
It Happened One Night (1934)
NPR's film critic Bob Mondello kicked the conversation off by referencing one of the first major road movies, It Happened One Night.
Directed by Frank Capra, this film just so happens to focus on a pampered heiress played by Claudette Colbert, who is attempting to run away from her father and is helped by reporter Clark Gable when all of her money gets stolen.
"It won all five major Oscars that year," Mondello said. "Picture, director, actor, actress and screenplay — the first film ever to manage that."
Thelma and Louise (1991)
Perhaps the defining entry for this genre, NPR producer Avery Keatley mentioned this groundbreaking thriller starring Susan Sarandon and Geena Davis as an opportunity for female characters to get their hands a little dirty and set the pace for female-based road movies in the next few decades.
Crossroads (2002)
Both Keatley and NPR guest host Pien Huang nodded to this Britney Spears star vehicle (with a screenplay written by Shonda Rhimes!) as an obligatory millennial mention.
"Three childhood friends get together, take a road trip across the country, get into all kinds of very cliched tangles and scrapes before basically recommitting to their friendship," Keatley explained.
The teen-focused film has become a classic in the millennial childhood film canon and features a cast that has gone on to fill plenty of other roles in Hollywood.
So what distinguishes women behind the wheel?
"I think what always stands out to me is this, really radical sense of freedom, right? And that to me is kind of what the road itself represents. Being on the road, you're on the fringes of society and you're sort of out of its grasp," Keatley explained.
"And I don't think it's surprising that when women are at the center of these films, that is really kind of an escapist sort of theme that we see because society so often tries to constrain women, and here they are in a place where they can be totally free and have a lot of possibility in front of them."
"In fairness, women are essential and men kind of aren't most of the time," says Mondello with a laugh.
"So, the fact that they go out and are just ridiculous out there and doing kind of crazy things doesn't strike people as eccentric. It is shocking sometimes when a woman leaves the hearth and home, and it shouldn't be," he added.
"But the idea for the longest time was that a woman was the rock on which the [home] was built. And if she left, then everything would go to hell. And so a road trip movie with men doesn't really matter, but a woman doing the same thing was suddenly shocking. And it was a very big deal. And that's what was so startling. I remember being really surprised that screenwriter Callie Khouri managed to get so much women's liberation into Thelma & Louise," Mondello said.
Nomadland (2020)
For Keatley, a road trip movie can lend itself to the structure of a character setting out on a journey that transcends the physical.
"And one movie that I think just traces this trajectory in a really beautiful way is 2020's Nomadland," she added.
Directed by Chloé Zhao, Nomadland tells the story of Fern, played by Frances McDormand, who sets out to live her life on the road after she loses her job and her husband.
Fern sells most of what she owns, packs up her van and stops in places where she can pick up seasonal work.
Through this, she meets others who are living a similar life on the road, and learns lessons on how to stay safe and how to keep her van working.
"Really, the story is about how she forms these deep connections, even though these people are always moving, right? With all these other nomads, she's still able to create a sense of home and a sense of family," Keatley said.
So, does Nomadland exemplify how these movies have evolved over the years?
"What I have noticed as a change is this honing in on the emotional reality of what it means for these characters to go through this experience," Keatley said.
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