7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

1/25

The Great (North) America Road Trip: Driving Toward a Continental Identity

Abstract: From 2000 to 2010, Canada, the United States, and Mexico producednew cinematic interpretations of the road trip narrative. This comparative researchpaper examines three films, Canadas One Week, the United States Transamerica,and Mexicos Y tu mam tambin, providing a critical analysis of each film in thecontext of national cinema traditions and contemporary national identities. Thistravel narrative has a uniquely continental pull, with the last decades productionand consumption of the road movie solidifying it as a North American genre. Eachfilm indicates a hoped-for society that respects diversity, values its environment,and encourages self-realization for all its members.

Keywords: national identity, cinema, travel, integration, road movie

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

2/25

Its as if physical mobility is standing in for the dream of social mobilitythat North American society has been unable to deliver.

--Alexander Wilson, The Culture of Nature:

North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon Valdez.

A young man, dissatisfied with his present existence, decides to take a

spontaneous trip across the country. Needing little more than a set of wheels, he embarks

on a journey destined for revelatory run-ins with strangers, awe-inspiring landscapes, and

ultimate self-discovery. The iconic landscape is desert, and a general westward trajectory

is standard. It is the act of driving and the experience of the unfamiliar that generates

profound personal growth. The story is familiar to North Americans, who have engaged

with the road trip narrative for over half a century.

From 2000 to 2010, Canada, the United States, and Mexico produced new

cinematic interpretations of this narrative. Examining each countrys approach to a single

film genre reveals unique national values, while the continents contribution to a single

film genre hints at what values North Americans share. Canada, the U.S., and Mexico all

used the road movie to negotiate citizenship in the 21st

century. The definition of

citizenship includes both the rights and the responsibilities of a national. The North

American road movie suggests who is granted freedoms and protections, and who is not;

it explores what the millennial citizen looks like, and how it relates to its country.

While almost a passing comment in Wilsons history of continental tourism

development, the substitution of physical mobility for social mobility lies at the heart of

North Americas love affair with the road movie. In its every incarnation, the road trip

narrative presents automobile travel across a national landscape as transformative, to be

embarked upon when lifes circumstances need rejuvenation. In this model, the North

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

3/25

American individual undergoes personal metamorphosis, while the society that spurred

the journey remains unchanged. We learn to live out our rebellious urges on the road, to

redirect our lack of fulfillment to the gas pump, the roadside motel, and the silver screen

fantasy of a life of unbounded mobility and choice.

And yet, within this false paradigm of change, the 21st

century North American

road movie succeeds in expressing a profound desire for the renegotiation of national

identities. A renegotiation that honors the racial, sexual, and economic diversity of each

nation, that holds the natural environment in high esteem, and that encourages self-

discovery and fulfillment through shared experience and connectedness with others.

Ultimately, the commonality of these desires provide hope for a shared vision of progress

in North America.

The road movie is but one of myriad ways to explore national identity on screen,

yet it has been chosen repeatedly, and by all nations in North America. This shared

narrative has a uniquely continental pull, with the last decades production and

consumption of the road movie solidifying it as a North American genre.

National Identity and the Road Movie

The road movie as a genre was not widely recognized until the late 1960s, though

prototypes of the road travel narrative entered American cinema in the 1930s. Early road

films like It Happened One Night (Frank Capra, 1934) and Sullivans Travels (Preston

Sturges, 1941) were driven by class differences, and ultimately reinforced a socially and

economically stratified America (Cohan and Hark, 1997: 5). The road movie also has

roots in Hollywood Westerns, with Bonnie and Clyde (Arthur Penn, 1967) merging the

outlaw narrative with automobile-centered action and cinematography. It was not until

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

4/25

Dennis Hoppers canonical Easy Rider (1969) that explicit consideration of nation and

identity became a standard road movie component.

Easy Riderfollows two men famously search[ing] for America on a motorcycle

journey from Los Angeles to New Orleans, who are ultimately disappointed in the lack of

true freedom displayed by their fellow countrymen, including themselves. Film scholar

David Laderman considers the film instrumental in launching the American independent

narrative film as a successful and profitable reflection of the counterculture (Laderman,

2002: 66). It is significant that one of the earliest, most successful expressions of an

alternative national identity took the form of a road movie. With Hollywoods influence

unparalleled in the North American film industry, Hoppers narrative approach soon

influenced international filmmakers.

The following year, Don Shebib released Canadas take on the road movie

narrative, Goin Down the Road(1970). Set in eastern Canada, the film follows two Nova

Scotia natives on their journey to Toronto as they seek gainful employment. The road

movie format so captured Canadian audiences that Goin Down the Road is widely

considered canonical in Canadian national cinema, and was one of nine films chosen by

Canada Post for a 1996 series of commemorative stamps to celebrate one hundred years

of Canadian film (Gittings, 2002: 2). Goin Down the Roadhas had a lasting impact on

Canadian culture, with a 40th anniversary sequel titled Goin Down the Road Again

(2011) produced en memoriam of its landmark predecessor.

The cultural significance ofEasy Rider and Goin Down the Road lies in the

narrative structure of each film as it adheres to the road movie format. These foundational

works established the road movie genre as one with certain universal traits. Laderman

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

5/25

describes the genre as an embrace of the journey as a means of cultural critique

(Laderman, 2002: 1). In order for this force to play out on screen, it is necessary for each

film to define the culture that it seeks to critique. In this exercise, attitudes toward the

current state of the nation are often clearly expressed.

Another key road movie mechanism is the physical exploration of the unknown as

a means of self-discovery for the main characters. The unknown that these characters

explore often manifests itself in the unfamiliarity present in interactions with strangers,

and remains one of the most prevalent ways to advance the plot in the road trip narrative.

In the first half of road movie history, however, these main characters were almost

exclusively members of the dominant social class in the U.S. and Canada: white,

heterosexual males.

Masculinity thus became a central focus of many road movies made in the 1970s

and 1980s. In a genre that purposefully explores national identity, this focus meant that

masculine protagonists were painted as the ideal citizens. In a road movie, the

protagonists traverse national landscape on some sort of quest. In this era of the road

movie, the quest became imbued with themes of dominance, violence, and often

misogyny. It follows, then, that these themes were supported as positive traits of

citizenship by the 20th

century road movie.

In the 1990s, the established road movie format underwent a significant shift.

During this period, Laderman identifies a distinctly revitalized and repoliticized version,

where the genre gets driven by drivers previously consigned to the sidelines: women,

people of color, gays (Laderman, 2002: 179). This new take on the journey narrative

allowed diverse perspectives on the nation to emerge. After this transformational decade,

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

6/25

the 21st century road movie developed in response to its history of both hegemonic

protagonists and marginalized voices confronting the dominant society of its national

setting.

One such marginalized voice that emerged in the 21st

century is that of Mexico.

Prior to the release of Alfonso Cuarns Y tu mam tambin in 2001, Mexicos

representation in the road movie genre was largely limited to the periphery of American

films. Mexico has existed as a fantasized safe haven for outlaws on the run (Thelma and

Louise, Ridley Scott 1991) and a stop on drug trafficking routes (Easy Rider, Dennis

Hopper 1969), both indicative of a generic tradition to exoticize Mexico as lawless,

primitive land in North America (Laderman, 2002: 193). While existing on the fringe

of many road trip narratives, Mexico is rarely granted screen time, or a voice of its own.

Its relatively recent entre into the genre suggests that ideas about Mexican citizenship

are beginning to fall in line with those expressed in Canadian and American road movies.

Road movies made between 2000 and 2010 blend elements of the old format and

new consciousness, offering a unique perspective on North America in the new

millennium. A comparative analysis of three recent films from Canada, the United States,

and Mexico offers insight into current attitudes toward each nations identity, as well as

that of its neighbors. Canadas One Week (2008), the United States Transamerica

(2005), and Mexicos Y tu mam tambin (2001) all follow the traditional road movie

structure. In each film, the familiar framework of the journey narrative allows distinct

ideas about national identity to emerge.

Ultimately, it is the key elements of the road movie genre present in each film that

make them successful as North American contributions to the global cinematic landscape.

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

7/25

A discussion of these common themes in conjunction with national ideological

differences works to identify a subset of values that resonate across the continent.

Canadian Nationalism in Michael McGowans One Week

The North American road movie enters a cinematic landscape that includes

established national film traditions. At the turn of the 20th

century, Canadian cinema

consisted primarily of Canadian Pacific Railway-sponsored films depicting westward

expansion and encouraging immigration. State intervention following World War I

limited the majority of film production to similar tourism- and trade-promoting

documentaries rather than feature motion pictures. Hollywood soon took over many

Canadian distribution companies after a brief boom in Canadian dramas in the 1920s,

beginning a long struggle for economic viability in the shadow of the American film

industry.

The creation of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) in 1939 prioritized the

development of Canadian film products. Trade disputes between Canada and the U.S.

following World War II, however, ended in reinforced Hollywood dominance that

effectively halted Canadian film production through the 1950s. In the 1960s, the NFB

began supporting student film projects, eventually reopening the Canadian industry to

feature films. The films that emerged through the 1970s were often in the tradition of

docudramas, drawing on the nations history of scenic railroad reels (Gittings, 2002: 77).

Canadian cinema has traditionally been very place-based, with an overt emphasis on

Canadian-icity, in an effort to differentiate from the American film industry. The heritage

of triumphal silver screen depictions of the lands that would become Canada left an

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

8/25

indelible mark on Canadian cinema, contributing to a national identity that would be

readily receptive to the road movie narrative.

One Week (2008), written and directed by Toronto native Michael McGowan,

approaches a unique project of national identity in North America. With three distinct

founding cultures (Anglo, French, and First Nations), no war for independence (as in the

United States and Mexico), and an especially pronounced regionalism, a unified

collective identity is notoriously hard to pin down in Canada. As Keith Spicer puts it,

Canadians appear to condemn themselves to endless, inconclusive attempts at self-

definition (Spicer, 1995: 13). The wandering, fragmented road trip motif, then, is an

extremely successful vehicle with which to explore the mosaic of Canadian national

identity.

The main project ofOne Week is to present a clear vision of Canadian national

identity. McGowan weaves the ideological tenets of a better North American society into

tangible national symbols, both commercial and geographical. Just as the protagonist

happens upon some of Canadas most famous symbols, McGowan includes profound

ideological stances without ceremony. This presentation characterizes respect for

difference, for the environment, and for cooperative self-realization as intrinsic to

Canadiannessso thoroughly held as to be unremarkable, stumbled upon or even

overlooked by the viewer.

The story is told through Ben Taylor (played by Joshua Jackson) as he travels by

motorcycle from Toronto to the coast of British Columbia after being diagnosed with an

aggressive stage of cancer. Against the wishes of his doctors, family, and fianc, Ben

spontaneously decides to take a trip across the Trans Canada Highway rather than begin

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

9/25

immediate treatment for his illness. With no itinerary, Ben visits worlds largest

roadside attractions and stumbles upon national landmarks. As a solo traveler, the plot is

driven by these stops, and his interactions with strangers along the way.

Each encounter on his westward trajectory grows more and more Canadian.

Just outside Toronto, Ben stops at Tim Hortons for a coffee. Tim Hortons is a

ubiquitous Canadian fast food chain, and is granted prophetic powers in the film. Ben

rolls up the rim on his disposable coffee cup, checking to see if he won a prize in Tim

Hortons long-running Roll Up The Rim To Win contest. Instead of the expected, Please

play again, Bens cup reads: Go west young man, quoting Horace Greeleys 19th

century push for American expansion. A familiar cultural touchstone for many

Canadians, this act of rolling up the rim explicitly reinforces Bens decision to go on with

his unplanned adventure. This is one of many instances where Canadian cultural artifacts

become more than just props in One Week; they become actors in the film that reaffirm

Bens decision and his sense of self. Ben finds his sense of self, his purpose, through

performing Canadian national identity.

In the next province over, Ben stops at an ice rink in Alborg, Manitoba. Inside, he

is shocked to find the Stanley Cup in the middle of the rink, where it is an Anaheim

Ducks players turn to have his traditional day with the teams trophy. After the narrator

divulges the true fact that one players infertile wife conceived the night she kissed the

Stanley Cup, Ben is offered the chance to kiss the cup for good luck. In excitement and

awe, he bends to do so. As his lips press the metal, celebratory footage of historic Stanley

Cup wins splatter the screen. Ben opens his eyes, steps back, and beams, seemingly

imparted with the vigor of those hockey greats. The narrator reveals, A small part of

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

10/25

Ben felt that all those players who had ever kissed the cup might just be able to body

check his cancer into oblivion. In this instance, the iconic Canadian sport, hockey, and

its holy grail, the Stanley Cup, are imbued with transformative powers. While the Tim

Hortons cup urged Ben to continue his journey, his chance encounter with the Stanley

Cup, magical in every way, gave him hope for his physical recovery.

In the Prairies, the landscape itself becomes the Canadian symbol that pushes the

film forward. His bike encounters mechanical difficulties in Saskatchewan, forcing Ben

to spend time on a womans financially-struggling farm. Ben and his host, Fran, ride a

pair of horses to an overlook, where Fran expresses her sense of fulfillment and

belonging in this setting. Wide shots exalt the oft-dismissed flat landscape, pointedly

affirming the Prairie topography and sometimes difficult lifestyle as thoroughly,

beautifully Canadian.

From Saskatchewan, the scenery grows greener and more mountainous. The act

of driving, the road, and the scenery passing by are glorified in classic road movie

fashion. Ben stops to take a photo of himself with motorcycle and mountains in the

background: this is a part of the trip he wants to remember. This sequence serves to

reinforce the importance of the journey for journeys sake. The re-energized, wistful

music indicates that we are witnessing a moment of internal growth for Ben, brought

forth by his solitude and the road. After what the narrator describes as six hours of

relentless cold, Ben reaches his next stop, Banff National Park in Alberta.

Famous for its section of the Rockies, Banff is an internationally recognizable

symbol of the Canadian landscape. It is here that Ben indulges in a nostalgic quest for a

mythic creature from his childhood, called Grumps. Once found, Grumps grant a special

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

11/25

understanding, or perhaps magic powers, to its beholder. In his search, Ben meets a

female backpacker with whom he has a romantic connection. Around the campfire, the

pair sing Un Canadien Errant, a song written in the 19th

century as an anthem for those

in exile after the Lower Canadian Rebellion. This moment is significant in its warm

acknowledgment of French-Canadian culture, which does not appear elsewhere in the

film. The literal intimacy fostered by Ben and the hikers shared memory of the tune

implies an intrinsic connectedness among Canadians through this common history. Here,

we see an on-screen negotiation on the notoriously difficult project of constructing a

unified Canadian identity that includes all its historical minority groups.

Ben pushes on to British Columbia. He calls his mother under a display of Aurora

Borealis that he encounters after stumbling out of a bar. He wakes up under a tree, and

finds an Aboriginal man drumming nearby. Wordlessly, Ben takes in a burnt forest

landscape and a cemetery with the native drums in the background. The main purpose of

this scene is a literal consideration of mortality as Ben approaches the coast. It also serves

to include First Nations in a whirlwind tour of Canadas highlights, yet rather cursorily as

Ben never interacts with the drumming man.

As he reaches mile zero on the Trans Canada highway, Bens bike is crushed by a

parking truck while he struggles to eat at a diner. His means of transportation gone and

health failing, Ben goes to surf. A German couple approaches him to take their picture by

the ocean. Their dialogue explicitly states the national pride developed through imagery

in the film: The couple asks, You are Canadian? May I say that you live in one of the

most beautiful countries in the world. Ben replies thoughtfully, I know. In this

moment, Ben proudly affirms his identity as a Canadian.

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

12/25

Immediately after this encounter, Ben paddles into the sea and witnesses a

humpback whale breaching the surface. The narrator explains that for Ben, this sighting

was Grumps. This serves as a literal end to Bens lifelong quest for the mythical creature;

a quest that played out across the whole of Canada. The subplot of Bens search for

Grumps is a metaphor for his search for himself. The search for both is made possible

through the diversity of Canadian landscape, culture, and people. It is not until Ben

reaches the end of the Trans Canada Highway that he is able to find the mythical

Grumps, and thus find himself. The Canadian touchstones that promote Bens self-

realization suggest that the sense of belonging they generate are at the heart of

citizenship. A shared appreciation for the physical beauty of Canada, for example, is one

simple approach to defining national identity.

In One Week, Ben unassumingly encounters the most renowned elements of

Canadian culture and landscape. Not a single stop on his trip was planned, and yet he

manages to kiss the Stanley Cup, ride horses in the Prairies, hike Banff, and see the

Northern Lights. These accidental discoveries make each element seem so intrinsically

Canadian as to be ever-present in the Canadian experience. Ben does not set out to

discover Canada, but rather to discover himself. Yet, Canada becomes the primary

vehicle for his self-discovery.

Nation as site of self-realization is the most prominent element of the road movie

narrative in One Week. It applies the American road trip structure to the Canadian

landscape in the tradition ofEasy Rider. Bens vintage motorcycle, atmospheric music

(all by Canadian artists), and emphasis on driving shots all reflect the cinematic style of

Easy Rider. The narrative itself, however, praises the standard markers of Canadian

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

13/25

national identity where the counterculturalEasy Riderwould have critiqued them. In this

way, Canadas 21st

century road movie reveals a strong sense of pride in the

establishment of a cohesive national identity.

The Canadian identity presented in One Week, while intensely tied to national

characteristics, does not preclude a hope for shared continental consciousness.

McGowans emphasis on the physical beauty of Canada expresses a desire for a national

identity that values its natural environment. Bens encounters with a struggling farmer,

First Nation man, and French-Canadian woman promote an appreciation for diversity.

Finally, Bens self-realization is made possible by his interaction with strangers along his

journey, indicating a hope for connectedness across geographic boundaries.

Toward a New Mexican Identity in Alfonso Cuarns Y tu mam tambin

In contrast to the historical Canadian ambivalence toward national identity,

Mexican national cinema has traditionally embraced a singular approach to its identity.

Following a robust silent era in the late 19th century, Mexican government encouraged

national film production through tax breaks as well as private investing. Mexicos

cinematic Golden Age, from the 1930s to the 1950s, solidified a national identity that

idealized patriarchal family structure, chivalrous men courting beautiful women, and a

romanticized view of native inhabitants (Acevedo-Muoz, 2004: 39). Largely

commissioned by President Lzaro Crdenas, the repetition of these images and ideas

solidified a certain machismobrand of Mexican nationalism during this era.

Financing the national film industry grew difficult after European markets

reopened after World War II, international investors pulled out of the Mexican market,

and Hollywood further infiltrated the worlds cinemas. In the early 1950s, Mexican film

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

14/25

production stalled and creativity was tabled in favor of guaranteed profit-makers, which

experience had shown were machismo storylines influenced by the Golden Age. It is not

until the emergence of an era referred to as Nuevo Cine Mexicano (New Mexican

Cinema) in 1990 that these myths begin to be fully challenged, revised, and repurposed in

cinematic explorations of Mexican national identity.

Contextualizing Alfonso Cuarns Y tu mam tambin (2001) in this history of

Mexican national cinema, Ernesto Acevedo-Muoz successfully argues that the

characters and their relationships are deconstructive of conventional Mexican cinema

topics and ideology (Acevedo-Muoz, 2004: 41). Y tu mam tambin then becomes an

outlier in Mexican film for this deconstruction, a key moment in national film history.

Similarly, the film can be analyzed in the context of the road movie genre, where its

blatant critique of Mexican society, politics, and national mythology is par for the course.

In this way, Y tu mam tambin reinforces the road movie as a distinctly North American

genre.

That Mexicos road movie shares key traits with contemporary American and

Canadian films heightens the significance of its belated contribution to the genre. While

Canada embraced the road trip narrative almost immediately following the seminal

AmericanEasy Rider, the story did not capture Mexico for another 30 years. But once it

was ready, less than a decade after the 1992 signing of the North American Free Trade

Agreement, Y tu mam tambin became an international success. Far surpassing One

Week in critical acclaim, Caurns take on the road movie was especially popular with

American audiences, where its opening weekend outdid both One Week and

Transamerica. With Mexico finally joining the ranks as producer of classic road trip

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

15/25

narratives, rather than just a secondary setting in one, the road movie became a truly

North American genre.

Y tu mam tambin follows two teenage boys on their impromptu road trip

through part of Mexico with an older Spanish woman, Luisa Corts (Maribel Verd). An

omniscient narrator introduces Tenoch Iturbide (Diego Luna), the affluent son of a

Mexican politician, and his working class friend, Julio Zapata (Gael Garca Bernal). With

little more on their minds than sex and marijuana, the pair are surprised when Luisa

accepts their invitation to an imaginary beach calledBoca del Cielo.

On their optimistic journey to this unverified coastal paradise, the film traverses

rural Mexico. Cuarn applies reverent, panoramic camerawork, normally reserved for

majestic landscapes in road movies, to the people of the small communities through

which they pass. While the camera lingers on a caravan venerating a mobile shrine to the

Virgin of Guadalupe, or a highway sign to a small town Tenoch recognizes as the

birthplace of his nanny, Cuarn urges the viewer to recognize an importance and beauty

that the characters on screen fail to acknowledge. The focus on the culturally distinct,

economically fragile small towns articulates a desire for a society that celebrates these

differences as part of a diverse Mexico.

Oblivious to their surroundings, Tenoch and Julio soon discover that both had

slept with each others girlfriends, as well as Luisa. Their friendship declared over and

the trip nearly aborted, they happen upon a pristine beach that becomes theirBoca del

Cielo. The chance discovery of a natural paradise, which Tenoch and Julio believed they

had merely imagined, has the same effect as Bens casual encounters with incredible

national symbols in One Week. By inserting a key national image, in this case celestial

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

16/25

coastline, into the road trip narrative as purely accidental, that symbol is granted a

timelessness and essential quality that makes it appear intrinsically of that nation.

Complicating his message of people-as-landscape, Cuarn indicates that esteem

for natural environment is, in fact, a desirable aspect of Mexican national identity. The

narrator makes this clear when he regretfully reveals that the poor, but happy, fisherman

and his family who act as tour guides for Tenoch, Julio, and Luisa will soon lose their

pleasant lifestyle when the beach is taken over by the commercial tourism industry. The

pack of wild pigs who destroy the trios campsite when they return from the fishermans

tour also symbolize the destructive environmental effects of too much tourism.

Intoxicated after toasting to life and to Mexico after their boat tour, the three

engage in a sexual experience that realizes Tenochs and Julios homoerotic tension

throughout the film. In this scene, Luisa facilitates the boys attraction to each other. In a

condensed expression of the relationships among the three established throughout the

film, each party acts as a catalyst of self-realization for the other. Luisa, a stranger to

Tenoch and Julio, allows them to realize their feelings for one anotherboth aggressive

and romantic. It is the unknown between Luisa and the boys that allows them each to

discover hidden truths about themselves. This exercise in cooperative self-realization

reflects a desire for a society that encourages such productive interaction among

strangers, fundamentally valuing elements of both individualism and collectivism.

Luisa stays behind after the boys depart quickly the next morning. Unable to

maintain their friendship, Tenoch and Julio do not speak again until a year later, when

Julio shares that Luisa died of cancer shortly after their excursion together. Their meeting

coincides with the Partido Revolucionario Institucional(PRI) first loss of power in 71

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

17/25

years. The narrators commentary on issues of contemporary politics and socioeconomics

contextualizes, and even trivializes, the tensions among the three protagonists. The effect

is to acknowledge that the sordid goings-on of two teenage boys are ultimately

inconsequential in a nation in the throes of change.

Through the films critique of hegemonic Mexican society, Cuarn implicitly

proposes characteristics of an improved Mexican state. These characteristics, the regard

for diversity, environmental integrity, and cooperative self-realization, are the same

presented in recent Canadian and American road movies. Y tu mam tambin reinforces

the notion that these values resonate across the continent.

Transamerica: Subversion and Conformity in the American Road Movie

Similar to Mexicos history of national mythology in film, American cinema

embraced themes of nationalism from its earliest days. The Western emerged in the

1900s as one the first film genres in the United States, and was revitalized several times

from the 1940s through the 1980s. Westerns invoke the myth of the frontier as the driving

force behind every aspect of its films (Slotkin, 1992: 254). Thus, they constantly

reinforce the telling of American history as one of manifest destiny-based expansion,

survival in an unfriendly landscape, and triumph of Anglo culture over native inhabitants.

The Westerns version of American history inherently glorified a national identity that

reflects these themes. As previously discussed, early American road trip films

overwhelmingly played into the glorified masculinity of this frontier myth.

Like Y tu mam tambin directly challenges traditional machismo Mexican

nationalism, so does the 21st century American road movie express a different vision of

national identity from one centered on the frontier myth. Duncan Tuckers Transamerica

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

18/25

(2005) subverts the classic road movie in its portrayal of gender and sexuality. The film is

a clear challenge to the American road movie as such, yet fits easily into the

characteristics of the 21st

century North American road movie. Transamerica conveys the

same desire for a society that respects difference, values its natural environment, and

encourages self-realization.

In the tradition of road movies developed in the 1990s, Transamerica places a

marginalized member of society in the drivers seat. Bree Osbourne (Felicity Huffman), a

trans woman living in southern California, is one week away from undergoing sexual

reassignment surgery when she gets a call from a young man in a New York city jail.

Seventeen-year-old Toby Wilkins (Kevin Zegers) is looking for his biological father,

Stanley (now Bree), to bail him out of jail. Brees therapist will not sign off on her legal

approval to undergo surgery until she resolves the relationship with her newly discovered

son, forcing her to fly to New York and meet him.

Without revealing her true relationship to him, Bree agrees to give Toby a ride to

Los Angeles. On their westward road trip, the pair pass through the southeastern United

States, a route not often represented in American road movies. As their lime green station

wagon drives alongside small horse farms and leafy trees near Tobys hometown in

Kentucky, Bree comments on the lovely scenery in this part of the country. Tucker

visually highlights this landscape far more than the classic road movie setting, desert,

through which they later pass from Dallas to Phoenix. However, it is auditory cues that

clearly convey a reverent attitude toward the natural environment.

Toby and Brees first real bonding moment occurs while camping by a lake. Toby

identifies the yodel of a loon, prompting Bree to appreciatively share its mystical

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

19/25

significance to some Native American tribes. In this scene, Tucker amplifies the

atmospheric sound of the woods: bird calls and buzzing insects replace the usual musical

soundtrack. This technique is repeated in several subsequent outdoor scenes, encouraging

the viewer to appreciate the natural environment in its purest incarnation, rather than

augmented with musical cues as in most road movies. Transamerica further hints at

natures value by pairing its absence with the presence of negative characters and

feelings. This is especially prominent at Brees parents home in Phoenix.

When Bree and Toby first arrive, unexpectedly, at the Chupak residence, Toby

falls asleep under a tree on their lawn. After learning that Toby is actually her grandson,

Brees mother rushes outside and tells him, Get up off that filthy ground! There could be

awful things down there. Despite their obviously manicured lawn, the grandmothers

attitude toward nature mirrors her negative attitude toward Brees gender identity. This

implicitly frames nature as a valued, positive force in direct opposition to the

grandmothers negative character and the hegemonic attitudes toward nature that she

holds.

It is here in Phoenix that Transamerica highlights the second desire for a

renegotiated national identity: one that upholds a profound respect for diversity. After

repeatedly correcting her parents when they miscall her Stanley, Brees mother

vociferously interrupts her fathers assurance that they love her: But we dont respect

you! This painful attitude established, it is clear that the concept of respect for difference

is integral to the film. Later, when aggressively confronted about how she might care for

her son, Bree reveals that her biggest priority for Toby is that he is respected.

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

20/25

While the most obvious vehicle for promoting this respect is Bree as a trans

woman, Transamerica also positively represents Native Americans throughout the film.

For example, Toby is convinced that his father is part Native American, and proudly

references this fact many times. In a visual representation of privileging ethnic identity

over national identity, at a souvenir shop in the South, Toby chooses to purchase a cap

with a native emblem over one featuring an American flag beside it on the rack.

Remembering the Western legacy of the classic road movie, in which the frontier myth

glorified the oppression of native peoples by white settlers, Transamericas treatment of

Native Americans is another revision of traditional Hollywood.

The prominence of Native American themes in Transamerica serves primarily to

demonstrate that respect for gender nonconforming people is, in fact, a North American

tradition. In many Native American and Canadian First Nation communities, two-spirit or

third gender people have traditionally served important roles in the community. Tucker

educates the audience on this history when Bree explains the two-spirit concept to Toby

and a hitchhiker, emphasizing that two-spirit people are revered for their transgender or

intersex nature rather than rejected for it. This respect for difference is further reinforced

in New Mexico, where Bree meets a man named Calvin who is part Zuni and part

Navajo. Calvin expresses attraction toward her, and Bree is noticeably more comfortable

around him. Through their interactions, Tucker elegantly depicts the positive effect of not

tolerance, but true respect, for difference.

Calvin is one stranger who helps Bree come to better know herself. This self-

realization facilitated by interactions with strangers is a concept uniquely and uniformly

expressed in North American road movies. In Transamerica, Toby, though biologically

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

21/25

related to Bree, is a stranger to her. Yet ultimately, her interactions with him prove more

transformative than her reassignment surgery. After Bree reveals that she is Tobys

biological father to him in Phoenix, Toby flees in confused anger. Bree makes it to Los

Angeles alone, and successfully undergoes her surgery. Her therapist is surprised by

Brees postoperative melancholia, reminding her that last week Bree had said this would

be the happiest day of her life. Bree replies, Last week was a long time ago. Utterly

changed by the unexpected week on the road with her son, Brees statement indicates that

the trips transformative power has eclipsed her physical transformation. She is overcome

with remorse for her failure to forge a relationship with her son, which she set out to

avoid at the beginning of the film.

While Bree is happy with her new body, it turns out to be only part of her

fulfillment. Transamerica ends with Toby visiting Bree several weeks later, for the first

time since their harsh goodbye in Phoenix. No longer strangers, Bree and Toby interact

with mutual respect for one another. At last fully realized, Bree is at home in her body

and with her son. This unlikely portrait of the American family emphasizes that Bree is as

much a citizen as anyone else. By telling her story in the road movie format, which has

for decades presented visions of the ideal American citizen, Tucker argues that Bree is

just that: thoroughly American, with all the rights that come with citizenship.

Transamerica is an ideal text with which to analyze contemporary American

national identity precisely because it already overturns classic road movie tropes. As a

film seeking to comment on the hegemonic masculinity of road movies and the American

culture they reflect, the themes that emerge in congruence with those found in other

recent North American road movies gain all the more legitimacy. Transamerica

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

22/25

expresses a desire for a 21st century American identity that respects diversity, values its

environment, and promotes self-realization through connectedness with others.

Conclusion: North American Values and the Road

The great quest in the 21st

century road movie is to belong. Ben, feeling lost after

his diagnosis, sets off across Canada to find comfort in a group identity. In the same

fatalistic wandering, Luisa spends her last days belonging to a coastal village in Mexico,

while Tenoch and Julio failed to complete their quest and splinter into their own lives. An

outsider in many ways, Bree is at last able to feel that she belongs in her own body, and

in fact, in her country. These Canadian, Mexican, and American adaptations of the road

movie all express the same desire for belonging.

The emergence of common themes in recent North American road films indicate

that there is a shared set of societal values in each nation. Robert Pastor advocates that

all three countries undertake together the task of designing a continental future and a

genuine partnership that goes beyond rhetoric to a clear definition of a community in

North America (Pastor, 2011: ii). This analysis of North American road movies has

revealed one approach to defining that community.

As North America moves toward integration, the road movie serves as an entry

point into a dialogue about what values Canadians, Mexicans, and Americans share. One

Week, Y tu mam tambin, and Transamerica all present the same overarching message

of a hoped-for society that respects diversity, values its environment, and encourages

self-realization for all its members. These traits provide hope for cohesive environmental

policy, constructive conversations about immigration, and fundamental understanding of

our co-continentals as individuals striving for fulfillment just like everyone else.

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

23/25

The road movie is certainly not the only place these values are presented in North

American society. But their emergence from a shared narrative structure reveals twinned

insights: first, that the road movie format is uniquely appealing to the North American

imagination, and second, that North American filmmakers employ that same story to

reach similar conclusions on what characterizes an ideal society. The road movie captures

citizens of three different nations who all seem to share an itch for mobility, for personal

discovery. The road trip narrative satisfies this urge for social mobility in ones own life

through physical mobility on the road, ultimately failing to address each nations barriers

to social mobility that generate the fantasy. The 21st century road movie accepts its role

as a bandage on a deep societal wound, on the grounds that it also has the freedom to

express a vision of a better society. This common purpose unites the North American

road movie as a uniquely continental genre.

North America is connected by highways, and, it turns out, by a set of shared

values. Through the same journey, One Week, Y tu mam tambin, and Transamerica

independently arrive at the same conclusion of what might comprise an improved

national identity. It takes unexpected passengers and unplanned detours, but in North

America, we come to know ourselves through the road.

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

24/25

Bibliography

Acevedo-Muoz, Ernesto R.

2004 Sex, Class, and Mexico in Alfonso Cuarns Y tu mam tambin. in Film &

History, Vol. 34, No. 1. ProQuest Central.

Cohan, Steven and Ina Rae Hark, eds.

1997 The Road Movie Book, Routledge, New York.

Cuarn, Alfonso

2001 Y tu mam tambin, [Motion Picture]

Gittings, Christopher E.

2002 Canadian National Cinema, Routledge, New York

Hopper, Dennis

1969 Easy Rider, [Motion Picture]

Laderman, David

2002 Driving Visions: exploring the road movie, University of Texas Press, Austin

McGowan, Michael

2008 One Week, [Motion Picture]

7/27/2019 95 RoadTrip

25/25

Pastor, Robert A.

2011 The North American Idea: A Vision of a Continental Future, Oxford

University Press, New York

Shebib, Don

1970 Goin Down the Road, [Motion Picture]

Spicer, Keith, Robert L. Earle and John D. Wirth, eds.

1995 Canada: Values in Search of Vision inIdentities in North America: The Search

for Community, Stanford University Press, Stanford

Slotkin, Richard

1992 Gunfighter Nation: The Myth of the Frontier in 20th Century America,

Atheneum, New York

Tucker, Duncan

2005 Transamerica. [Motion Picture]

Wilson, Alexander

1991 The Culture of Nature: North American Landscape from Disney to the Exxon

Valdez, Between the Lines, Toronto