With the help of online video join me on a journey exploring the top travel movies. These are the movies that influenced me, as a filmmaker, to travel.
World Safari – Round the World Adventure
This one started it all for me, I remember watching this at school with my first crush, she hated it. For me, it set a idea in motion.
Wild Orchid – Brazil
Captured the latent sensuality of South America. So many memorable scenes, Mickey on the Harley. Carrie catching the couple having sex in the stairwell. Carnival, the feeling that anything could happen.
Before Sunrise – the holiday romance
Let’s be honest, we all crave it, that holiday romance that sweeps us off our feet!
Easy Rider – The Epic Road Trip
Just a classic. In a previous life I dated a women with two boys. This is the only movie I made my eldest step son sit down and watch with me. For weeks he couldn’t believe the rednecks killed Captain America!
Wake in Fright – Australia
Ok, so Australia has changed a little since this film was made, but you spend enough time in those male dominated outback towns, where the measure of your manhood is determined by how much you can drink. You will realise how quickly things can turn nasty.
Apocalypse now – Asia
Probably my fave film, a classic. A white man cut loose, going up river in search of his own heart of darkness.
Grizzly Man – The Wilderness
An amazing documentary by the Master Herzog. Timothy Treadwell, a crazy diamond whose passion comsumed him ( pardon the pun)
Up in the Air
Great movie about the dangers of constant flux
Body of lies – Middle East
Doesn’t paint a great picture of American involvement in the Middle East, but boy, Golshifteh Farahani, you gave me a new appreciation of the beauty of Persian women!
Betty Blue – France
Maybe my first crush on an actress. It wasn’t until years later, watching this film as an adult, that I realise Betty was stark raving mad!
Vicky Cristina Barcelona – Spain
Woody Allen leaves New York and puts a Spanish spin on the holiday romance. First time I appreciated Penelope Cruz as an actress, she played the hot blooded siren so well!
Blood Diamond – Africa
My good African friend Florence, who experienced the war in Seirra Leone, can’t watch this movie, so there must be some truth in it!
Angel Heart – the deep south of America
Made me wanna go down south and see that mix of cultures.
The Mission – South America
Such a great film, good versus evil, the coloniser versus the indigenous. And what a soundtrack!
The Beach
Finding Paradise and the darkness of the human heart
The Wicker Man – United Kingdom
Maybe an unusual choice, but made me think about what lies beneath. Lead to me take a trip to the remote Orkney Islands.
