Different drifters: disability and illness in contemporary U.S. road films

Abstract

El objetivo principal de este artículo es analizar históricamente la representación de la enfermedad en las road movies norteamericanas, para examinar cómo la presencia de cuerpos diferentes rompe las expectativas genéricas y conlleva una revitalización del cine de carretera. Tras explorar los motivos del aumento de la representación de personas enfermas en las road movies, este artículo analiza la contribución de la presencia de viajeros enfermos al género de carretera en un corpus representativo del periodo 1990-2010: Una Historia Verdadera, A la Vuelta de la Esquina, Vivir hasta el Fin, Sólo ellas... los chicos, a un lado, Mi Idaho Privado, Homer & Eddie y Rain Man. Se analiza la visibilidad creciente, aunque no siempre positiva en este género, de estas minorías escasamente representadas, y se evidencia cómo la enfermedad aboca a los protagonistas de road movies contemporáneas a su marginación, a echarse a la carretera. Estas road movies ofrecen una identificación del espectador potencialmente mayor y más positiva y una representación social más democrática, a la vez que suponen una clara revitalización del género. the representation of illness in the US American road movie exploring how the presence of different, diseased bodies may shatter generic expectations and subsequently result in the genre’s revitalization. After exploring the factors accounting for the increasing representation of sick people in the contemporary road movie, a sample of representative road films (The Straight Story, Around the Bend, The Living End, Boys on the Side, My Own Private Idaho, Homer & Eddie and Rain Man) is analysed to understand the contribution of ill drifters during the 1990-2010 period. This contribution mainly focuses upon the increasing, though not always positive, visibility of this underrepresented minority in this genre and evidences how illness and impairment may throw social outcasts on a drifting journey. Since the 1990s the road genre is fighting against the discrimination of contemporary US society against ill people on the big screen. In doing so, it offers a potentially wider and more positive viewer identification and a more democratic social representation and, at the same time, shows a significant revitalization as a genre.

The main aim of this article is to trace historically the representation of illness in the US American road movie exploring how the presence of different, diseased bodies may shatter generic expectations and subsequently result in the genre’s revitalization. After exploring the factors accounting for the increasing representation of sick people in the contemporary road movie, a sample of representative road films (The Straight Story, Around the Bend, The Living End, Boys on the Side, My Own Private Idaho, Homer & Eddie and Rain Man) is analysed to understand the contribution of ill drifters during the 1990-2010 period. This contribution mainly focuses upon the increasing, though not always positive, visibility of this underrepresented minority in this genre and evidences how illness and impairment may throw social outcasts on a drifting journey. Since the 1990s the road genre is fighting against the discrimination of contemporary US society against ill people on the big screen. In doing so, it offers a potentially wider and more positive viewer identification and a more democratic social representation and, at the same time, shows a significant revitalization as a genre.