239982 Images of Movement - the road in film and television (S) (WiSe 2012/2013)

Pete Perkins is searching for closure, while Jake and Elwood search for redemption. Doc and Carol McCoy are fleeing from gangsters, the A-Team flees the police , Thelma Dickinson and Louise Sawyer are fleeing from their repressive lives and Ben Hawkins is fleeing his destiny. Todd Stiles and Buz Murdock are searching for the soul of America, as do Billy and Wyatt. Meanwhile the Good, the Bad and the Ugly are all searching for treasure and the remnants of the colonial fleet are searching for the Promised Land.
Having the plot unfolding not at a particular place but in the transitory process of a voyage is one of the main settings found in western film and television. Whether it allows a show greater freedom in developing their “plot of the week”, serves as a vehicle to impress the development of characters on the viewers or simply makes them witnesses to the diversity of society and the zeitgeist of an era, the narrative of movement can be found over and over again in every medium.
Taking a look at films and series as diverse as Easy Rider, The Blues Brothers, Battlestar Galactica and Carnivàle, we will discuss how this setting is used in their respective medium, what kind of stories it supports and how it influences the dynamic of a plot.