Let me tell you, dear friends, about the wonder of End of the Road. It’s not a movie I’d heard of before, but one that showed up on the Criterion Channel as part of its Terry Southern collection in May. I love Southern’s writing — I actually was reading his prose before I even knew he was a screenwriter, never mind that he’d written Dr. Strangelove or Barbarella, both movies I was familiar with and a fan of — and, by this point in my life, the concept of discovering a “new” work of his was a particularly exciting one. (This was also my response to finally reading Blue Movie a couple years back; it’s wonderful, and I wish someone would make that into a movie.)
Anyway, End of the Road was hyped up in one review I read before watching as a more somber version of The Graduate (it’s from roughly the same time; End of the Road was made in 1970, three years after The Graduate), but as I watched, the more I realized the better comparison is: it’s the American O, Lucky Man! This is ideal for me, because O, Lucky Man! is one of my favorite movies: a surreal, cynical attempt to explain What Life Is Like, and address the cruelty and kindness inherent in human nature that also happens to be funny, wise, and filled with some familiar faces and great songs. If anything, End of the Road is even more cynical and arguably more surreal — it is a Terry Southern movie, after all — but it’s O, Lucky Man‘s spiritual sibling in all the right ways… and a movie that stuck with me long after waching. Highly recommended.
Oh, I watched other things as well, last month, Here’s the list.
