Review: The Road To Patagonia
Five reviewers sit down to watch a film. One likes surfing, two like animals and the natural world, another is partial to a love story, and the last just wants to be entertained. All enjoy The Road To Patagonia.
Made by Matty Hannon, The Road To Patagonia is a film that spreads itself around. The catchline is ‘a love story with a hoofbeat’ but that description captures only a part of the story. It’s a brave movie in many ways: not just that Matty set off on a 50,000km motorcycle trip solo, but also that, when producing the movie, he was prepared to weave many threads into one tale. I’ve got no idea what genre it falls into.
So what does all that tell you? One, that Matty’s a curious fella, the world remains wondrous to him, its people, places, and cultures are all worthy of further enquiry, and two, he has faith that his audience feels the same way.
The film opens with flashbacks, the audience learning how a five year stint in the Mentawai - the surfer reviewers’ favourite part - gave way to a Melbourne office job and a diagnosis of clinical depression. Throwing off the bowlines, he bought a ticket to Alaska and launched into an adventure, destination known, it’s there in the title, but everything else was left to feelings and happenstance. Make it up as you go.
“The idea of a west-facing coastline of that proportion is salivating,” wrote Matty for an essay that appeared on Swellnet in 2015. At the time, he was perhaps halfway through his trip, and it was still very much a surf trip. If he harboured more expansive thoughts he didn’t share them then. Perhaps he was writing for the audience.
As the journey continues, Matty passes through other people’s lives, surfers, First Nation-folk, filming while listening, and from this side of the screen it never seems intrusive or inauthentic. Campsites are found. Ideas snowball. Big picture digressions are voiced: the role of animism in Indigenous cultures, wilderness in the modern world, the effects of colonisation.
“My Irish ancestors lost a lot through colonisation, but when they arrived in chains on the First Fleet to Australia, we soon took on the role of colonisers ourselves. So what does that make me?”
A gentle inquisitor, Matty is more charitable than, say, Christopher McCandless, the protagonist of Into The Wild. The two share similar impulses, to question perspectives and travel unbound, yet where McCandless only realised on his deathbed that “happiness is only real when shared,” Matty was more open to shared experience and communion. Tears welled up in the eyes of the romantic reviewer.
As the adventure continues south into Chile the story becomes less Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and more Don Quixote. Horses over machines, paths over highways, but still the lonely coastal campsites framed by nameless, empty lefts. The early musings about animism come to life as the “weird herd of animals”, four horses and two people, “trek together physically and emotionally” in the shadow of the southern Andes.
Answers are found on a straight section of highway outside of Ushuaia. Not the ones Matty was searching for, but insights of another kind. Hard won and profound.
An amalgam of many ‘on the road’ odysseys, The Road To Patagonia manages to feel entirely fresh; a travel adventure for the modern age, one that defies category but also makes you want to sail from safe harbour and see another way of life. Take a couple of boards, ask a lot of questions, and then be open to the answers.
Maybe learn how to saddle a horse too.
// STU NETTLE
Comments
thanks Stu.
Sounds right up my alley and I'm looking forward to seeing the film tomorrow night.
coincidence, just earlier I was checking out the film company's website (they happened to produce a work-related video I saw this morning), and see they have some great little stories being told. Here's a snippet from a cool surfing one
https://thunderboxfilms.com/home/work/
and I see one dedicated to helping save Martha, from more of those awful fish farms (belongs on another thread). Great work Thunderbox
On tonight in Byron, sold out.
Good for him.
giddyup cant wait
amazing words @stu, keep us posted on how you liked the film east-coasters!
Had the pleasure of working with Matty on Surfrider's recent film on seismic testing - 'Southern Blast'.
A gifted storyteller and a top class, caring human being.
Can't wait to catch up with him on his Tassie leg of his national tour..
Great podcast with Matty and Jed Smith on Ain't That Swell. Gives some great insight for anyone planning on seeing the film.
sounds like there are still nuggets of perfection and solitude and connection for the intrepid
Sounds like a great watch- would love to see it.
That big peak in the background- Mt. McKinley, Alaska?
Has Heather with him so doesn't fit the timeline. My guess is somewhere in northern Peru crossing the Andes.
No idea of the mountain's name though.
Deffo not McKinley (Denali).
Denali comes off the plain as a huge massif.
It's like a huge Uluru.
the one at the end? Looks like the Torres del paine
Gotcha- cheers.
Pretty spectacular peak nontheless.
Lost me at 'colonisation'. Sorry.
U are lost IB
and you just lost anyone not obnoxiously ignorant. not sorry!
“My Irish ancestors lost a lot through colonisation, but when they arrived in chains on the First Fleet to Australia, we soon took on the role of colonisers ourselves. So what does that make me?”
We?
here ya go, bud:
we
/wiː/
pronoun
1.
used by a speaker to refer to himself or herself and one or more other people considered together.
"shall we have a drink?"
2.
used in formal contexts for or by a royal person, or by a writer or editor, to refer to himself or herself.
"in this section we discuss the reasons for this decision"
If you brought it south or mid coast SA I am sure you could fill a session
+1
(even at the Odeon Star in Semaphore, have the Numbskulls play the Workers Club after.
special-interest films go well at the Odeon Star, Fred Negro's was packed)
Sounds amazing and I’d certainly go and watch it if I could… unfortunately there doesn’t seem to be any screenings in SA?!
Excellent film!
Saw it last night in Coffs , fantastic movie and at the end of the movie during question time a First nations fella tells Matty that the movie represented all First nations people and how moved he was .
Beautiful story and a movie that had it all. Well done Matty and Heather.
Saw it in Geelong last night. Surprised to see that most of the audience were in the 50 to 70 range at both sittings ( lm 72) ..... but it is a boutique cinema. Found it refreshing and great story telling, with a real message for young people to embrace the fear, and do it anyway. Loved its environmental focus and its expose of the conseuences for the planet from the continuing destruction of indigenous peoples culture and land . 10/10