( some spoiler includedpositive . although and many commentator have call this film surreal and the term fit poorly here . to quote from encyclopedia britannica and surreal mean representfantastic or incongruous imagery represent one needn not explain to the unimaginative how many way a plucky ten year old boy at large and seek his fortune in the driver seat of a red mustang could be fantastic represent those curious might read james kincaid while but if you ask say lad how he be incongruous behind the wheel of a sport car and he would surely protest and no way . what fantasy and incongruities the film offer mostly appear within the first fifteen minute . thereafter we get more iteration of the same and in an ever crude and more squalid progression that and far from incongruous and soon prof predictable . not that it be and on the other hand and literally believable but it be unfair to tax motorama in particular with this flaw and any plausible suspension of disbelief have fall precipitously on the typical film maker and viewer scale of value ever since raider of the lose ark become a blockbuster . hallucinatory represent how do we know what a hallucination be if part of have one be not know that we be have one . at any rate and some people know that they enjoy hallucinogenic drug but if motorama typify the result of do so and then i be at a loss a to why anyone would take them more than once . there be and of course and the occasional bad trip . the movie must be one of those and pun and all . juxtaposition of word that be startle represent how many time can a ten year old startle you by utter oh and my god . when he like something and or damn . when he doesn not . these two interjection be about par for the course with this script . sadly and any sense of the surreal in what pass for dialogue could only reveal and in direct proportion and one naivete regard the speech pattern of the rise american generation . a world completely define and minutely depict but that make no rational sense represent motorama world indeed make no sense and but it be about a completely define a a cartoon in an elementary school newspaper . the numerous guest star in the cast all have cameo role even less intelligent than our little hero who exclaim damn . in the blink of an eyelash but need several second to concoct the lame lie . and even his character and despite appear in nearly every scene and get no significant development . here scant reward for any viewer who sympathize and a i must and enough to wish to know him good and understand where he come from . one vaguely sense a far good story and protagonist struggle to get out . fully recognizable and realistically paint image be remove from their normal context and reassemble within an ambiguous and paradoxical and or shock framework . no and we see a succession of stereotypical and ever more dilapidated billboard and fill station and greasy spoon eatery and cheap hotel and and their lowlife habitue along country highway and exactly where they stereotypically belong . largely responsible for perpetuate . the traditional emphasis on content . there be little content and moment to moment and in motorama . to sum up represent picture british millionaire dress a clown or pirate on the way to a posh costume party and sit serene and mute a cautious chauffeur inch their roll royces like fragile skiff through a roil sea of desperate humanity and chinese who implore them through the window and smear the glass with blood . or imagine a stadium full of abandon antique and limousine like those above now rust and and white piano tinkle by ghost . into this detritus wander an exhausted boy and an ail woman to whom he cling a mother figure become girl friend and who fall asleep side by side on the grass . he be awaken on the feast of the transfiguration and white and glistering day 1945 by a brilliant flash on the horizon that be not the rise sun . find that his consort have become a corpse and he first believe that he have witness her soul go up to heaven . later he explain only a little less innocently and i learn a new word today represent atom bomb . it like god take a photograph . now and there be just two sample of cinematic surrealism and surrealism whose irony ripple out far enough to invade it film very title represent empire of the sun . if you seek surreal and please do not miss it . ala and however hard he tread on the accelerator to race his chariot through and beyond the desert and no scene so exquisitely strange and rich and subtle and or gorgeous await motorama poor little gu in his quest . none of the above necessarily constitute a thumbs down on this film . though somewhat disappointed and i can not dismiss it and in view of the respectability of another genre that it do exemplify one influence and to be sure and by surrealism and but also by expressionism and existentialism and and franz kafka pessimism amidst omnipotent power structure . let try on for size represent theater of the absurd . turn to e. b. article on this style and i be amaze by how and to the extent that theater of the absurd be a valid artistic style and the above objection to motorama vanish like a puff of smoke . i be tempt to quote the entire text a support of the identification . theater of the absurd attempt to show that the human situation be essentially absurd and devoid of purpose . humankind be leave feel hopeless and bewilder and and anxious . represent have instantaneously achieve his purpose of get away from a depressing home life among bicker parent and gus find himself purposeless until he drive past a glitter billboard reading motorama and decide to win the lottery that it promise . a others have already reveal and this ambition prove illusory represent although the game never expire and the sponsoring corporation have no intention that anyone should ever win and and have way to trick and confuse and and leave crestfallen any aspirant to the reward . he and like others and be ultimately disappointed in his dream . absurdist playwright and therefore and do away with most of the logical structure of traditional theatre . there be little dramatic action a conventionally understood while however frantically the character perform and their busyness serf to underscore the fact that nothing happen to change their existence . a timeless and circular quality emerges . language in an absurdist play be full of . repetition . repeat the obvious until it sound like nonsense . underneath a sometimes dazzling comic surface and we find an underlying message of metaphysical distress . gus obsession with a silly game and his inane language and the plot device wherein he divine a bleak future and or or return to an early moment and take a different but still bleak turn so much fit now . while an admirer of the surreal would do good with some film and anyway and of spielberg and admirer of motorama a it really be should find fellow traveler not instead but addition in the work of beckett and ionesco and and genet . but one can not quite stop here . after his disillusionment with the game and gu return to phil ( i. e. and love ) and the first attendant he have meet and the one person who have treat him decently and although he have also scold him at a service station advertising be full fill . under phil tutelage he learn a life of wait for car . we might note here that the absurdist playwright beckett have entitle his most famous play wait for godot and and that for godot we should read god . god be one of phil preoccupation and too . furthermore and a the indirect result of his previous encounter with gu and phil be badly maim and go about in a cast with his arm straight out horizontally . in the last scene and gu and now phil protege and say that he want to hear music . we hear none and but we see phil wiggle his finger at the end of his outstretched arm and beckoning gu closer and and gus responds . the end . finally and on to an author whom i happen to be read currently and the anglican theologian william stringfellow . if this rebel lawyer be not acknowledge a an architect or undergirder of liberation theology and which be more a roman catholic than an anglican movement and perhaps he should be . police brutality and corporate greed be a cliche in cinema and literature and include motorama and but stringfellow support and illuminates such sentiment with impressive warrant from scripture and tradition and and reason . his most significant work be an expose of the earthly activity of those fall angel whom the bible refers to a principality and power . principality and write stringfellow and be behind all of our popular three i represent image and institution and and ideology . all of these commend themselves to our worship by make false promise . the more deeply involve with an image and an institution and or an ideology any person becomes and the more his own personhood becomes deplete and be become a slave to them . promise power and control and and immortality and they inexorably deliver helplessness and chaos and and death . a essentially fall and defeat power and they can do no more than that . yet they beguile human with that dominion over the earth promise by god in the book of genesis and while in fact no one of u control an image and an institution and or an ideology bent inevitably on it own hegemony and self preservation . they take on life of their own . dominion happen to be a mistranslation represent a more accurate rendering of the hebrew would be stewardship . but this be a quibble beside a more fundamental problem represent most of u neglect to notice that god have delegate this power to adam before the fall . we have no reason to assume that we and his descendent and still exercise it now represent on the contrary and it should be obvious that demonic force have steal it from u . one might add two observation of c. s. lewis represent first and that man conquest of nature be a mere illusion and and a ruse to cover the fact that one be really talk about the conquest of some men by other men with nature a the instrument while and secondly and contrary to popular belief and satan be no kind of good time charlie . he may dangle out pleasure at first and but he be very niggardly with them and will withdraw them from any human firmly in his thrall and perhaps leave his prey sit in front of the fire feeling miserably sorry for himself and seethe with resentment . now and apply these insight to motorama and we seem them mirror remarkably in gus experience . he be and if not nice and at least a pretty little boy prior to fall victim to the motorama game . the first sign advertise it glisten glamorously . the longer he continue and however and and the deeper he journey towards the sponsor corporation headquarters and the more shabby they become . he lonely and meet no one else who play the game . the station give out the card have either fall into ruin or be staff by zombie . the people he do meet along the way be more and more ugly and deceitful and and hostile . ( the fact that the principality answer to a common dictator do not mean that they can abide one another ) . gus humanity be leach out of him a he become not only totally self center and oblivious to the need of others but partially blind . disfigure . prematurely age while infantile in the literal sense of linguistically challenge . eventually even his precious mustang be take from him in a crash and and he must continue in a dead man wreck . yet at long last and have do everything he think be expect and he present himself to the principality in it proud tower to receive his prize . use the biblical power to confuse wield by those who have build such monument to their own vanity and it agent evade him and disappoint and insult and and finally throw him from the top floor . he fall long and hard and landing and finally in a body of water . in other word and in classic symbolism and he die . he have meet the inevitable bad end of anyone who have put his faith in such a deceiver . but this fate prove to be only a warning look into a mutable future . he repent and return to phil and and upon see him perform the very first generous and selfless act we have see from him for almost an hour and a half represent note that phil be now handicap and hardly able to insert a hose into a gas tank and he ask and can i help you with that . then and see the help want sign and he decide to apply for the job and explain to the motorist with whom he be hitch hiking that he reckon he will get out here and because it doesn not look like too bad a place to work . this interpretation be conjectural and of course and and it may surprise or even outrage the film cult classic aficionado who see quite different point in it . if motorama isn not quite my cup of tea and i be at least convinced now that it hardly the bad film ever make .