An easy and accessible way to do this is to join Indiana Jones or James Bond on one or more of their many adventures. Dr Jones's films are streaming on Netflix while all of the pre-Daniel Craig Bond films seem to now be available on several streaming outlets, including Amazon Prime and Hulu.
But here I want to highlight some perhaps lesser known or even forgotten films that take us on adventures outside of America. What follows is a list of 10 English language movies that travel to destinations outside the confines of the continental US.
And a quick note about the links - they are listed as text because I've been having an issue with the links showing up as links on this site. If I get that resolved, then I will revert to clickable links.
Ronin (1998)
https://www.amazon.com/Ronin-Robert-Niro/dp/B000RLFJQ2/ref=sr_1_2
John Frankenheimer’s late 90s thriller is often considered Robert DeNiro’s last great performance, at least until last year’s The Irishman came out. But the film also has a stellar cast around Bob, including Jonathan Pryce, Jean Reno, Stellan Skarsgard , Natasha McElhone and Sean Bean.
Ronin opens in a bistro in Montmartre (France), where Deidre (McElhone) is meeting with Sam (DeNiro), Vincent (Reno) and Larry (Skip Sudduth) about joining a team of mercenaries (Ronin is the Japanese word for masterless Samurai). Deidre is putting together a team to steal a briefcase from an armed convoy. Of course the men join the crew, otherwise this would be a very different movie.
So predictably the heist occurs. But then that triggers a series of double crosses and more double crosses that make up the bulk of the film's run time. The contents of the mysterious briefcase and who exactly is after the contents (CIA? Russian Mafia? Sinn Fein? Amazonians from Mars?) is unknown, yet lots of people keep dying for it.
The complicated plot involves some of the most scenic sections of Paris and Nice. And Ronin also contains a car chase sequence that for many rivals those in Bullitt and The French Connection. But DeNiro’s Sam develops feelings for McElhonne’s Deidre. Ultimately this is a “who can you really trust?” sort of caper film. Director Frankenheimer had an overall good career, though with his share of ups and downs. By the 80s and 90s it was more down than up for Frankenheimer. Ronin was a good late career film for him, and it’s still a good thriller for you. If you like that sort of thing.
To Catch A Thief (1955)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07RGXJRQ1
Often overshadowed these days by Rear Window, Vertigo and North By Northwest, To Catch A Thief is a film solidly right in the midst of Alfred Hitchock’s arguably strongest run. Cary Grant plays American ex-pat John Robie, a retired jewel thief who lives in the French Riviera. A series of new heists naturally brings suspicions upon John. So he makes an arrangement with a Lloyds of London insurance exec to find the real burglar and help clear his own name.
Grace Kelly stars as the daughter of a rich widow,vacationing with her mother in a posh hotel there in the Riveria. Half of the fun of this picture lies in the repartee of Grant and Kelly amongst some of the stunning vistas of the French Riveria. The scenery is remarkable and the color photography, much of it seemingly taken at the magic hour, makes the Riveria feel like an enchanting, glamorous dream. The cafes, the casinos, the old streets and the coastline all have that peculiar glow, as does the chemistry between Grant and Kelly. This was Kelly’s last film with Hitchcock, and one of the last 3 she made before she went on to become the Princess of Monaco.
A great Hitchcock film to discover for the first time or to visit again.
Roman Holiday (1953)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B084NXRLWN
The film that catapulted Audrey Hepburn to fame, Roman Holiday, as the title may indicate, brings us to Rome. On holiday even. Sort of. Hepburn plays Ann, the young crown princess of an unnamed European country who is far less free than one might expect a wealthy young woman of royalty might be. All she wants to do is explore Rome as a “normal” person, but her tightly scheduled routine won’t allow for it. Until, of course, she manages to sneak out of the embassy. But not before the delayed effect of a sedative given to her kicks in. As a result she passes out on a bench only to be found by Joe.
Gregory Peck is Joe, the ex-pat tabloid newspaper man who runs across Ann and realizes who she is. Without revealing his identity as a reporter, Joe offers to take Ann around Rome on a whirlwind adventure. Of course Joe has already promised his editors a blockbuster exclusive interview with the Princess, negotiated a high price for delivering the interview and made a bet with a friend that we he would actually deliver the interview.
This being a Hollywood picture from the golden age of the studio era, you can imagine where this goes. The chemistry between Peck and Hepburn, while maybe not quite as electric as that between Grant and Kelly, is still solid. And though it’s in black and white, we still get to see parts of Rome, like the Colosseum and the famous Trevi Fountain almost in Fellini fashion (minus Anita Ekburg and all the surreal, dreamlike images and weirdness.) Roman Holiday is a standard but also charming classic Hollywood rom-com.
Topkapi (1964)
https://www.amazon.com/Topkapi-Melina-Mercouri/dp/B086RH9XMQ
The Topkapi Museum in Istanbul has many priceless antiquities from throughout Turkish history. Topkapi the film is about an attempted heist at this museum. Masterminded by Elizabeth Lipp (played by gravely voiced Greek actress Melina Mercouri as a cheery, sexually insatiable thief), the heist is to include an international cast of characters that include recognizable actors like the swiss Maximillian Schell (The Black Hole, Deep Impact), Robert Morley and Peter Ustinov (the latter two recognizable by face if not by name).
As they assemble their team (which includes a silent acrobat - perhaps this influenced Steven Soderbergh’s Ocean’s series?) we see aspects of 1960s Istanbul that I believe most Americans, those who have never traveled to Turkey anyway, have not seen. I know I hadn't.
The bulk of the film is the various members of the team, who of course do not all like or trust each other, practicing the plan created by Lipp and her co-partner in crime (and bed, oooh la la) the very swiss soundingly named Walter Harper (Schell). Harper is a slick criminal and is indeed from Switzerland. Morley’s character, the mechnical genius Cedric Page, brings all sorts of gadgets he’s invented that are very reminiscent of the gadgets from the 60s British spy show The Avengers.
But it’s the heist itself that will be most memorable for many views. The climax of the heist includes scenes of Turkish Oil Wrestling in stadium that looks european football sized and full. If you’ve never seen Turkish Oil Wrestling before, as I hadn’t before seeing this film (or since, come to think of it), well it sort of needs to be seen to be believed.
Directed by actual American ex-pat Jules Dassin, a victim of the Hollywood Blacklisting brought about by the 50s communist scares, Topkapi is a great under the radar 60s caper film, whose influence on later caper films can be easily seen.
Fitzcarraldo (1982)
https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B07CHX6DT3/
German director Werner Herzog has perhaps become most famous in the US for his distinctive German accent and peculiar persona. For example, Werner was once said that if famous documentarian Errol Morris ever finished his film Gates Of Heaven then he, Herzog, would eat his own shoe. Morris did finish it, and so Werner Herzog really did eat his own shoe. And another famous documentarian, Les Blank, made a movie of it. You can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNNGzMK5e4c
One of Herzog’s most beautiful and yet insane films (and this is a man who once made a film where his entire cast was hypnotized for their performances on camera) is Fitzcarraldo. The titular title character, Fitzcarraldo (played by Klaus Kinski), is a man who, in early 20th century Peru, strives to become a rubber baron so that he will be wealthy enough to build an opera house in Peru so he can then get the great singer Enrico Caruso to come to South America. Fitzcarraldo really loved opera.
And so he’s found a remaining plot of land he can claim that seems to contain a sizeable amount of rubber trees. In the early 1900s this was nearly as good as an oil claim in Oklahoma or Texas in the US. The problem is that the only access to the land is via the Ucayali River, and that river has impassable rapids. But after investigating the maps, Fitzcarraldo notices that there is another river that goes pretty close to the Ucayali, and it does so just after those rapids. The only problem with this alternate route river is what separates it from the UCayali is a mountain. Naturally Fitzcarraldo decides he’s going to pull a steamboat over a mountain.
And this is where the true insanity of this film comes in as Herzog, never one for special effects, really had his cast and crew, aided by a tribe of Peruvian indians, attempt to pull a steamboat over a mountain. The story of the creation of this film, and all the obstacles they faced, is possibly crazier than the film itself. And the insane obstacles that occured through the making of Fitzcarraldo would be crazy even if Werner Herzog, the man who once ate his own shoe, hadn’t tried to pull a steamboat over a mountain. It's all chronicled in a documentary on the making of this film, titled Burden of Dreams.
But perhaps the most amazing thing about all this is that Fitzcarraldo itself is actually a beautiful film. It’s a mediation on the human spirit and drive to do the impossible and the insane lengths determination can send people. How far do you keep going in the face of failure to gain that success? And the film’s breathtaking jungle and river scenery is matched by Kinski, known as an intense egoist prone to onset freakouts and usually playing villains, playing his most sedate and sympathetic role.
Shirley Valentine (1989)
https://www.hulu.com/movie/shirley-valentine-b3a16e54-132b-453f-adb8-287b68809306
Shirley Valentine is a British film about, suitably, a British housewife in her 40s (the Shirley Valentine of the title, played by Pauline Collins) who is pretty dissatisfied with her life in nearly every way. Her more outgoing friend Jane wins a trip for two to Greece and invites Shirley along. And for once Shirley opts for personal adventure and potential growth rather than forgoing such a thing so as to appear more like a “proper” housewife and not risk “embarrassing” her family.
Of course the minute the two friends arrive in Greece Jane abandons Shirley for a romance she began on the flight. This leaves Shirley to explore Greece on her own. Soon our heroine meets the suave local Costas (Tom Conti) and for anyone who’s ever seen a film about a middle aged person in a rut, with a marriage that has worn a rut in the rut, you can imagine where it goes from there.
A light and breezy film, we get to enjoy the coastal paradise of Greece through Shirley, who is trying new things and finding adventure for the first time in a long time. I like to think that the fact this is a British Rom-Com is one of the reasons the film, though it has it’s corny moments, does not quite follow the predictable beats of more recent American rom-coms. But then these days I find it hard to imagine an American rom-com about a middle aged woman who remotely looks like a real middle aged woman, and not a Charlize Theron or Angelina Jolie. Both of whom are very fine actors, but do not at all resemble us unwashed middle aged masses. Anyhow, go see the film.
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (1994)
https://www.amazon.com/Adventures-Priscilla-Queen-Desert/dp/B07GTB9SVK/ref=sr_1_1
Remade in the US a year later as Too Wong Foo Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert is road movie. As it is about 3 drag queens navigating the Australian Outback on a large bus and was released in 1994, it is a rather unusual road movie. But with drag queens you know it’s going to be very dramatic and very funny.
Tick Belrose (Hugo Weaving) is invited by his estranged wife to perform his drag act at a casino in a remote part of Australia, So Tick - or Mitzi, his, sorry I mean her, professional name - persuades middle aged trans-gendered Bernadette (Terence Stamp) and obnoxious young drag queen Felicia Goodfellows (Guy Pierce) to join him.
This movie came out at a time when the hit “Supermodel” by a drag queen named RuPaul was a novelty, but would surely never become a part of mainstream American culture. It also came out at a time where many straight men, like myself, would be very self conscious seeing, or even wanting to see, a movie about anything to do with queer culture. Something about foolishly believing that it might signal to other straight dudes "Hey! Maybe I’m gay." And as such, my girlfriend had to persuade me to rent this. But I was glad we did, as this is a very funny movie.
25 years later that same RuPaul’s Drag Race is such a ratings bonanza for Logo and VH1 that other drag queens besides RuPaul are appearing everywhere and getting their own TV shows. And I have enjoyed several seasons of both Drag Race and Project Runway and no longer think such foolish thoughts or care what other straight dudes may think. Especially the ones that are really doing a number on our country at the moment. Did I say that out loud?
Anyhow, given that this cast includes three actors known for playing very masculine roles - Pierce (Memento, LA Confidential), Weaving (The Matrix, V for Vendetta, Lord of the Rings) and Stamp (The Limey, General Zod from the Christopher Reeves’s Superman movies for Zod’s sake!), what was already a very entertaining fish out of water film is an even more interesting time capsule. But hurry up to view this one as it leaves Amazon Prime on April 24
The Last Days of Chez Nous (1992)
https://www.netflix.com/title/80025702
Gillian Armstrong’s film takes place in Australia and follows the disintegration of an Australian family. Beth’s (Lisa Harrow) younger sister Vicki (Kerry Fox) comes to live with Beth and her family, which includes her French husband JP (the late, great Bruno Ganz), Beth’s daughter Anne (Miranda Otto) and eventually Tim, a border they take in when they need more income. Of course when Beth goes on a roadtrip through the outback with her father in an attempt to connect, JP and Vicki start sleeping with each other. This would seem to be the catalyst for the film’s title.
Like Beth’s family situation, The Last Days of Chez Nous is a little bit messy. But then real life is a little bit messy. For most of us anyway. This is one of those films where there will be many recognizable little moments for folks set in an environment that,at times, is almost completely alien for many. And to me that is the beauty of being able to see films from around the world - there is often much that is familiar and relatable - people are people after all, no matter where you go. They love their families and friends. They want to have good lives. And then there are those bits that are unfamiliar - maybe at times even bizarre to those from different cultures. The Last Days of Chez Nous doesn’t have too much of the latter, at least culturally speaking, for at least those who who largely grew up in the US. But those little differences that are there help make this a little bit more off beat than the standard family drama.
The Darjeeling Limited (2007)
https://www.amazon.com/Darjeeling-Limited-Owen-Wilson/dp/B07NLJPZ5Q/ref=sr_1_3
Wes Anderson is one of those idiosyncratic directors that people tend to either dig or emphatically not dig. Clearly I’m in the dig category, otherwise what the hell am I doing recommending a film of his? The Darjeeling Limited is another type of road movie, this one about 3 brothers who, a year after the passing of their father, take a train trip together across India to try to reconnect. As they are from a wealthy family, they ride in style. Which gives Anderson an excuse to go nuts with his exacting set design on the train (and it is a beautiful train). And the three brothers, Anderson regulars Jason Schwartzman, Owen Wilson and Adrien Brody, all have their quirks and get on each other’s nerves.
The brothers get on the nerves of other train passengers and even the train steward’s nerves as well, eventually getting kicked off. Anjelica Houston shows up as the brother’s mother and it is apparent that the brothers get on her nerves too. But along the way, amid some gorgeous photography and that impeccable Wes Anderson set design, they learn a bit about the world and themselves. And while they may get, at times, on your nerves, dear viewer, it is hopefully in that amusing manner where you’re just glad that your family doesn’t do that stuff to get on your nerves as well.
Romancing the Stone (1984)
https://www.hulu.com/movie/romancing-the-stone-52a07192-62ba-4405-b99f-2924d7c60caf
Sometimes there are movies that contain so many of the film tropes that are common to a decade, or an era, in film that they end up being a defining film of the era. This 1984 adventure/romance by Director Roger Zemekis and starring Kathleen Turner, Michael Douglas and Danny DeVito, is one of those films. This shouldn’t be much of a surprise when you consider that one year later Zemeckis brought us Back To The Future. But just about everything from Romancing the Stone works, even when it becomes extra corny. In fact maybe it's because , at times, it becomes so extra corny.
For those who do not remember, or have never seen it, Romancing the Stone is about successful romance/adventure author Joan Wilder (Kathleen Turner) who is, ironically, lonely and a virtual shut in in her NYC apartment. After a fake out opening about a bad ass heroine in the old west, we realize we are just seeing the visualization of the end of Wilder’s latest novel. We soon learn she is not nearly as adventurous as her book's heroine.
But a letter from Joan’s recently murdered brother in law, Eduardo, contains only a mysterious map. A break in to Joan’s apt, a murder and a call from Joan’s widowed sister, Elaine, sends Joan on a plane to the coastal town of Cartagena, Colombia. This is where Elaine is being held for a ransom by a pair of antiques smugglers, Ira and Ralph (played by Danny DeVito). The ransom is for the map Joan received from Eduardo - you see it is a treasure map.
While trying to reach Cartagena, circumstances cause Joan to be stranded in the jungle, where she meets Jack, an American ex-pat played by Michael Douglas. Soon everyone is after Joan for her map, the antiques smugglers, a military general, maybe even Jack too. But maybe Joan likes Jack. And maybe Jack likes Joan. But maybe Jack is just romancing the stone. Or maybe he really is romancing Joan, too.
Everything about this movie screams the 80s called and wants it's film back: its gags; its handling of 80s gender politics; how it perceives Americans in a land where English is not the primary language. It should be noted that it further established Danny DeVito’s solidly comic heel persona that was begun with his role in the sitcom Taxi. This is mostly a fun-hearted comedy from a different era with some different, and not always the best, ways of handling things. But many it's jokes weren't quite cliches when it came out. Romancing the Stone is meant to be a film light enough to be all wrapped up as sweet and tidy as the 80s saxophone instrumental that ends the film.
