Walter Salles Central Station

Walter Salles’s 1998 drama “Central Station” was a movie that was hard to fit into a specific category. While it weighed heavy on the dramatic side, there were elements of comedy and thriller that made the film very different from any normal film about two people. The film drifted between various sub-genres, but the movie felt more like a mix between a road movie, an odd buddy film, and a complex relationship study. If we focus mostly on the setting on the film, the film feels a lot like your standard road movie. We have a rambunctious couple traveling across their country to meet their goals. We meet a variety of new people and the characters experience places they have only heard of before. It’s nothing new for a road movie to show the audience things that are new to both the crowd and the characters, but Salles does an interesting job of making each reaction different. …show more content…
Neither Josue nor Isadora has ever seen anything like this, and they both get to take part in something very new to them. While most road movies would have the characters learn something from this experience, Walter Salles decided to have each character deal with it differently. Isadora faints in the midst of all the praying and Josue comes to make sure she is okay. He isn’t affected the same way she was to the event, which is odd for a genre where usually the pair learn together. The movie itself has a running theme of difference, and the trip brings out the differences between them right to the forefront. Comparing different film tropes in the same genres, Tompkins says “Although a crucifix in a horror film is an icon of Christianity and dominant ideology, the film itself may either critique or endorse that ideology. In the western, the town always represents civil-isation, but every film will have a different view of it” (Film Genres,