Movies can be a fun, relaxing way for professional truckers to spend their down time. Based on reviews from critics and general audiences, these are some weather-themed films that drivers may want to check out.
The oldest and perhaps best-known film on this list, “The Wizard of Oz” is the one movie that hardly needs an introduction. The story of a young girl whisked away by a tornado to a magical land is regarded as one of the greatest films ever made.
This American musical fantasy film is the most commercially successful adaptation of L. Frank Baum’s 1900 children’s novel “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Directed primarily by Victor Fleming (who left the production to take over the troubled “Gone with the Wind,”) the film stars Judy Garland as Dorothy Gale, alongside Ray Bolger, Jack Haley, Bert Lahr and Margaret Hamilton.
Characterized by its use of Technicolor, fantasy storytelling, musical score and memorable characters, the film has become an American pop culture icon. It was nominated for six Academy Awards, winning for Best Original Song (“Over the Rainbow”) and Best Original Score by Herbert Stothart. While the film was considered a critical success upon its release in August 1939, it failed to make a profit for MGM until the 1949 re-release. It initially earned about $3 million on a $2.8 million budget, not including promotional costs. This made the film MGM’s most expensive production at that time.
Based on a Stephen King novel, “The Shining” is one of the greatest horror movies ever made. Stanley Kubrick adapted the book for the silver screen. While King allegedly hates the movie because of liberties taken with the story, it’s a masterful work of horror, according to many critics and film buffs.
The story takes place during a typical snowstorm in Colorado. Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson), a recovering alcoholic, moves his family into the haunted Overlook Hotel to care for it during the winter. His psychic son sees horrific forebodings from the past and future. Sadly, Torrance’s drinking urges return, and the ghosts of the hotel drive him insane as the snow cuts them off from the rest of the world. “The Shining” also stars Shelley Duvall, Scatman Crothers and Danny Lloyd.
Morgan Freeman stars with Randy Quaid, Christian Slater and Minnie Driver in this action thriller natural disaster film. The plot centers on a $3 million heist and betrayal amid a natural disaster in a small Indiana town. The townspeople are forced to evacuate when torrential rains produce rising flood waters, as the nephew of an armored-truck driver tries to prevent the heist being carried out by a local rival gang.
The film received polarized reviews and has a 30% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The site’s consensus states: “‘Hard Rain’ is an implausible heist movie soaked in disaster movie trappings.” But some people, including some truckers, may enjoy it since It could be considered one of those movies that are so bad they’re good.
This is an American found footage disaster film directed by Steven Quale and written by John Swetnam. Found footage is a film subgenre in which all or a substantial part of the movie is presented as if it were discovered film or video recordings.
“Into the Storm” stars British actor Richard Armitage and Illinois native Sarah Wayne Callies. It’s a fast-paced film that documents a single-day onslaught of tornadoes in a small Oklahoma town. Enormous hailstones fall from the sky, buildings get flooded and cars are lifted off the ground by powerful winds. Most people seek shelter, while others run toward the danger, testing how far a storm chaser will go for that once-in-a-lifetime shot. For truckers who like large-scale, stomach-wrenching special effects, this flick is right up their alley.
Click here for more FreightWaves articles by Nick Austin.
Truck drivers’ favorite weather movies
Truck drivers’ favorite weather movies: Part 2
Worthy weather movies for truckers: Part 3
Worthy weather movies for truckers: Part 4
