By Renay Walker

This text is an excerpt from a review of an Australian film, Beneath Clouds. Blood on the Tracks relates to the concept of a journey by analysing the journey described in the movie, Beneath Clouds, and by also analysing the road genre. That is, the genre where a road is used to symbolise a journey, a physical journey and a journey through life which results in an inner maturity or development.

Blood on the Tracks is a film review intended to inform teachers of the media and other interested people about the road genre and relates this genre to the movie, Beneath Clouds. It is structured in three paragraphs, the first is a discussion of the road metaphor - a metaphor which has been popular in literature and films. As Blood on the Tracks describes, "The road metaphor is significant in many ways. It cuts across the divide between nature and culture...It suggests the possiblity of movement from one place to another..."The symbol of a road as a journey through life is very effective. Life, like a road, is full of twists and bends, of cross roads and bridges; each decision you make will affect your future destination. The second paragraph discusses the history of the road metaphor, giving specific examples of texts that include or relate to the metaphor of life being a road. Here they describe the road as "the narrative of personal identity as both pathway and way making movement." The final paragraph is a short review of the film Beneath Clouds. This movie is recognised as relating to the road metaphor, the last paragraph. With a brief synopsis of the story we are given an insight into the characters and their lives.

Blood on the Tracks is both a review of the Australian movie, Beneath Clouds, and an analysis of the road genre that is becoming prominently used in films and literature as a metaphor for life. This excerpt of Blood on the Tracks relates well to journeys by determining how the road genre relates to and symbolises the concept of a journey, by providing examples of texts that relate to journeys and by finally relating one example, Beneath Clouds, to the concept of a journey.