User Reviews

It's a little surprising that there are no comments for this film, but perhaps it has gone unseen until, like me, it's stumbled upon on late night (Swedish) TV. That's a shame, as I would have certainly paid the rental or theatre price to see it. This documentary follows a different path than most. Eschewing the straightforward documentation of films like 'Capturing the Friedmans' and the flip-side over-the-top sensationalism of Michael Moore, Danish filmmaker Jacob Thuesen has here rather composed a cinematic poem about his subject, the LA freeway system. We are shown the freeway through the eyes of its patrons (via anonymous but spectacular in-traffic candid footage and equally anonymous but considerably more unnerving gas station interviews), its creators (chiefly a heavyweight at Caltrans, a California highway contractor) and its patrols (well, one CHP cop, anyway). There are never any long, drawn-out explanations of the freeway's history or construction, very few diagrams, and as few loving shots of backed up traffic from above. Still, we are given a sense of what it is to 'be' the freeway: bearer of the weight of a society in love with its cars, but at war with the problems they create. Through conversations with Caltrans-contracted road crew (populated by misdemeanor miscreants) and one particularly contemptible Hummer salesman (a pillow-faced pig pushing his planet-polluters as fun toys for grown-ups), we see vastly disparate ends of this automotive spectrum. Watching this movie is oddly compelling. Though there is very little choppy editing to convey the constant rush of traffic (or, indeed, the violent ends often met there), and almost no narrative thread to follow, an effective use of a mesmeric score draws the viewer in to the creators' awestruck perception of the American freeway. As an American, this is a compelling film examining one of our strangest mores. For outsiders, it must just look like a funeral procession for the fattest country on the planet. But for everyone, this is a recommended film.