Riding the Rails (1997)
• January 1st, 1997 • 1h 12min
Documentary
Overview
Riding the Rails offers a visionary perspective on the presumed romanticism of the road and cautionary legacy of the Great Depression. The filmmakers relay the experiences and painful recollections of these now-elderly survivors of the rails. Forced to travel more by economic necessity than the spirit of adventure, the film's subjects dispel romantic myths of a hobo existence and its corresponding veneer of freedom. Riding the Rails recounts the hoboes' trade secrets for survival and accounts of dank miseries, loneliness, imprisonment, death, and dispossession. Sixty years later, the filmmakers transport their subjects back to the tracks, where the surging impact of sound and movement resuscitates memories of a shattered adolescence and devastating rite of passage.
Make sure to check your pop-up blocker!!
Trailer
Similar Movies
The Money Masters
Released on: 1996-01-01
History, Documentary
A documentary that traces the origins of the political power structure that rules our nation and the...
The American Hobo: History of the Railriding Worker
Released on: 2003-01-01
Documentary
Documentary - Ernest Borgnine, star of the classic train movie Emperor of the North, hosts and narra...
Bugatti: A Thirst for Speed
Released on: 2018-03-11
Documentary, History, TV Movie
The story of the Bugattis of Milan and Molsheim, the eccentric family behind the brand: Carlo, the p...
THE WHOLE SHEBANG
Released on: 2019-09-15
Documentary, Animation
Black and white evokes nostalgia for The Great Depression. Things were so cheap, including lives. We...
Nanking
Released on: 2007-02-10
Documentary, Drama, History
The story of the rape of Nanking, one of the most tragic events in history. In 1937, the invading Ja...
Tommy Godwin: The Hardest Year
Released on: 2023-05-09
Documentary
In 1939, driven by a desire for fame and fortune English amateur Tommy Godwin cycled a world record ...
1939: Hollywood's Greatest Year
Released on: 2009-07-02
Documentary, TV Movie
This documentary focuses on 1939, considered to be Hollywood's greatest year, with film clips and in...
La ruta de don Quijote
Released on: 1934-01-01
Documentary
A poetic journey through the paths and places of old Castile that were traveled and visited by the m...
The Living
Released on: 2009-01-01
Documentary
Tells the story of the tragic events in Ukraine in 1932-33, the genocidal Great Famine or the Holodo...
Blood Money: Inside the Nazi Economy
Released on: 2021-02-02
History, War, Documentary, TV Movie
How did Nazi Germany, from limited natural resources, mass unemployment, little money and a damaged ...
Hitler's Evil Science
Released on: 2019-05-25
Documentary, History, TV Movie
In 1935, German scientists dug for bones; in 1943, they murdered to get them. How the German scienti...
World's Greatest Logging Site
Released on: 1938-02-01
Documentary
A documentary short on logging during winter season.
Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story
Released on: 2018-06-06
Documentary
The life and career of the hailed Hollywood movie star and underappreciated genius inventor, Hedy La...
The United States in the 20th Century 1932-1940
Released on: 1967-01-01
Documentary
Presents the history of the U S from the inauguration of Franklin D Roosevelt to the eve of World Wa...
Les dames du 9e
Released on: 1998-09-14
Documentary
Ladies of good families and social standing come to have their afternoon tea with their daughters wh...
Hitler: A Career
Released on: 1977-07-08
Documentary, History
A keen chronicle of the unlikely rise to power of Adolf Hitler (1889-1945) and a dissection of the T...
I Betrayed Hitler
Released on: 2016-03-27
History, Documentary, War, TV Movie
During the worst days of World War II, the British government asks the mathematician Alan Turing to ...
From Caligari to Hitler
Released on: 2015-05-28
Documentary, History
Film journalist and critic Rüdiger Suchsland examines German cinema from 1919, when the Republic of ...