A 10-year-old child prodigy cartographer secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother and travels across the country on board a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.
Hobos encounter a sadistic railway conductor that will not let anyone "ride the rails" for free.
Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.
A biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class.
A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.
At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.
The story of four young people, ShinAe Ahn who is transgender, and three others, pan-sexual, gay, and lesbian respectively, who are fed up with the oppressive and authoritarian conservative government and its influence on the country. ShinAe Ahn decides to run for the office of prime minister, with the help of her friends and supporters. She meets a lot of caring people, and also a lot of haters. The current Prime Minister is not at all tolerant of the LGBTQIA+ community and is trying his hardest to stop any party that does not follow the orders of the conservative government from running without any logical reason to do so. That creates a political divide within the country, as politicians will attack anyone who is and/or who acts differently, or who stands up for people/themselves who they personally don't like. This story however is being told after the fact, a few years after the election, when ShinAe won as prime minister.
A piece of writing with real danger and which focuses on a mysterious mafia of violent Viet Nam Vets living on freight trains who are akin to Hell's Angels without the Harley. The net is closing since they are being pursued by relentless railroad agents. They may be a repugnant set of people and the film will disturb and provoke the audience that sees it but it follows what John Steppling (also writer of '52 Pickup' directed by John Frankenheimer w/ Roy Sheider and Ann Margaret and 'Animal Factory' directed by Steve Buscemi w/ Willem Dafoe. Mickey Rourke. Ed Furlong) believes - 'Art is not your friend'.
Documentary - Ernest Borgnine, star of the classic train movie Emperor of the North, hosts and narrates this remarkable examination of the uniquely American Hobo.
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.
Irish director John T Davis stashes a camera in his bedroll, catches out, and rides the rails from Minneapolis to Seattle with Beargrease, a part-time hobo and full time philosopher, who narrates their way through the incredible scenery of the Northwest and gives us his views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. The pair meet up several other men living life on the margins: in particular a scene in which Duffy - an ex-corporate executive now living under a bridge in Spokane & collecting cans - describes how he got there is riveting.
A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with the fright-yard bulls and other drifters, find romance in the persons of two waitresses at the camp restaurant. American-slang rules the dialogue to the point non-USA viewers need a slang-glossary to follow the dialogue.
An irresponsible preppie, Preston West, is presumed to have murdered his parents for a sizable inheritance, so he flees to find the real killer, Phantom 13, a crazed freight train hobo. Riding speeding boxcars, Preston encounters hostile train yards, vicious railroad cops, hidden hobo jungles, mysterious Lacy, the notorious Baron and his colorful Hobo Gang. In a surprise ending, Preston finally confronts Phantom 13.
The Great American Hobo produced in 1980 features the music of Supertramp's "Take the Long Way Home" documenting the men and women who rode freight trains. Shot in 14 states and culminates with the Hobo Convention in Britt Iowa. Premiered the Independent Eye series for PBS in 1980.
