Synopsis
A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.
1975 Directed by Bette Gordon, James Benning
A conceptual bicentennial film dealing with spatial and temporal relationships between two travelers, their car, and the geographic, political, and social changes from NY to Los Angeles.
Undertaken by Bette Gordon and James Benning in the spring of 1975, the structuralist treasure The United States of America is precisely what it professes to be—a half-hour travelogue of the continental U.S. shot through the windshield of a car containing its two directors driving from New York City to Los Angeles. Though entirely devoid of dialogue the excursion is not a silent one, as assorted radio stations oscillate between music and news reports (personally I got more out of the broadcast regarding the imminent dissolution of South Vietnam than Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water"). The overall effect of the film is of an entrancing time capsule, as though Chantal Akerman had guest-directed the drive to Cleveland from Jim Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise.
This is possibly the closest an experimental short film can get to being an absolute blockbuster, I could almost feel the enthusiasm for it in the audience. James Benning and Bette Gordon go on a New-York-to-LA road trip with a camera mounted to the back of their car a la Gun Crazy, they share a comfortably, intimately wordless trip across the country with the radio as a soundtrack. That's it but it's totally engrossing, especially if you love road trips and the radio. If your town does a Bette Gordon short film program go to it even if you don't know if you feel like it so you can watch this!
The United States of America, 1975. A road trip from New York to Los Angeles. The open road leading us to plains, plateaus, a collage of tail lights under the night sky. America, stripped of any vulgarity and presented in its purest form by a camera mounted to the back of James Benning's and Bette Gordon's car, with the car's radio presenting an impromptu soundtrack for the ages. Elton John, Deep Purple, Johnny Cash, John Lennon, Joe Cocker, Frank Sinatra, John Denver and more provide a voice to this film, blending with the nocturnal cities which look just as bright at night as they do in the day, and the open, seemingly never-ending highway which appears to tell them that they are the only ones driving on it. The purest, most stripped-down road movie ever. A beautiful time capsule of the ethos of the '70s.
obviously the greatest road trip mubi of all-time; could've watched for a thousand hours
Almost impossible to acknowledge everything that Gordon and Benning are exploring here because it feels like they are tackling it all. Such a beautifully dense and layered object, a prism refracting notions of time, motion, geography, politics and pop culture (and maybe even love...). Will watch again and let my thoughts unspool because this is one of those things that fires all the cylinders in my brain.
Bringing it to 2022, it's The Plains for people with ADHD, and even better because they get Macca's.
American landscapes, cityscapes, and stretches of highway as seen through a stationary camera sitting upright in the middle backseat of a car, as Bette Gordon and James Benning take turns at the wheel on a drive across the country in 1975. No conversation between them, at least that we can hear; just the sounds of music and news on the radio, and the steady hum of the car itself. Gorgeous dissolves mark the transition from one shot to the next, and the colors striking the lens can be stunning, especially the blazing oranges and yellows of eye-level sunlight at dusk. A road movie of the purest kind.
This short by Bette Gordon and James Benning is a time capsule of my own coming of age. I was fresh outta college and teaching English at a rural high school and had just completed an Atlanta to Boston road trip with my girlfriend the year before.
Shot with a Bolex 16mm camera bolted in behind the drivers of a VW Type 3 squareback, the film documents a two-person road trip from New York to The Pacific Ocean. Undertaken in late March (?) of 1975, it features zero dialogue (there was no synched sound) but the mic picks up ambient noise and the ever-present AM radio broadcasts. Thus, we see a muted late-winter montage of the U.S. from the perspective…
damn, america was enjoying minnie ripperton in 1975 ! great structuralist lens of urban vs rural america and the political and cultural popular landscape. also quite sympathetic to, or at least moved by, its beauty and chaos. many blocks in the road, blurry captures, beams of light, idle passing, sudden turns. apt title
This is America as seen by co-directors Bette Gordon and James Benning, traveling from coast to coast while the radio provides a remarkable record of pop culture and history from the US's bicentennial year. Expansive vistas are narrowed down to what we can see through the windshield as advertisements, political remarks, reports on Bobby Fischer, Patty Hearst and Saigon and songs by Minnie Riperton and Frank Sinatra fill the soundtrack during the cross-country drive. For me, as someone who has been the backseat passenger on many lengthy car trips, this was a little too real, though in a pretty great way.
IIRC, my favorite album to listen to on my CD player during nighttime highway car rides when I was a teenager circa the mid-2000s: No Angel by Dido. There's just something extra special about hearing those songs while gliding through the darkness.
And 100 miles is a long drive inside a car
200 miles is a long drive inside a car
300 miles is a long drive inside a car
400 miles is a long drive inside a car
500 miles is a real long drive in a car
600 miles is a long drive inside a car
700 miles is a long drive inside a car
800 miles is a long drive inside a car
900 miles is a long, long, long, long ways in a car
And 1000 miles is a long drive inside a car
1100 miles is too far inside a car
America, in concert...
At first you think, are they really gonna do this? Then you're hypnotized into the actuality, curious what's around the bend. A major feat for a world without video. Cars were so much bigger in 1975. The country is clearly less than 30 minutes wide.
I have never really wanted to drive. When I was in high school, we went go karting and I got hit in the back so hard it gave me whiplash which has made me terrified of it ever since. Watching this has almost made me want to get a licence. Driving in this is so leisurely, so mesmerising. It's not about the destinations, but the journey itself.
We watch for 24 minutes from the backseat via the same static shot as a man and a woman drive across America. Through deserts and cities, past suburban streets, dead-end diners and glorious natural wonders. The windshield acts like a cinema screen, constantly changing, awe-inspiring. And the radio provides a soundtrack, capturing the…