Learn about the lunacy of highway education films in this fascinating, if a bit listless, documentary from Kino Cult.
We all remember those drivers ed classes we took in our youth. Time spent watching old driving instruction videos, doing road sign exercise on the board, and a surprisingly small amount of actual road driving before the big test. I took mine at a driving school that sat above a Subway sandwich shop in Avon, Connecticut, where they somehow packed in 15-20 kids in a space that clearly used to be a dental office waiting room.
While I only remember a few of the actual lessons (such as my very New Jersey driving instructor telling me that using your horn was a “right”, and I shouldn’t be afraid to show my emotion with it), I distinctly remember the day the TV was rolled out, and we were warned that today was the day; we were about to see a “highway safety video”. We were warned that it would be graphic, but it would be important for us to understand the dangers of driving.
A few quiet, chide remarks about “not being a wuss” were spoken as the lights went down, but after seeing a teenager taken out of a twisted piece of metal in two pieces in the first 3 minutes, there wasn’t another sound as we all watched in shocked horror for the next 30 minutes. We all left a bit changed that day, even if it didn’t actually seem to change any of our actual future driving habits*.
Which is essentially the central argument of Hell’s Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films. Released in 2003, Hell’s Highway is a documentary both about the very specific industry, both in time and location, that sprouted up around these safety films, as well as the actual effects of said films. We track both the birth of the education film, how they started as industrial safety films in the silent era, before transitioning to military training films during WWII, and then moving into the public sector during the ‘50s and ‘60s, where their growing popularity warranted a more “exciting” approach.
Most important note for anyone looking to wade into Hell’s Highway; this is essentially a Mondo film, which is to say that it is essentially a clip show of some of the gnarlier crash footage you’d expect to see from one of these films. Sure, there are a few talking heads throughout, and a few “dramatic” scenes shown to give an idea of the plot of these things, but most of what Hell’s Highway is interested in is showing you a clip show of the goriest details.
It’s a lot to stomach, even for someone like me who generally enjoys Mondo films (I’ve watched The Killing Of America way too many times); You’ll see dozens of dead bodies, twisted and broken, many of them drenched in blood; You’ll hear the cries and moans of both the wounded and the quickly dying; And, in its cruelest moment, You’ll see a sequence, one that very much should’ve gotten some sort of additional warning, where a car is rolled off of a dead toddler. It’s a really rough watch, is what I’m saying.
I mention all the gore not only as a warning, but more in the way that that’s all Hell’s Highway has to offer. It is a very unfocused documentary, that kinda just bounces around a couple of different talking heads that essentially say the same thing over and over (either “I used to shoot a lot of accidents, and that’s pretty weird” or “I saw the films, they messed me up, but I still drive bad”). There isn’t really any thorough line, as the plot essentially stops moving forward after we are introduced to the first of the Highway safety films, at which point pretty much just turns into an hour long bloody slideshow.
There is a bit of an attempt to both build intrigue around the group of filmmakers who created these films, as well as make a statement about their actual effects on people. Both pretty much fall flat as the “controversy” around the filmmakers doesn’t seem to have any validity beyond “I heard someone say money went missing and someone else died because of it”, and the whole angle of “do scare tactics work?” doesn’t ever go beyond a few random talking heads repeating the same “it didn’t really stick with me” answer over and over. (Also; pairing both the “hidden camera gay sex hang-out footage” with all the clips from the safety film entitled “child molester” is fucking terrible optics, even by 2003 standards).
As a film, it’s pretty much a bust, as it kinda just floats from talking head to talking head, with just zero narrative thrust. As a pure artifact of a certain type of sicko “documentary”, it is a fascinating bit of both mid century Americana “educational ultra-violence” as well as a very specific snapshot of early aughts indie filmmaking.
Special Features:
If you’ve dug the educational gore thus far, the 2nd disc offers a cavalcade of viscera in the form of 3 different restored Highway Safety Films (Mechanized Death (1961), Wheels of Tragedy (1963), Highways of Agony (1969)), extended excerpts from other Highway Safety films, and a complete 2003 pre-restoration version of the film.
If you’re looking for an interesting look into what post War/post JFK American media looked like, specifically how the violence of both our past and future was festering in our education system, then this ain’t it. If you want to see a film historian speak giddily about how, if you slow down the frames, you can see the final breath of a 19 year old pulled from a truck accident, more power to you, buddy, I guess.
*Informal poll; apparently, after speaking with a few people, it actually wasn’t common for people to watch these films anymore, even in the mid 2000’s when I saw them? Is this true? Was my driving instructor just an absolute psychopath?
