Riding the Rails(1997)

Riding the Rails Synopsis

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.

Riding the Rails (1997) is a documentary film directed by Lexy Lovell, released on January 1, 1997 with a runtime of 1h 12m. It stars Richard Thomas. Viewers rate it 6.2 out of 10 across 12 ratings.