Close Up

9 July 2017: Route One/USA

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Route One/USA
Robert Kramer
1989 | Colour | 255 min | Digital

"After living abroad for a decade, Kramer embarked on the extended road trip which gave way to Route One USA, an engrossing portrait of Eighties America and one of Kramer’s finest works. Kramer introduces the fictional protagonist "Doc" to tie together the unscripted footage shot along the eponymous highway stretching from the Canadian border to the Florida Keys. Played by Newsreel associate Paul McIsaac, who first created this character for Kramer’s 1987 Doc’s Kingdom, Doc becomes a sort of Odysseus figure, returning wearily home from the wars of radical politics and expatriation, puzzled by the state of the nation he barely recognizes." – Harvard Film Archive


Part of our On the Road season