Heartworn Highways

Plot

Reception

Szalapski is an attentive and scrupulous cinematographer; he loves his subjects, and the imagery is so warm and finely detailed that I had a hard time believing I was seeing a blow-up from 16-mm. But in this film he isn't yet a directornot fully, anyway ... It's fairly clear that during the (underfinanced) shooting he caught whatever he could; he couldn't plan a structure, and he probably wasn't looking for anything as vulgar as a hook or an angle. Which is too bad, because although there is very little in the film that isn't friendly or funny or really soul-stirring, it has no unifying energy. Watching it is like being carted off to a good party by people who told you where they were taking you so casually that the names of the people who were going to be there didn't sink in.

The camera periodically (and somewhat unpredictably) drops in on a tavern where the regulars play pool and grouse about what country music is coming to. A woman is seen singing here - a homely elderly woman with long teased hair, a too-tight shimmering jumpsuit and a voice not even Smith or Wesson could admire. The movie presents her almost matter-of-factly, though, or at least it offers no discernible attitude toward her. Here, as in many places, the directorial haziness becomes a problem. But for those interested in the particular performers to whom the film is devoted, 'Heartworn Highways' at least offers ambience, if not much more.[https://www.nytimes.com/1981/05/14/movies/country-musicians-ride-heartworn-highway.html New York Times, May 14, 1981, Section C, Page 28 of the National edition with the headline: COUNTRY MUSICIANS RIDE 'HEARTWORN HIGHWAY', by Janet Maslin]

Yet in many ways, Heartworn Highways refuses that historicizing assessment, even resists it. The film would certainly not have become the canonical documentary it has without the subsequent success of its subjects, but their names are never the emphasis here. While the songwriters Szalapski follows are exceptional, there is the sense that he could have just as effectively been following any number of other young artists or communities. The documentary pushes into the moment, which if not timeless, is at least removed from time. The lack of context as the camera rolls is the point.[https://www.austinchronicle.com/events/film/2021-02-05/heartworn-highways/ Heartworn Highways, 1976, NR, 92 min. Directed by James Szalapski. REVIEWED By Doug Freeman, Fri., Feb. 5, 2021, online.]

Music

References