Directed by Robert Kramer
255 minutes
In English (no subtitles)

This is probably the greatest portrait of America to ever be put on film, and it's a real shame that it's rarely screened... which is probably largely because of its four hour running time—but it's precisely because of that length and scope that it is able to reach its epic proportions. At the time when this film was made director Robert Kramer had escaped America and was living in exile in France, but in the 1960s he was considered to be one of America's most radical and committed filmmakers.

In this film, which is a sort of docudrama, director Robert Kramer and his expatriate friend called Doc decide to take a trip back to America and travel along Route One highway. Kramer and Doc want to map out the mentality of modern America, and the changes it was going through in the 80s.

Doc hasn't been in America for ten years, and he finds that "Everything's different and nothing has changed". As Kramer and Doc travel they come across paranoia, poverty and racism, giving rise to a desperate, introspective mood. They find a culture of largely uneducated people who swing towards religious fanaticism or conservative politics as their salvation. Doc says at one point "The Civil War is still going on. I'm pacing around like I'm still in jail." But there are odd glimmers of light also... for example, the community health projects in urban areas that battle against all odds. Along the way they come across members of a bizarre witch coven, an anti-abortion picket line in New Hampshire, Transsexuals, fire and brimstone church preachers, presidential candidates, Vietnam war vets, Christian fundamentalists, Haitian immigrants and an old Native American Indian woman who looks back over her life.

Doc becomes the focal point of much of the free-flowing narration, conducting interviews with the people that are encountered, meeting up with old friends, finding out that others have died, and not finding much to reassure him about this fading country.  At one point Doc says that he wants to "do something useful in all this shit". The journey is a doomed search for identity and reconciliation... but it's also a film that transforms as it goes on, changing its direction and intentions. As one of the film crew said about the project "Route One does have a narrative and characters... but we were striving for poetry, not journalism or entertainment."

This flick touches on many topics that are still occurring today—from presidential elections to what happened to the Native Americans in North Dakota... but this unique film transverses these topics in an intimate way, digging deep into the American psyche. It actually explains a lot of what we see erupting these days in that country. A brooding, irresistible epic Route One USA is rarely seen... so this is a great chance to catch this monumental flick.