The Great American Hobo

Jul 4, 1980

0h 30m

★ 0.0

Overview

The Great American Hobo produced in 1980 features the music of Supertramp's "Take the Long Way Home" documenting the men and women who rode freight trains. Shot in 14 states and culminates with the Hobo Convention in Britt Iowa. Premiered the Independent Eye series for PBS in 1980.

Genres

Documentary

Production Companies

Super Chief Films

PBS

The Great American Hobo Trailers

Cast

No Cast found.

Just as the original hobos of the early 20th century were scorned the mainstream of society, so too are today's train riders. FREELOAD is a dive into a beggar's existence. It is a ride through America's backyard. It is a musical endeavor that feels like a drama. It is a sociological examination of the ignored.

6.0

Riding the Rails

Jan 1, 1997

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.

7.0

The American Hobo: History of the Railriding Worker

Jan 1, 2003

Ernest Borgnine, star of the classic train movie Emperor of the North, hosts and narrates this remarkable examination of the uniquely American Hobo.

0.0

Úton lenni boldogság

Feb 13, 2026

No overview available.

6.8

Hobo

Mar 28, 1992

John T. Davis stashes a camera in his bedroll, catches out, and rides the rails from Minneapolis to Seattle with Beargrease - a part-time hobo and full time philosopher, who narrates their way through the incredible scenery of the Northwest and gives us his views on life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Along the way, the pair meet with several other men living life on the margins.

7.0

Deschutes Driftwood

Jan 1, 1916

A "scenic picture from a hobo's point of view".

5.9

Down and Out in Beverly Hills

Jan 31, 1986

Beverly Hills couple Barbara and Dave Whiteman find their lives altered by the arrival of a vagrant who tries to drown himself in their swimming pool.

No Image

0.0

Hoboshit

May 5, 2019

When a hobo living in a can unexpectedly loses his best and only friend Mr. Flim Flam. He is set on a journey to find that which was lost.

3.4

Dwellers

Oct 12, 2021

While shooting a documentary on the suspicious disappearances within the homeless community, a filmmaker and his crew go missing while uncovering a terrifying and vicious secret below the city's surface.

7.4

Sullivan's Travels

Nov 30, 1941

Successful movie director John L. Sullivan, convinced he won't be able to film his ambitious masterpiece until he has suffered, dons a hobo disguise and sets off on a journey, aiming to "know trouble" first-hand. When all he finds is a train ride back to Hollywood and a beautiful blonde companion, he redoubles his efforts, managing to land himself in more trouble than he bargained for when he loses his memory and ends up a prisoner on a chain gang.

6.8

Wild Boys of the Road

Oct 7, 1933

At the height of the Great Depression, Tommy's mother has been out of work for months when Eddie's father loses his job. Eager not to burden their parents, the two high school sophomores decide to hop the freight trains and look for work.

6.8

Emperor of the North

May 23, 1973

Hobos encounter a sadistic railway conductor that will not let anyone "ride the rails" for free.

5.0

Oh, Yeah!

Oct 19, 1929

A couple of roving vagabonds hitch a freight to the railroad town of Linda, and between bouts with the freight-yard bulls and other drifters, find romance in the persons of two waitresses at the camp restaurant. Meanwhile, two crooks are at-large, and the boys fall under suspicion.

5.0

You Can't Win

Feb 17, 2026

The true-crime story of legendary outlaw Jack Black, whose 1926 memoir became an unlikely bestseller upon its release and later inspired generations of counter-cultural writing.

10.0

Love In The Time Of Pandemic

Aug 13, 2022

Boy Scout Leader suffering from social isolation during a pandemic lock-down navigates the rocky path to true love.

7.0

The Great McGinty

Aug 1, 1940

Told in flashback, Depression-era bum Dan McGinty is recruited by the city's political machine to help with vote fraud. His great aptitude for this brings rapid promotion from "the boss," who finally decides he'd be ideal as a new, nominally "reform" mayor; but this candidacy requires marriage. His in-name-only marriage to honest Catherine proves the beginning of the end for dishonest Dan...

6.2

Blues in the Night

Nov 15, 1941

A struggling band find themselves attached to a fugitive and drawn into a series of old feuds and love affairs, as they try to stay together and find musical success.

6.9

Bound for Glory

Dec 5, 1976

A biography of Woody Guthrie, one of America's greatest folk singers. He left his dust-devastated Texas home in the 1930s to find work, discovering the suffering and strength of America's working class.

6.3

Ironweed

Dec 18, 1987

An alcoholic drifter spends Halloween in his hometown of Albany, New York after returning there for the first time in decades.

5.9

Hobo with a Shotgun

May 6, 2011

A vigilante homeless man pulls into a new city and finds himself trapped in urban chaos, a city where crime rules and where the city's crime boss reigns. Seeing an urban landscape filled with armed robbers, corrupt cops, abused prostitutes and even a pedophile Santa, the Hobo goes about bringing justice to the city the best way he knows how - with a 20-gauge shotgun. Mayhem ensues when he tries to make things better for the future generation. Street justice will indeed prevail.