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.

5.7

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.

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".

6.5

The American Hobo: History of the Railriding Worker

Jan 1, 2003

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

6.7

Emperor of the North

May 23, 1973

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

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.

5.6

C.H.U.D.

Aug 31, 1984

A rash of bizarre murders in New York City seems to point to a group of grotesquely deformed vagrants living in the sewers. A courageous policeman, a photojournalist and his girlfriend, and a nutty bum, who seems to know a lot about the creatures, band together to try and determine what the creatures are and how to stop them.

6.5

Shoot 'Em Up

Jul 26, 2007

A man named Mr. Smith delivers a woman's baby during a shootout, and is then called upon to protect the newborn from the army of gunmen.

6.3

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

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...

6.3

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

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.

6.9

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.

7.1

Beggars of Life

Sep 22, 1928

After killing her treacherous step-father, a girl tries to escape the country with a young vagabond. She dresses as a boy, they hop freight trains, quarrel with a group of hobos, and steal a car in their attempt to escape the police, and reach Canada.

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.

6.8

The Young and Prodigious T.S. Spivet

Oct 16, 2013

A 10-year-old child prodigy cartographer secretly leaves his family's ranch in Montana where he lives with his cowboy father and scientist mother and travels across the country on board a freight train to receive an award at the Smithsonian Institute.

0.0

The Two Hobos

Sep 23, 1983

Masood and Hamid live in a room in the house of Louahez, they owe the people of the neighborhood a lot of money. One day, a letter arrives from Australia saying that Massoud's uncle died and he inherited one million pounds. Now everyone is nice to Masood hoping to have part of the money.

7.0

Love on a Bet

Mar 6, 1936

An aspiring theater producer convinces his wealthy uncle to finance a play on the condition that he lives the play’s far-fetched plot: making a cross-country trip with no money.

10.0

Flare

Jun 16, 2023

As a solar flare is heading towards Earth, a family man named Arthur befriends a homeless man and faces a pivotal choice.