Hell's Highway: The True Story of Highway Safety Films

Hell's Highway: True Story of Highway Safety Films (2003)

** (out of 4)

Pretty disappointing documentary taking a look at the Highway Safety Films of the 60s and 70s. I was really looking forward to this thing but nothing really worked out too well. The interviews were rather boring, which is what really killed this. The film picks up in the final fifteen-minutes when we hear debates on whether these films did any good or not. I personally found the actual videos to be nothing more than offensive, tasteless scare tactics. Footage included one film where cops flips over a car to discover a dead baby that has been smashed to death. There are countless other bloody clips where people's heads are stuck through windshields and so on.

HELL'S HIGHWAY is a documentary about those educational / safety films that flickered in many a darkened classroom of yesteryear. The best of these films were the "Driver's Ed." movies. Hyper-dramatic, preachy, and, in retrospect, extremely entertaining, these moralistic tales are very watchable today.

The concept of "Teenicide": the idea that teens are just an accident waiting to happen, is as hilarious today as it was serious way back when.

The switch from the early, choreographed films to those containing actual car accident footage is chronicled. The shocking images are discussed, as well as their impact and the reasoning behind them. The ghoulish nature of the films, the filmmakers, and those creepy narrators are also examined.

Though the movies themselves were / are exploitative and manipulative, this documentary is quite informative. It even explores the Highway Safety Foundation, its alleged connections to pornography, and a murder mystery involving one of its photographers!

In addition, there's an interesting segment featuring none other than Jimmy Hoffa!

Plus, the company's most controversial films about homosexual encounters and child molestation, the latter of which traumatized many an elementary school student!

An educational, entertaining investigation into these short films...

A great idea,but a rather shaky production.Great interviews with members of the Foundation,and video archivists.They missed the chance to possibly interview those who appeared in the films (as victims) and those who recreated scenes in their films (like Wheels of Tragedy).But overall,thank goodness this genre has been given a new voice.Kids today laugh at death and blood.Society has felt it better to shield kids from the reality of death and agony rather than shock them/damage them,with the truth.Death isn't pretty,but its reality.Many thousands die every year,and millions are injured....what better subject to showcase than the fact that car crashes kill and maim American lives.For those who feel that sacraficing even one soldier in Iraq or Afganistan is wrong,just stop and think....how many Americans die in just ONE day on our roads? And nothing our "mighty" SUVs,pickups,semis,muscle cars or exotic imports can prevent.People die in EVERY vehicle,in every state and in every town.And over time,in every street.Think about that next time you tool around town talking on the cell phone or adjusting your radio knob.Take the advice these films were meant to give...think,use your head,and fear for your life.You will be a much safer driver as a result.

The only reason to watch this is to see clips from the old safety films and there are lots of them. They try to make fake drama about how HSF ended and it's lame. At least it wasn't boring.

HH charts the course of the company "Highway Safety Films" and their quest to make America's roads safer at the same time as they turn a profit. This documentary highlights gore of the original movies as well as the fact that this gore did little more than emotionally scar millions of impressionable youth.

HH also explores some of the underbelly of the company including allegations that the company made pornos on the Highway Safety Film Tour Bus. Unfortunately, these tangents are more interesting than the original subject matter and these tangents are left undeveloped.