Doug Pray was the director of the music documentaries Hype! (1996) and Scratch (2001), both of which I loved. When I found out he had a documentary about truckers at Silverdocs, I got a ticket without hesitation, even though I had no idea what to expect.
In remarks after the screening of Big Rig, Pray said that he set out to make a “kick-ass” trucker movie. It turned out to be a remarkably political film, due completely to the attitudes of the truck drivers he interviewed. It’s epic in scope, profiling 14 diverse truckers, and was shot by a three-person crew during four ten-week-long trips over the course of a year, traveling 21,000 miles through 45 states and hitting 100 truck stops.
The image of truck drivers has long been one of loners, the last cowboys in America. But the film makes clear from the very beginning that between regulations and skyrocketing gasoline prices, truckers are squeezed mercilessly. As the same time, they are very aware that almost every material good in our lives is transported by truck.
In my mind, this creates a tension, since these people feel very powerless while still knowing how vital they are. They talk repeatedly about a strike, while acknowledging there’s no chance of such a thing happening, since they’re not an organized force.
They’re an interesting group, made up of different ages, races and genders. Some are happy guys who love the life. Some struggle with the grind and miss their families. All seem driven to do it, unable to live another kind of life.
One of the subjects of the film, a trucker named Jesse, was there in person and answered questions from the audience. He was still upset, as are many other truckers, about a piece that Barbara Walters did on 20/20 back in the Eighties called “Killer Trucks,” in which she painted a world full of drug addiction and prostitution. He tried to get the audience to be more aware of the dangers that a truck driver faces on the road from what they call “four-wheelers” — in other words, cars. It’s difficult to prevent and accident when cars zip in front of a truck. Ironically, the next morning, the WaPo had a story about a convertible Volkswagen Cabriolet which “suddenly veered into the path of a tractor-trailer,” killing four college students.
Big Rig won the American Film Award at the festival, deservedly so. It’s very well shot, features a great score from Buck 65 (a mix of hip-hop and roots music) and incredible animation sequences from Tomorrow’s Brightest Minds.
Tags: Big Rig, Doug Pray, Silverdocs, trucks, truck drivers