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.

This is a 90 minute documentary about the Highway Safety Institutes Driver's Ed shock films. Its a graphic trip down memory lane to a time and place that many of us never experienced and only heard about.Hell's Highway is the story of the company that produced educational films for schools and institutions from the late 1950's until the 1980's. The Highway Safety Institute was borne of the idea that if people saw the horrors of traffic accidents they would drive more carefully. The film makers went out and filmed the aftermath of terrible accidents where the broke bodies were removed from the wreck cars for years. The film they shot ended up in dozens of films that grossed out generations of school kids.This documentary is an interesting look at the people who went out and filmed the carnage. We get interviews with the film makers, police, and people who saw the films in addition to clips from the films themselves. Its a visceral experience that leaves you feeling a bit uneasy. Several clips are more shocking in the documentary than they probably are in the source films because you get the stories behind the footage which makes them more heartbreaking and gruesome.The film however suffers from over length. Running some 90 minutes the film begins to feel pointless about half way in, as the film makers seem intent of telling you everything about the company that made these films (including rumors of porn films). Its not bad, its simply that after a while the interest begins to wane as the film goes into all of the other films that the company made. While not fatal I did find that I was stopping the film to do other things simply because I was losing interest.If you are interested in seeing a rapidly disappearing slice of Americana I recommend you take the time and see this film. Its an informative (if gory) look into the past. Also if you saw any of these films as a teenager this is the perfect way of re-seeing the movies that probably haunted your nightmares for weeks afterward.(And if you're really interested get your hands on the DVD which comes with a second disc with four or five complete films and clips from probably two dozen more)

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.

I was shown one of these scare films in the mid-80s and believe they are enormously effective. This documentary is about a fascinating topic, but it's point of view promotes the idea that the films don't work. I could not disagree more. After seeing the real result of speeding, or going through a stop sign in one of these films in a high school driver's ed class I drove MUCH more carefully as a teenager. Those bloody corpses smashed into the windshield are so disgusting I believe I'm still the cautious driver I am today because of them. THE TACTIC WORKS. We live in an era when corporate media and the government believe the public is too queasy to see our war dead from Iraq. And those are just coffins! The more informed we are about the real consequences of our actions the better off we are.