Catching Out

This is a pleasant, affectionate look at a group of adventurous people who call themselves "hobos" or "tramps" and ride the rails as a way of life. Of course these drifters romanticize themselves, but they are charming nonetheless. The movie is a little short on background, I felt. I wanted to know more about what brought them to riding the rails, but I loved meeting Switch, Baby Girl, Lee, and all the rest. You learn a lot about these folks from their advice to newcomers to the railyards: Be afraid of the "bulls" (railroad police) and treat other railroad workers with decency and respect; they are likely to return the favor. There is a terrific soundtrack.

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Sarah George's documentary is about people who hop trains and live a kind of contemporary hobo's existence. Her camera captures the sense of an escape from the straight world with its tedious responsibilities and appalling hypocrisies as the wheels clickity-clack under your butt on the hard cold bed of a box car.

Well, that's how I would imagine it. Yet when you're young (in heart as least) and feel the wind in your hair and no load on your mind, a train ride snitched from society may indeed be something like a return to the freedom of some bygone day.

Surprisingly there is an entire counterculture devoted to trainhopping complete with a 'Zine and annual pilgrimages to sacred places. George's film concentrates on some people who have taken up this way of life. She shows them hopping trains, riding trains, being interviewed, dodging "bulls," and in some cases visiting family and friends and talking about the life and themselves and their hopes and dreams for the future. They pass the number around and look askance at the camera and talk about what the future holds. They are not just lost men with nothing better to do with their lives, or young people still seeking what it is they haven't found. Instead George introduces us to a wide range of people including women and married couples, a lawyer, and even some anarchists who try to thwart hunters by scaring their game away with bull horns.

There is a Jack Kerouac feel to this way of life, a pride taken in being outside of society, of being free from the indoctrination and the boxed-in life of the wage earner or the corporate cog. But there is also the terrible question whispering down the track, how long can you go on living this way? For one couple, the birth of their first son brought an abrupt end to the wandering lifestyle. I am reminded of a song from fifty or sixty years ago sung by Tennessee Ernie Ford and others:

Tonight I heard the wild goose cry Winging north in the lonely sky Tried to sleep, but it ain't no use 'Cause I am the brother to the old wild goose.

My heart knows what the wild goose knows And I must go where the wild goose goes Wild goose, brother goose, which is best A wandering heart or a heart at rest?

(Lyrics by Terry Gilkyson)

George didn't interview the bulls or train company executives, although she reports on their "no tolerance" policy toward trainhoppers. And George didn't use any vintage film from, say, the depression when riding the rails was not a means to escape but the best way to get from one possible job site to another, from the grapefruit groves of Texas to the strawberry fields of California. I would have liked a comparison of the old hobos and the new. George does interview some of the older trainhoppers, but even they are too young to have been riding the rails in the days of the depression.

The documentary ends with the high whine of the rails--very pretty actually--and as the closing credits roll down the screen we hear sung the plaintive "Hobo's Lullaby."

Nice, neat documentary that could use a little more depth.

I've watched this film twice: the first time because it was recommended to me, and the second because i wished to revisit the carefree quest for freedom that the film promotes. I do not feel that it suggests that people go trainhopping or break any laws. I do feel however, that it does a fine job of reminding those of us that live with the self-appointed boundaries of "normal" life that seeking freedom and self-expression should be a daily activity rather than a rare and infrequent one. I found the characters to be diverse and extremely eloquent, and their musings to be insightful humorous and inspirational. So if you're looking for a film that condemns alternative lifestyles and unconventional thinking, then this is not the film for you. However, if you wish to be witness to something truly liberating, consider watching Catching Out. Highly recommended.

Catching Out is a moving homage to what Steinbeck called "the last free men." In our culture of excess it was inspiring to see this level of renunciation and present moment living.

The American Hobo had long been the embodiment of freedom in the collective consciousness of this country and no one needs to explain what John Lair meant when he sang, "A freight train whistle taught me how to cry." This documentary takes us on a journey in search of the America that is just around the corner and always out of reach.

Sarah George had a vision and fortunately for us she also had the tenacity and talent to bring it to fruition.

I recently bought the Catching Out DVD--it was one of the films I didn't get a chance to see at The High Falls Film Festival this year. I did, however, talk with the producer/director Sarah George a few times. The film is technically about the people who hop freight trains, but she described it in the somewhat cryptic phrase, "a meditation on freedom."

See, if someone told you they saw a movie about hopping freights, you might expect to see a bunch of details about the mechanics of the process, like getting past security, where to eat, where to sleep, and how to ride, with some details about several of the people. Catching Out does the opposite and touches on the details only tangentially as it closely examines the personalities of several riders. In some respects, it attempts to answer the question of "why" much more deeply than that of "how."

I guess it's not really "why" that is asked, but what is living?-what is freedom? Most of us just assume that the only way to live is within the gilded cage of society. We're offered limited freedoms and security, and pay with this intangible thing we like to call "responsibility." Before I go off on that too far, let me just ask why do we own anything at all? I mean, consider that you should just be able to go into the woods and make a little shack and eat food that grows in the area-so, to whom, exactly, does your money go to when you pay for your shelter? What exactly is responsibility anyway? Is it worth it?

The film compares the collective knowledge of the audience to the selective experiences of the subjects. That is, most people live life according to the "normal" societal rules (otherwise, everyone would be hopping freights, right?) On the other hand, if you spend your life sitting on freight trains moving from town to town, what's your life like? It's interesting to see the absence of discussion about things that concern the rest of us: money, job, home, career, retirement, taxes, television, movies, etc. Without any of that, what's there to talk about?

I also liked the methods employed. Most of the documentary structure repeats the introduction of another person then alternates between the primary interview and, usually, footage of the landscape out the doors of freight cars. It's unbelievable to see the scenery where there is no reason for commercialization. It's like a "reverse action photograph," in a way: the subject is stationary but the photographer is racing along. There's also several stellar examples of rail-oriented time-lapse photography used to punctuate the segments.

Oh, and the music was expertly selected and top-notch as well.