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Features: DVD, Aspect Ratio 1.33:1, Color, Black & White
Editor's Note
In 1960, accountant Richard Wayman and photographer Phyllis Vaughn started the Cleveland-based Highway Safety Foundation after amassing a sizeable collection of photos taken at auto crash sites and shooting an educational film, SIGNAL 30, which incorporated crash site footage. The Foundation's film production wing, Safety Enterprises, went on to produce a number of now-legendary auto safety films (including WHEELS OF TRAGEDY and MECHANIZED DEATH) incorporating extremely grisly real-life imagery, which were shown to unsuspecting high school students across the United States in the 1960s and 70s. Bret Miller's documentary takes a probing look into the strange story of the people who made these bizarre and haunting films. He includes interviews with genre experts such as educational film archivist Richard Prelinger and Something Weird Video's Mike Vraney, as well as Earle Deems and John Domer--two of the men who worked on these compelling curiosities. While the subject matter is sensationalistic by nature, Miller's approach is reverent, and, though the films have passed on into the land of pop cultural legend, one is never doubtful that those who made the films did so out of a well-intentioned sense of duty and purpose.
| Features | Region [unknown] | | Keep Case | | 1 Disc | | Full Frame - 1.33 | | Additional Release Material:
| Deleted Scenes | | Trailers | | Three Complete Driver's Education Short Films: | | 1. SIGNAL 30 (1959) | | 2. HIGHWAYS OF AGONY (1969) | | 3. OPTIONS TO LIVE (1979) | | Excerpts From Additional Films, Including:
| 1. MECHANIZED DEATH (1961) | | 2. WHEELS OF TRAGEDY (1963) | | 3. CARRIER OR KILLER (1965) | | 4. DEATH ON THE HIGHWAY (1965) | | 5. THE THIRD KILLER (1966) |
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| | Text/Photo Galleries:
| Image and Document Gallery | | Pressbook |
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| Technical Info
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Release Information
|  | Studio: Kino Video |
| Release Date: 10/28/2003 |
| Running Time: 91 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 2003 | | Catalog ID: 312 | | UPC: 00738329031220 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English | | Video: Color |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | New York Times
"...A scholarly documentary....2 FAST celebrates the thrills of recklessness and speed, while HELL'S HIGHWAY examines their grisly consequences....Unnerving...fun..." 06/27/2003 p.E10Box Office
"...Oddly nostalgic..." 09/01/2003 p.126 USA Today
"...Documentarian Bret Wood renders it sympathetically..." 10/31/2003 p.8E |
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