Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary

I dont think I would be able to last long, would be betrayed immediately by having to poop. The absolute best part of this are some of the talking head interviews if you close your eyes and pretend it isnt about keeping your hand on a truck ... they could he recounting how they got through 'Nam. Like that judge I had my picked favourite and was disappointed when they flamed out spectacularly, well as spectacular as you can get taking your hand off of a truck.

Sick. But a good show.

Benny, the star of the show, talks us through the contest with the gravitas of Colonel Kurtz entering the Heart of Darkness. A nice slice of mid 90s Texas. The documentary standard is at times mediocre, does an adequate job at best.

I like the idea of this documentary more than I liked the actual film. This whole contest is a really powerful metaphor for our society. It's hard to imagine a truck occupying enough of your imagination to stay awake 3-4 days to get one, let alone having to stay up longer than two dozen other people who want it quite so badly. The drama of the contest got to me, but I was extremely uncompelled by many of the interviews with the contestants that make up the bulk of the film.

As this starts I am thinking that Benny's existential talk is hilariously over the top, but then hour 46 ticks by and I'm like "Benny you aren't going hard enough!" This is a fascinating snippet of America.

Viewed November 26, 2021. This is a fascinating subject with a great cast of characters and a sense of class consciousness that is subtle but hangs over every moment, giving this competition an especially degrading edge. Every interview subject is gold, especially the guy who tries to subsist only on Snickers. I like how its form replicates the delirium faced by the contestants: the shot and editing choices growing increasingly loopy in tune with the behavior of the remaining participants.

Builds nicely. Painfully American, in a good way. Character study 4 dayz

I love looking at the trivia section of IMDb for a documentary like this cause there is always something horrible and oh boy that 2005 competition sounds like a blast.

Comes across with the same feeling as a Herzog doco. A very simple premise, with people that want a very simple thing. When the various subjects are delved into, they open up like a book & the audience get a unique level of insight into who these folks are and what/ who drives them.

Hilarious and equally touching slice of Americana.

This film captures the essence of what makes us tick.

I was hooked when one of the guys compared keeping his hand on a car for 4 days to the movie Highlander and killing a deer. I was sold when God completely trolled one lady and her entire parish. Best documentary of the last third of the 90s...and I'm not just saying that.

A weird and wonderful documentary about people who are willing to do whatever it takes to win a radio station's truck giveaway. Amazing characters.

Ahead of its time, now that stuff like King of Kong is coming out.

Surprisingly engaging documentary with curiously interesting people competing to hold onto a truck for the longest time without letting go. Obviously, with a contest lasting for days and the final winner being unknown in advance, the people interviewed and followed the most are not always those you would have chosen in retrospect. But I'm glad I saw it :-)

This surprisingly intense contest reveals that when it comes down to it, most people are pretty good. Better production values and follow-up interviews to fill in some details would have added a lot, but it's still worth watching.

They got some great dialog on camera, but they didn't manage to capture a lot of things that I actually wanted to see. You don't actually see most of the losses, some very important facts are left vague, and they sometimes made poor choices on who they chose to focus on for interviews, because there are some very important people you know nothing about. I will say that it made me feel like I grew up with these people in this small Texas town, and they have some good insight on human behavior.

Beautiful depiction of the nature of human beings in a contest to the death Or at least to win a hard body truck... Which ever comes first.