I vividly remember when, in 2002, this long-lost film was “found.” I was among those who donated funds for a VHS transfer of HWY: AN AMERICAN PASTORAL, a 50-minute experimental film financed and created by the late Jim Morrison, the notorious headliner of The Doors. Morrison’s filmmaking ambitions were well known, he being a graduate of the UCLA Film School; HWY was made after he graduated, meaning it’s not the “student project” claimed by many. In fact, Morrison’s primary aim in making this film was to raise money for a feature to be called THE HITCHHIKER (about “a hitchhiker who becomes a mass murderer”).
HWY: AN AMERICAN PASTORAL (1969) Full Film
Completed in 1969, HWY was made by Morrison and his film school cohorts Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill. According to Morrison biographer Danny Sugarman, the trio headed out to a desert locale and “got stoned on mushrooms and shot hours and hours of Jim hitchhiking,” with the finished film of interest, Sugarman claimed, “only as a glimpse of Jim during this period and how unfocused he became without some disciplined, Apollonian sensibility working with him.”
The rights to HWY were owned by Morrison’s father-in-law Columbus “Corky” Courson Jr. (1918-2008), who during his lifetime never did anything with the film (the reason it was “lost” for so long) or much of the other Morrison ephemera he owned. Now, of course, HWY is readily available through multiple online sources.
Morrison himself stars (because, as he told an interviewer, “I couldn’t think of anyone else to do it”). He’s first seen emerging from a desert pond wearing his trademark leather pants, and wandering through a mountainous landscape (actually Tahquitz Canyon in Palm Springs, CA). Eventually he finds a road and hitches a ride. We get endless footage of him and others driving through desert landscapes, including one striking moment—easily the film’s best—when Morrison, behind the wheel of a stolen car, lets out a blood-curdling howl. Eventually he makes his way back to civilization, by which point night has fallen. In this nocturnal cityscape Morrison confides to a friend (poet Michael McClure) on a pay phone that he’s just killed someone, and then walks along the edge of a tall building while sirens are heard in the background.
This film is, frankly, excruciatingly dull. Reminiscent of Michelangelo Antonioni and Kenneth Anger at their most indulgent, HWY has no narrative drive to speak of. Morrison and his cohorts did at least pull off some evocatively lensed visuals and impressively textured sound design, which incorporates the tune “Bald Mountain” by Paul and Georgina Ferrara and music by Fred Myrow.
HWY is of primary interest as a product of its time that foreshadowed EL TOPO (1970), THE LAST MOVIE (1971) and THE PASSENGER (1975). It should also resonate with Doors nerds, who will recognize many classic lyrics reflected in the film’s imagery (“There’s a killer on the road,” “City at night,” etc.). Ultimately, though, HWY is best viewed as exactly what it was: a preview for bigger and better things that unfortunately never arrived.
See Also: THE DOORS
Vital Statistics
HWY: AN AMERICAN PASTORAL
Directors: Jim Morrison, Paul Ferrara
Producers/Screenplay: Jim Morrison, Paul Ferrara, Babe Hill, Frank Lisciandro
Cinematography: Paul Ferrara
Cast: Jim Morrison, Michael McClure