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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

Hands on a Hardbody

In Hands on a Hardbody, contestants compete for a truck by seeing whose hand can remain the longest on a “hard body” pickup.

Quentin Tarantino called it “one of the greatest documentaries ever made,” Robert Altman was reportedly developing a feature adaptation of it before he died, and, in 2013, it became a Broadway musical. Hands on a Hardbody documents an annual endurance contest at a Nissan dealership in Longview, Texas, where contestants compete for a truck by seeing whose hand can remain the longest on a “hard body” pickup. This nonfiction slice of Americana begins quirkily hilarious, yet the wonderful cast of characters manages to transform the experience into something quite empathizing and moving. Fun fact: director S. R. Bindler’s buddy Matthew McConaughey helped pay for the low-budget movie’s transfer from Hi8 to 16 mm. so that it could receive theatrical distribution. Long out of circulation, the documentary has been restored and is currently streaming for free, oddly, on e-mail-marketing platform Mailchimp’s Web site. —Spike Carter

Photo: S. R. Bindler