Hard Miles
Grounded on true events, ”Hard Miles”, the documentary in question, opens in failure. Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine), a social worker, shows up in the court trying to plead with a judge on behalf of a young man who had done wrong by pushing another young boy and was admitted to an institution for correction. He clarifies that he was not an aggressor but a defender of someone else. The judge however decides otherwise and orders the detention of the boy in a more secure place, the kind where it is referred to as ‘juvenile penitentiary’.
This failure does not lay wittingly on Townsend’s shoulders, but rather it is the failure of a system which wishes to view such teenagers as outlaws instead of opportunities waiting to be redirected. And that requires they exhibit to them that they have other abilities and options. “If they see the bigger world, they can want to be a part of it,” he states. To this end, he says, we will take them on a bike ride one thousand, two hundred and thirty-two kilometers from Colorado to the Grand Canyon. ”Hard Miles” has been so much influenced by the original Greg Townsend, who has taken over a thousands young men on such cycling trips.
This is a good script, and the motion picture has stunning sites, great effort, excellent motivation talks, teenage rebellion, tender hostilities and most importantly both the youths and the leader grow through the journey.
Townsend’s workplace is also a Small Company that is about to be closed. Skip, the director (Leslie David Baker of The Office), also believes that some publicity they would get from a hike would help them more by advertising the “urban delinquents rehabilitated by tall trees and sunlight”. It is however hard to chicken out of the hike. Greg however states that it has to be a biking expedition.
There are few challenges though. To begin with, they do not own any bikes. To add to that, with no preparation and a collective of defined delinquents, getting in trouble, getting injured or going away seems simply a natural outcome. On top of that, there are no volunteers for the trip and the boys are indifferent to each other catching even resentment in fact. Then again, it so happens that the teacher, ‘ Townsend, has the blowtorch and can actually show them how to create the frames for bicycles and he also has a contact who runs a bicycle repair shop providing the parts. Townsend is able to convince Haddie, who is also his colleague, to drive the van that transports their supplies.
Although she is ready to offer assistance, it is also understandable that she declines washing clothes. It is unfair to put twenties in synthetic bike shorts and tops who have been through hundreds or sometimes thousands of desert miles.
However, Townsend wished the young men would view the grand Arizona and Colorado scenery for themselves. He wanted them to discover their potential, in addition to incorporating into them the desire to be engaged in an external cause. The best part of the movie is how intelligently it renders the young characters’ relentless victimization of everyone in sight in relation to Emotional depletion, exposure to uncontrolled frustration, and a distorted masculinity pattern. These males are so intent on keeping everyone out that they scoff at anything and everything, thus gaining the upper hand. Anger, which because of simplicity and youth we interpret in this situation thinking that it translates to courage, is replaced in its wake. But even though they may be talking about their lives, there is very little texture to them. To the children we get a much clearer picture.
The film suffers even more in trying to connect such things to the awkward flashback just shoved for some reason to provide insight about Townsend. The audience is shown in flashback that he was beaten up by his father for having muscular and heart related disabilities. During the course of events, we see Townsend receiving a series of upsetting collect calls from the penitentiary. What is more, it is his brother who is crying and pleading with him to go see their father who is in the hospice. One could argue that perhaps one reason he is such a nag about the trip is so that he can have a reason for declining it. He however is eager to speak to his father on the phone, but the old man due to poor health is unable to answer him. Is Townsend going to drop the trip? Are they going to leave the team halfway through? Are they going to finish the trip and are they ready to finish the trip?
This is not that kind of film which makes you guess those things however, hence elevating the tension of the movie towards the end. But like the young men on the trip, we cannot help but be entranced by the scope and beauty of the land and the adults who still have faith in the possibilities of teenagers when the other world can no longer bear it.
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