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10 mph |
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The 10 mph story is a documentary that will serve as a refreshing inspiration for anyone stuck in a lifeless nine to five corporate existence. It was the feeling that the two filmmakers Hunter Weeks and Josh Caldwell had when working for a software company in Phoenix, AZ. Unsatisfied with the lackluster way their lives had ended up, they decided to move to Denver and form their own production company, which was a pretty daring move considering neither of them had any contacts in the film industry or knew much about film making to begin with. What they did have was a simple idea: to ride a Segway across the U.S. from Seattle to Boston.
The trip begins in the early summer of 2004 in Seattle. After some pre-production and an attempt to secure a sponsorship from the Segway company (they didn't), they set off from Seattle with Josh riding the Segway and three others documenting and handling the logistics of the journey from a trailing car. There's Hunter the documentarian, his sister Gannon who handles all the media and PR, and the nerdy guy whose reason for being there I can't really figure out. If you haven't guessed by now, the maximum speed of a Segway is 10 mph. That being said, you can probably also now guess that this movie isn't particularly exciting, which is true. The movie isn't so much about the trials and tribulations of the journey as it is about encountering people along the way who share their philosophies on life. In essence, it's actually a documentary of the "American Dream" against the backdrop of cross-country Segway journey. Towards the end of the film, the focus moves back towards the journey itself as the group starts encountering some difficulties when they reach Philadelphia. Having been on the road for about 90 days, their bills start to pile up, their credit cards are maxed out, they're broke, and Nerdy Guy has a kidney stone. They start to wonder if the rest of the journey is even possible. As I hinted at before, the laggard motion of the Segway doesn't compare to the excitement of a typical Hollywood action movie. The substance of the film is what you take away from it at the end, which is accentuated by the people the crew meets along the journey. These people offer various bits of insight that you may or may not find inspiring. The crew can't travel on highways, so the trip is mainly through the back roads. Consequently, almost all the people they meet live a simplistic, rural life that they seem to be happy with, and their advice reflects that. The film shows people who do what they want in spite of the lack of financial success or modernity, or in the face of foreseeable consequence, which is how the filmmakers themselves get by. Personally, I haven't lost track of my values just yet so I found most of these people to be somewhat tiresome or in other cases just stupid. One guy in Philadelphia spends five minutes talking about authentic cheese steaks, in Boston, another wears 4 hats to represent each of the 4 professional athletic teams, explaining "I was born here all my life." Maybe I'm missing the point. What I do love about 10 mph is that it tells the story of two guys who seemingly had everything going for them and decided that it wasn't what they wanted. There are a lot of young people who are planning to enter particular lifestyles not because they want to but because they think that it's what they have to do, or they want the money that they assume will counteract their meaningless busywork. This movie does a good job of illustrating the consequences of that route as well as the opposing DIY route that this group took.
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