Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997) Film of the Week #284

[Cocoa]

Film of the Week #284: Hands on a Hardbody: The Documentary (1997)



Summary:
Twenty-four contestants compete in an endurance/sleep deprivation contest in order to win a brand new Nissan Hardbody truck. The last person to remain standing with his or her hand on the truck wins. An absurd marketing gimmick at first glance, the contest proves to be much more.

Info/Links:
#557 on 1000<400, with 175 checks.
Nominated by 72allinncallme, blocho, Cocoa.
On IMDb
On iCM

From the 500<400 results

#557(⇩74, #483) Hands on a Hard Body: The Documentary (1997)

Directed by: S.R. Bindler
(257.01 Pts, 13 Votes) , Top 1–10–50: 0–0–1
History: 557←483←175←276←421←217

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ICheckMovies: 170 Checks , 25 Favourites , 1 Official list

List of Voters:

burneyfan (36)
AdamH (57)
bathkuyp (62)
Wonderful Rainbow (78)
jeroeno (115)
72allinncallme (121)
Gershwin (186)
sebby (199)
brokenface (222)
Perception de Ambiguity (222)
xianjiro (NA)
Daviddoes (236)
Leopardi (332)

Here is a schedule of all the FotWs.

[72aicm]

This one needs to get back on the list. Silly serious fun.

[72aicm]

The link gets 404’d.
Correct link:
https://www.icheckmovies.com/movies/han ... cumentary/

[Cocoa]

This film's editing feels like American reality tv game series/seasons/shows from the early 2000s and 1990s. (My knowledge of realty tv shows from other countries is limited and I don't think I personally watched a foreign reality show from pre-2000s so I don't know if it's the same style of editing for shows in other countries during the 1990s.) I would judge the film harsher if it was released today, but it's fine for its time period with its subject matter and genre. This film feels much longer than it actually is due to all the short interviews and scenes. Some of the content I wish would have been edited out or shortened (the scene about the air conditioner went on way too long) and there is some stuff I would have liked to see more of as I frankly only have opinions on a few contestants. I started out rooting against the religious woman... but then I was rooting for her because most of the others were meh

[Nathan Treadway]

Is this like the documentary version of They Shoot Horses?

[Cocoa]

Is this like the documentary version of They Shoot Horses?

It's similar. A bunch of desperate folks compete in an endurance challenge (having their hand on a car) and hope to win the prize (a truck) by being the last one left standing.

[joachimt]

Fun watch. It's a shame though that

Spoiler

they missed most of the events that made people drop out, so most of the dropouts hardly got any attention.

I thought the end of the contest was a bit of an anticlimax, because

Spoiler

it was decided by the woman clapping her hands on the music. Rather stupid thing to end it, but understandably, because by that time you'll be losing attention. I just hoped they would fall down from fatigue or something like that.

[blocho]

Good documentary. I can't say it was particularly well made, but the story was fascinating.

The comparison to They Shoot Horses, Don't They is apt. Interestingly, It's Always Sunny has done a spoof on both They Shoot Horses (Season 3 - The Gang Dances Their Asses Off) and Hands on a HardBody (Season 11 - CharDee MacDennis 2: Electric Boogaloo):
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1141458/?ref_=ttep_ep15
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4463974/?ref_=ttep_ep1

Also, someone apparently did a musical adaptation of Hands on a Hardbody, and somehow it's been pretty successful. Reading the plot description on the wiki page reminds me of why I hate musicals:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hands_on_ ... _(musical)

[weirdboy]

I have been sick all week but I did see this movie previously. I thought this was a great documentary and still remember all the weird characters in this.

I don't remember if it was mentioned in the film or not, but about a decade or so after this film was shot, a contestant stepped away just before a break, walked across the street, broke into a store and stole a gun and ammunition, then killed himself when police showed up to the scene.

[joachimt]

I don't remember if it was mentioned in the film or not, but about a decade or so after this film was shot, a contestant stepped away just before a break, walked across the street, broke into a store and stole a gun and ammunition, then killed himself when police showed up to the scene.

Never heard of this before so tried to find the news items about it. Found out his wife sewed the car company for 600,000 dollars and the company eventually settled the case.
https://jonathanturley.org/2008/08/19/h ... r-contest/
Such a strange world we live in.

[AdamH]

Apologies for bumping all these old topics but I'm working through 500<400 films (and former 500<400 films) and there's no harm in us having more topics dedicated to specific films.

I re-watched this a couple of days ago and will definitely be putting it in my list for 2020. I really encourage others to watch. It's an incredibly fun film and I enjoyed it so much. It's fun in the sense of the competition (having to keep your hand on a truck and be sleep deprived for days to win it) and the comments from the participants. It's also, however, a great psychological study of how people behave in this situation and it was fascinating to see how they coped and how what they said changed over time. Very interesting and highly recommended. I hope it gets back into the list. Just an all round fun and enjoyable documentary.