How many documentaries out there can say they have been adapted for the stage and turned into musical? Not very many. But it looks like S.R. Bindler’s cult classic doc Hands on a Hard Body is about to be re-invented by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright and lyricist Amanda Green for the La Jolla Playhouse.
The 1997 documentary is about an annual competition in Longview, Texas, where 24 contestants compete to win a pickup truck. All they have to do is be the last person standing with their hand still touching the truck in a battle of endurance that goes for days.
Despite the fact that the film is now out of print on DVD and hard to find, it has built up quite a reputation over the years. In fact, at one point Robert Altman was attached to direct a fictionalized remake of the doc. Check out the trailer for Hands on a Hard Body embedded below.
i thought they were praying
My first thought was “Another Lil Abner” type of musical poking fun at the south ?
The reality of this documentary is how poor some people are, and how willing they are to sacrifice their body for something,,,anything
they can to help them out of poverty. At the end, the viewer is floored, most likely crying along for the second place finisher.
I’m not really sure if this contest can be humorized,
commercialized properly, and
“sung into fun” that way.
.
Re-Hands on a Hardbody.
Reading further that Robert Altman thought enough to get involved is satisfying. The person shown with the sign on his face is some form of comic relief during the contest.
“Some of the most interesting people we meet are everyday people but we rarely get to know them-
Many of their stories are more interesting than well publicized people”
(I believe that is a quote from Johnny Cash.)
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This movie represents why documentaries are priceless, why reality is stranger than fiction, and is absolutely NOT “making fun” of the south. Can a musical pull it off? That, I don’t know…