HWY: An American Pastoral

The opening sequence shows the anonymous hitchhiker (Jim Morrison) coming out of a pond, and putting his clothes on. He proceeds to walk up the mountain from the pond and starts walking down the highway. Meanwhile, a voice-over of Jim Morrison talks about a childhood incident in which he claims to have seen Native Americans injured in a traffic accident. He is shown emerging from a car stuck in the sand and successfully tries to pull a car over. Later, the hitchhiker is looking for a book with the car parked outside a filling station; he is shown back on the highway together with two other people and a police officer, and after he communicates with them, he gets into the car and drives off. He looks for directions on a map at night. Numerous cars are shown driving into the sunset. Finally, the hitchhiker makes a phone call to American poet Michael McClure and reveals with a dispassionate voice that he killed someone, who is implied to be the original driver, explaining why he was not with him for the majority of the journey. The final shots show the hitchhiker at the Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles. ==Production==

Screenplay and public screening The original, barely structured HWY screenplay, published in 1990, contained many differences from the actual 1969 film version. The film was based on Morrison's experiences as a hitchhiker during his student days. As a college student Morrison had regularly been commuting as a hitchhiker from Tallahassee to meet his then girlfriend Mary Werbelow in Clearwater. Morrison financed the low-budget film project through his company "HiWay Productions". The production of HWY was supported by Morrison's friends Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill. Parts of the movie were meant to be used for fundraising purposes in order to complete the whole project. As soon as October 1969 the film story was outpaced, though, by the Tate-Labianca murders which were carried out by members of the Manson Family in Los Angeles and shattered the American public. Morrison showed HWY during his second stay in Paris in early 1971. The film was publicly shown in Vancouver on March 27, 1970. Production history HWY was shot on a 35mm, Arriflex camera. Morrison's own car, a 1967 Shelby GT500 was used in the film. In his 2007 book, Flash of Eden, co-director Paul Ferrara details Morrison's originally grander overarching vision for the film, anecdotes from the days' shooting and finally his eventual satisfaction with the "unfinished" work. Similarly, Paul Ferrara's YouTube channel hosts behind the scenes footage of the making of The Hitchhiker, which was the working title for what would later become HWY, together with a video described as Jim Morrison/"HWY" (directors cut) which includes an opening crawl of text that describes the historical context during which the film was shot. The film's music credits are given to Fred Myrow and sound engineer Bruce Botnick, Fred Myrow also served as the score's producer, with additional material from ethnic and world music recordings. ==References==