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Directed by S. R. Bindler
USA, 1999
Rated PG (some brief language)
POIGNANCY MEETS HILARITY MEETS PHILOSOPHY
I confess. I don’t watch documentaries for entertainment. I hardly watch
them at all. Hands on a Hard Body, S. R. Bindler’s unabashedly philosophical
documentary of an annual contest held by Longview, Texas’s Nissan dealership,
is a whole lot of fun. At the center of the contest is a truck and the twenty-four
contestants must stand with at least one hand on the car at all times, with only
a five minute break each hour and a fifteen minute break each six hours,
without given sleep time even as the days go by, until everyone has given up
and dropped out. The remaining contestant wins the truck. Bindler, a
29-year-old native of Longview, makes this almost ridiculous contest very
important, but he doesn’t overdo its importance because he’s quite right- there
is lots to learn even from a simple event like this.
Why, you might ask, is a truck so important to these twenty-four people? This is explained in the film by comparing it to a cowboy and his hat. It’s a symbol of the owner’s pride. The vehicle is helpful to ranchers and farmers and many of the contestants just need the transportation or the money to pay debts. The contestants are full of energy and optimism about their chances when they first get to the dealership to begin the contest. Everyone thinks he or she is the definite, fated winner. But one opponent points at that there can only be one winner. The Hard Body contest, a very famous one in its town, becomes a test of endurance, stamina, and physical and mental strength as Bindler’s Hi-8 video camera continues to watch the contestants through the 83-hour period that the contest lasts.
Bindler does not let his film stray into mockery. He has a serious attitude toward what the contest can bring out in its participants- but he allows good humor to shine through. Most of Hands on a Hard Body’s characters are lovable (yes, there are a few exceptions) and we spend a good part of the film’s 97 minutes getting to know them and the methods they are using to win the contest. Benny, who has won the contest before, is one of Hard Body’s primary focuses. He shares his competitive secrets and amusing anecdotes of his previous victory. One man plans to fast for the entire running time of the contest, eating only an occasional Snickers bar. Another just got out of the Marine Corps and uses strategies from that experience. One young woman plans to keep focused on her outstanding debts and eats and drinks healthy foods during the contest breaks. Perhaps the most interesting of these colorful people is a deeply, intensely religious woman who listens to Christian music during the contest and has her whole church praying for her. Her tactics of laughing when her body starts to ache brings much joy to her solemn, fatigued competitors.
The eventual winner is a surprise- the person is not a character Bindler focuses much on. Hands on a Hard Body is often funny, but, in the later part of the film, its humor is marred by the heartbreaking sight of watching the contestants submit to their exhaustion. It is especially painful to watch the final remaining competitors break down from either mental or physical tiredness as the nights go on. They have shared their hopes of winning and even promised Bindler’s camera that they will take home the truck and it is awful to watch them give up. Of course, their agony will not be life-scarring, but Hard Body immerses itself in these wonderful, friendly personalities and when they are eventually disappointed, the audience is disappointed too because we have been rooting for them.
Bindler makes it fully clear that standing with your hand on a truck you desire, waiting for other contestants to drop off, is not easy. If you are one for conversation, you may have made friends with some of them and you may feel a certain amount of guilt competing with them. You may have anxiety. You may be impatient. A camaraderie starts to develop between the contest’s candidates and so it becomes, as one contestant states, a confusing thing in which you are actually helping your competitors to win.
In the end, Hands on a Hard Body is rich and sad, but also really silly, insane, and funny. The contest being filmed is one in which preparation, stamina, and values are everything. The area in which the documentary was filmed- small town Texas- brings about comedy, eccentricity, and heat and mosquitoes through which contestants must suffer to win. Texas lends an overall feel of friendliness to the film and also elements of quaint religious fervor. The documentary asks: do you value your health more than the car? How long can you stand in the heat while concentrated on your desires and the suspense of the whole contest, and also the boredom of it, before you go mad? The film even hints at the human frailties of the judges who cannot possibly catch every contestant who does not have both hands on the truck at all times. Bindler’s film is greatly intriguing, telling, and different, as are the characters who openly show their aspirations, their frailties, and the overall pain, outrageousness, and fun of the Hard Body competition.
By Andrew Chan
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