Meghan Quinn

May 4, 2005

THEA 336: Documentary Practices

Final Paper

Speedo, American Movie and the Reality of the American Dream

Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story and American Movie are two documentaries centered on two remarkably similar subjects: white American males who are middle-aged, lower-class, non-college educated, fathers, slight in stature, quirky, substance-abusing, magnetic, and in the midst of family problems and new romantic relationships. Ed ‘Speedo’ Jager and March Borchardt, the subjects of the two films, participate in forms of American ‘low culture:’ American Movie centers around Mark Borchardt, a Wisconsin man in his thirties who still lives with his parents, delivers newspapers for money, and has been making amateur horror films since childhood. The documentary follows him in his struggle to produce his biggest film to date. The subject of Speedo is Ed ‘Speedo’ Jager, a Garden City New Jersey, mechanic and demolition derby competitor who is on a winning streak when the documentary is being filmed.

The films tackles similar existential anxieties at the heart of American life: boredom, conformity, fatherhood, family breakup, getting old, being a ‘nobody.’ Speedo and Borchardt are portrayed as visionaries whose passions can somehow elevate them from the melancholy doldrums of life around them. Their respective quests to be demolition derby champion and horror movie producer take on epic proportions. Both men succeed: Speedo goes to the championship, and Borchardt makes his movie. However, the ultimate message of both documentaries is drastically different: Speedo’s success is a fairy-tale ending, glorious and redemptive: he ends up being a star, beginning a new life, achieving the American dream. American Movie, on the other hand, calls into question Borchardt’s quest for the American dream itself, ending on a note that ultimately portrays his ambition as delusion and self-deceit. In this paper, I will examine the ways in which the documentaries are similarly structured to explore their subjects’ quests for love, redemption, and purpose, and the way in which the films come to opposite conclusions about the viability of this venture.

These documentaries use combinations of observational and participatory methods to tell their stories. Speedo is primarily observational: the cameras follow him to the garage, track, junkyard, and home, seemingly invisible. He usually does not interact with the filmmaker. Especially later in the documentary, the mode shifts to include informal interviews, in which the filmmaker asks Speedo questions, for instance, how long he’s been living in his friends’ house after he and his wife split up. Although American Movie sometimes takes a fly-on-the-wall approach, Borchardt is acutely aware of the camera - no doubt because he is familiar with the film-making process himself. We do not hear the filmmakers’ voices often, we never see them, and we hear them speaking to Borchardt only rarely. However, he often addresses the camera and speaks into the lens, therefore creating a type of implied dialogue in which the filmmaker is a silent participant.

The films are also in a large part performative. Neither man is reluctant to stand before the camera’s gaze; in fact, they seem to revel in it. After all, Speedo and Borchardt are both performers. Speedo does demolition derby because he loves the spotlight. In the beginning of the film, he is seen encouraging the crowd to cheer for him so that he will win the fan’s choice award. Perhaps it would be a stretch to call Speedo an artist, but he is an actor of sorts, in the way that sports are spectacle. Borchardt, in addition to directing his films, plays starring roles in them as well, so it is not a stretch to say that in this documentary, Borchardt is playing himself, perhaps more with more self-awareness than Speedo. He says, about the cemetery where he gets a job, “There’s something cinematic about it. It’s like a stage.” Therefore, even though a large attraction of both films is the fact that they fulfill viewers’ voyeuristic impulses to experience the lives of these men some might call rednecks, the subjects of both films are profiting as well. In short, the documentaries benefited both of their careers.

On the whole, the film American Movie is more reflexive than Speedo; the subjects are more aware of the camera, and interact with the filmmakers more. Speedo is also glossier than American Movie, which is especially evident in the soundtracks: Speedo uses studio-recorded rock guitar music with wailing solos, while American Movie’s soundtrack features the acoustic guitar playing of Mike Schanck, Borchardt’s best friend who has the easy-going nature and nearly brain-dead demeanor of a life-long stoner. The only other song featured in American Movie is “Mr. Bojangles.” I would like to emphasize that both films are docudramas. Their plots follow the narrative framework of fiction more closely than other types of documentary. The events that take place in both documentaries are selected to go in a certain order for certain effects. They are character-based, like the fiction films we watch and the novels we read.

In the two documentaries, both Speedo and Borchardt are presented as failures in everything they do besides demolition derby and filmmaking. The things that they fail at are the things that we as Americans are supposed to find valuable in our lives: career and family. Borchardt, a high school dropout, has been delivering newspapers for ten to fifteen years, as his brother says. As the film progresses, he gets a job cleaning and groundskeeping at the cemetery, some of the inane details of which are presented in an ironic and depressing way: Borchardt is shown vacuuming and accidentally knocking over flowers in the crematorium, pulling a heavy chain across the driveway, having to take down hundreds of American flags that were up on Memorial Day. Speedo is portrayed as financially unsuccessful, although he does hold a steady job as a mechanic at a gas station and his boss praises him for being a good worker. The film seems to imply, though, that at forty-one years old, Speedo should really be working for himself. Also, early on in the film, his wife complains about the money he spends on demolition derby, painting him in a similar light to Borchardt, who is seriously in debt.

The men are also shown as failures in terms of their family. In the interview with Speedo’s wife, it is evident that she does not appreciate the time and money he puts into demolition derby. She mentions that he never does the housework, something to which Speedo agrees. “If it doesn’t have wheels on it, I can’t work on it,” he says. During this interview, Speedo is standing in the doorway, where he cannot see his wife’s face. He seems to be treating her exasperation at his irresponsibility as a joke, while from her facial expression, it seems that she is truly upset. Speedo has been sleeping on the couch for years, and he eventually moves out of the house where they live with their two adolescent sons. Borchardt, too, is portrayed as an irresponsible parent. He owes $3600 in child support to the mother of his three children, all of whom are under ten years old. Since Borchardt still lives with his parents as well, he exhibits a sort of adolescent resentment towards them which he never grew out of, only characterizing him further as a dysfunctional family member.

The subjects of the films turn to demolition derby and filmmaking to escape these problems. However, I want to emphasize that Speedo’s and Borchardt’s hobbies are not what ‘saves’ them. After all, the films still continue after Speedo goes to the championship and Borchardt has his movie opening. These endings could not be cathartic or resolve the range of underlying problems presented throughout the film. Rather, they are signifiers of the problems in the subjects’ lives. There is also a violence to both men that makes the our desires to ‘save’ their characters, to find a solution, all the more urgent. Perhaps due to their hyperactive nature, both men are quick to fight. Speedo confronts a fellow competitor with a huge hammer used for banging our metal. Borchardt’s brother actually says that he always thought Borchardt would turn out to be some sort of serial killer, the kind of person who would plot another’s death.

They also have fascinations with violence that are clearly manifested in the activities they take part in. Speedo smashing his car into another’s is simply participation in a socially sanctioned sport; Borchardt smashing another person’s head through a cabinet is not assault, but rather a role in a horror film. These men are drawn to destruction. But in a way, both men are also interested in redemption. Borchardt describes a scene in a film he is planning in which the camera will pan past junkyards and broken-down neighborhoods. He describes his film as making it all into something more, transforming it into something meaningful. Without sarcasm, he says, “You won’t walk away depressed after seeing this.” Speedo, too, paints his demolition derby cars carefully, artistically even. He puts a lot of time into fixing them up, not just structurally so that he will win, but also aesthetically, so that they will appeal to the audience. In the demolition derby ring, they are hot rods.

Despite the redemptive nature of their hobbies, the films do not present them as solutions to their problems, but rather as signifiers of the greater frustrations in their lives. They are outlets for this violence, but they are not ends in themselves. A large part of this is because the narrative structure of the documentaries would not be fulfilled by their characters’ hobbies. After all, they were already doing these things when the films started. Therefore, both documentaries look for other solutions for their subjects to find happiness. One is oblivion. Both Speedo and Borchardt drink alcohol and do drugs, namely marijuana. Speedo is seen smoking marijuana at a demolition derby that his children are actually present at, something that many viewers would find irresponsible. Borchardt seems to be an alcoholic; his father says he’s having a “kick with the bottle,” and there is a scene on Super Bowl Sunday in which he is drunk and insulting to his mother. Borchardt’s best friend Mike is portrayed as a stoner who has chosen a drug-induced stupor over real life, but Borchardt repeatedly chastises himself for his drinking problem. At one point, he says how “senseless” it was that the night before he was drinking peppermint schnapps and calling Morocco at 3 AM. This is a part of the film in which I found his role playing as tortured artist most obvious.

Both Speedo and American Movie offer fatherhood as a redemption device as well. In the end of both films, Speedo and Borchardt certainly don’t seem to be neglectful and abusive parents, even though their children’s mothers seem to provide the financial support and most of the parenting. Rather the men are shown as simply irresponsible. After all, they love their kids, the films seems to say, neglecting to mention the logistical facts suggesting that they put their hobbies before their families. They are seen more as big brothers or friends to their children than fathers. Borchardt thinks it’s funny when his daughter curses. Speedo shows his sons a video from a demolition derby in which he gets in a fist fight with another driver. American Movie has a similar scene in which Borchardt shows one of his old movies to his children. Although the violent videos in both seem inappropriate for children, the general message the films send is that Speedo and Borchardt are leaving a legacy for their children, teaching them what is most important in their own lives. The theme of family comes across very strongly in Speedo. Borchardt does not seem as interested in his children, but it is difficult to compare this since Borchardt’s children are significantly younger than Speedo’s. Perhaps they were simply not as interesting to film since they do not yet have strong enough personalities to stand as characters.

Like in many fictional works, the men are also offered redemption and happiness through love. They both have new relationships with women who are actually interested in their hobbies and “fun to be around,” as Borchardt says. American Movie does not focus on this as much as Speedo does, which has the subtitle of “demolition derby love story.” Speedo has a happy ending. He goes to the championship but he does not win. However, this doesn’t matter, because the film focuses on his new relationship. At the end, there is a montage of Speedo and Liz, his girlfriend, working on cars, joking around together, while victorious guitar music plays. In a voiceover, she says:

Liz: I love going to the track and watching him, and watch everybody try to take him out, because they can’t. The energy inside of him was what I wanted in my life. We’re gonna spend a lifetime together and grow old together. I don’t think we’ll really get old. We have too much fun to get old.

American Movie could have redeemed Borchardt through love in this way, since he too has a new girlfriend. But the filmmakers do not emphasize this fact in Speedo. The ending of American Movie shows an opposing version of the same ideas. Like Speedo’s girlfriend’s quotation, this ending too deals with dreams, growing old, and being a performer. Borchardt and Uncle Bill, his elderly film producer, are sitting outside Uncle Bill’s trailer when this scene takes place:

Borchardt: Do you want your dreams to come true?

Uncle Bill: Dreams? Which - what dreams are that?

Borchardt: What’s your American Dream?

Uncle Bill: I don’t have any dreams anymore.

Borchardt: You don’t?

Uncle Bill: No.

Borchardt: You can’t stop now. What are you gonna do, sit outside a trailer? We’ll film you outside of a trailer, man, but we ain’t gonna live sitting outside of a trailer!

Uncle Bill: Where else am I gonna sit? [...]

It’s half past three already... Hello? Come again? Come again? Stay - stay a while. Stick around as long as you can. Heaven help you. God help you. Jesus help you. Everybody else help you. Everybody make happy. Make everybody happy. Be a comedian. (hangs his head between his knees) (fade to black)

In this film, Uncle Bill is presented as completely resigned to the misery of his life. Despite the fact that he has $280,000, he lives in a tiny dingy trailer. He is also a type of visionary. He is a poet: at one point in the documentary, he reads some of it for Borchardt and the camera. Because of this, and his age as well, his language sometimes breaks down into this type of poetic fragmentation. The film seems to imply that his art, his poetry, could not save him from misery. Borchardt’s interrogation of Uncle Bill seems cruel and sarcastic at times. Throughout the documentary, he asks Uncle Bill, about what his dreams are, what his purpose in life is, and what his plans are. “Cheer up man, the world is yours. What did you do with your life? What are your plans for the future?” Borchardt knows that Uncle Bill will answer negatively to all of these questions, but he repeatedly asks. It like a form of self-torture, as if he is projecting his own worries about his own self-worth and purpose onto Uncle Bill. The ending serves to confirm Borchardt’s own articulated and unarticulated anxieties present throughout the film, that he would die a ‘nobody’ like his uncle, despite his art.

Borchardt does not believe that he is saving himself, either, which is more frightening than Uncle Bill’s disillusionment. There are hints throughout the movie that viewers should take Borchardt’s enthusiasm for the American Dream with a grain of salt. For example, the film opens with Borchardt going through his bills. He is in serious debt, and he tallies up the dollars he owes to the camera in an exasperated tone of voice until he opens one envelope. His whole demeanor changes. Seemingly elated, he says, “Oh, kick fuckin’ ass, I got a Mastercard. I don’t believe it man, life is kinda cool sometimes.” The shot fades out, and the film opens, the words American Movie appearing on the screen. We are left to realize the sarcasm in what he just said. A Mastercard is only going to lead him into more debt.

These films touch audiences because both characters simply want an improvement above what they have, something that could be described as the American Dream. As Mark Borchardt’s girlfriend Joan puts it, “He wants to be somewhere where he’s not - but don’t most people want to be somewhere where they’re not?” The documentaries tantalize viewers’ voyeuristic impulses with a glimpse of the unique subjective worlds that these subjects inhabit. We look to them to embody the experience that would otherwise be inaccessible or uncomfortable for us to investigate on our own. Their characters are Otherized, and in the case of American Movie, this makes the harsh truths about our own lives digestible.

On a final note, it is important to remember that although American Movie ends on a depressing tone, this does not make the film any less contrived than Speedo. As I have described, both films use extremely similar narrative tactics to build character and plot, even though they ultimately send different messages. Both fiction films and documentaries can offer insights about reality and draw subject matter from real life. Speedo and American Movie blended these two genres together. The stories in the films are deliberately constructed to mimic fiction. Events become plot. Subjects become characters. Docudramas combine fact and fiction to create stories that are both.

Works Cited

American Movie. Dir. Chris Smith. DVD. Sony Pictures Classics, 1999.

Speedo: A Demolition Derby Love Story. Dir. Jesse Moss. DVD.
Mile End Films, 2003.