ROAD SCHOLAR
A film review by Mark R. Leeper
Copyright 1993 Mark R. Leeper
Capsule review: Poet and humorist Andrei Codrescu
drives a big new used Cadillac across the United States and
shows us slices of American life as it is rarely seen. While
the film is not original, Codrescu's outsider's view is never
dull. Rating: +1 (-4 to +4).
Andrei Codrescu is a Romanian-born Jew, a fact that explains many aspects of his personality. His acerbic sense of humor is a survival trait when one lives in a background radiation of anti-Semitism from both the neighbors and the government. It also trains one to expect the worst and hope for the best from institutions and the bureaucracy running the country. At the same time, having come to the United States and finding conditions better, he clearly likes this country and has an affection, if somewhat bewildered, for Americans. And he sees America as an outsider. Because of these different perspectives, he has become a commentator on National Public Radio's "All Things Considered." In ROAD SCHOLAR Codrescu brings these perspectives to bear on various aspects of American life seen during a trip across the country.
ROAD SCHOLAR is not so much a film as a news magazine in cinematic form. It is supposedly inspired by the book ON THE ROAD by Jack Kerouac, but it is closer in form to a stringing together of segments of "Charles Kurault on the Road" or "Jean Shepherd's America." It is also comparable to Michael Palin's short television series "Around the World in Eighty Days" and "Pole to Pole." Codrescu drives from Manhattan to San Francisco commenting on the passing parade. He visits Ellis Island and comments on the immigrant experience. He also visits a Romanian restaurant, where his compatriots make up for years of extreme poverty in the old country by eating pornographically large cuts of meat. He is served a steak so long he has to fold over the end so that it does not drag on the table. Detroit and its hard times remind him of Romania. In Chicago (if I remember correctly) he visits a sausage factory and discovers a new sensuality in the packing of sausages. Also in Chicago he visits a McDonald's restaurant exactly as they were when they were first open. It is an educational exhibit for McDonald's Hamburger U. Codrescu mixes in a private war between the city council and a junk artist who is half burying a car in her yard.
Westward he continues to report on New Age crystal religion and a healing shrine in New Mexico, and a drive-up window in a kitsch matrimonial chapel in Las Vegas. We visit Biosphere II, a sealed and totally self- contained community to which inhabitants have exiled themselves for two years. This is supposed to prove people can live in similar confines in space, though presumably in space there will not be a constant stream of tourists to chat with at the windows. Codrescu dubs Biosphere II a "Disneyland for the Millenially Disabled." According to Codrescu, America seems to be discovered over and over again and never definitively. Definitive discovery seems to have eluded Codrescu also, but at least his commentaries and slices of life are never dull. I rate this a +1 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper
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