Breaker Two Nine (199?)

I’m cheating with this one. Well kind of…

The film concerns the CB romance between two physically damaged people who are also emotionally hurt as well. They connect on the radio each night. It’s a will they or won’t they ever get together sort of a story.

It’s a film that almost no has seen or will ever see. It’s a short film that was made on Long Island by a filmmaker named George Guthrie. Guthrie sank every penny he had into the film and then kind of had it go no where. It’s a story that is as old as film itself. It also didn’t help that the film’s subject matter was dated before it ever got out of the box with the mode of communication, cb radios, rapidly declining in popularity and being replaced by the Internet.

I saw the film when I was invited to a rough cut screening which was being held to get money to finish the project. I learned of the film from my friend Lou who worked on the film.

The film, for the most part was a sweet romance between two people trying desperately to connect. It was powered by the music of Melissa Etheridge who allowed several of her songs to be used (to great effect) in the film.

I really liked the film a great deal, except for the one bit of it that was damaging, the opening sequence with the young man’s drunken abusive father. It was horrible. It was badly done and beyond cliché. It was so awful that I considered walking out, but I couldn’t because the film was only half an hour long and I was there at the request of a friend. Once you get past the father the film becomes infititely better going from one star to three and a half.

When I was asked what I thought I told them loved the film but lose the father. Apparently it was advice that several people gave Guthrie who simply ignored it. To him it was criticial to have it.

The film went out as was (he apparently made almost no changes and used to money to buy prints) to several film festivals, some of which screened it, most did not.(Guthrie I’m told marked his print so that he could tell how far it was watched before turning the film off, almost always they never got past the abusive father)

I like the film. It was something that stayed with me in the ten or 15 years since I saw it. If it should ever resurface it’s a film you should give a shot to (just stay past the crappy opening sequence).

And yes the film really exists. Here proof that the film played some where other than on Long Island a listing on a film website.