RR

Looping chugging and barreling by the trains in Bennings latest monumental film map a stunning topography and a history of American development RR comes three decades after Benning and Bette Gordon made The United States of America 1975 a cinematic journey along the countrys interstates that is keenly aware of superhighways and railroad tracks as American public symbols A political essay responding to the economic histories of trains as instruments in a culture of hyperconsumption RR articulates its concern most explicitly when Eisenhowers militaryindustrial complex speech is heard as a mile long coal train passes through eastern Wyoming Benning spent two and a half years collecting two hundred and sixteen shots of trains fortythree of which appear in RR The locomotives varying colors speeds vectors and reverberations are charged with visual thrills romance and a nostalgia heightened by Bennings declaration that this will be his last work in 16mm film