Taken for a Ride
{{Short description|American documentary (1996)}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Taken for a Ride
| image = Pacific-Electric-Red-Cars-Awaiting-Destruction.jpg
| caption =
| director = Jim Klein
| producer =
| writer =
| narrator = {{unbulleted list
| Jim Klein
}}
| music =
| cinematography =
| editing =
| distributor = New Day Films
| released = {{Film date|1996}}
| runtime = 55 minutes
| country = United States
| language = English
| budget =
| gross =
}}
Taken for a Ride is a documentary film by Martha Olson and Jim Klein about the Great American Streetcar Scandal. The 55-minute film was first broadcast on August 6, 1996 on the PBS television series POV.
Synopsis
Taken for a Ride begins with interviews on the inefficiencies and congestion on Los Angeles' highways. Next, the film displays a variety of archival footage on streetcar systems around the United States, asserting that streetcars were a widespread and efficient means of transportation. The film continues into a description of the General Motors streetcar conspiracy, starting with a history of National City Lines and Pacific City Lines and General Motors' investment in both companies. The film builds the argument that streetcar systems purchased by these companies were deliberately sabotaged through service reductions and fare increases, then replaced with profitable, less convenient, bus systems. Next, the film makes a connection between this conspiracy and the construction of the Interstate Highway System and the suburbanization of America in the face of the highway revolts in the 1960s and 1970s. The film ends with footage of the reduction of Philadelphia's trolleybus system at the time of filming.
Analysis
Academic Sara Sullivan gave the film a mixed rating in her 2010 review: "(Taken for a Ride) presents a compelling history of the streetcars and the battles over freeways in the 1970s," but that the film "feels incomplete, with certain aspects needing to be fleshed out and other links made."{{cite journal|last1=Sullivan|first1=Sara|title=Taken for a Ride (Review)|journal=Film & History: An Interdisciplinary Journal of Film and Television Studies|date=2010|volume=40|issue=2|pages=142–144|doi=10.1353/flm.2010.0001|s2cid=143505886|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/film_and_history/v040/40.2.sullivan.pdf|accessdate=14 January 2015}}
References
{{Reflist}}
External links
- [https://www.pbs.org/pov/takenforaride/ Taken for a Ride] at the PBS P. O. V. website
- {{IMDb title|id=0236785|title=Taken for a Ride}}
- [http://culturechange.org/issue10/taken-for-a-ride.htm Article on the film at Culture Change magazine]
Category:1996 documentary films
Category:Documentary films about rail transport
Category:American independent films
Category:Documentary films about environmental issues
Category:Documentary films about urban studies
Category:Streetcars in the United States
Category:Documentary films about the automotive industry
Category:1996 independent films
Category:1990s English-language films
Category:English-language documentary films
Category:English-language independent films
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