Dave Gorman unchained.

I hadn't heard about Dave Gorman until about two years ago.  After a couple of years spent working in China, I emerged relatively unscathed, but more or less in a cultural wasteland with regards to the UK-bereft of anything that had transpired in my home country during the time I'd spent abroad.  In an attempt at slow reintegration, I was treated one evening not long after my return by my brother to my first taste of Dave Gorman through the eponymously titled "Dave Gorman's Googlewhack Adventure."

Perhaps it was the alcohol, perhaps it was the joy of seeing my brother after such a long time, perhaps it was that Dave was genuinely funny, or perhaps it was a combination of all three that found me wholeheartedly enjoying the routine so much so that I later re-watched it alone.

Fast forward around a year and whilst aimlessly browsing Amazon for films (as is my wont) happened upon another of Dave's titles: "Dave Gorman in America Unchained."  The basic premise of this documentary-style adventure, is that Dave tries to cross the States in an old station-wagon whilst attempting to not give money to "The Man" (any major corporation or brand name) and instead to patronise "Mom and Pop" businesses.  Wow, I thought, this guy has been reading my dream-wish book.  Since an early age, one of my major ambitions has been to drive from coast to coast across the U.S. and concluded that the film would be at the very least entertaining due to Dave's lovable personality and unique style of narration, if not necessarily informative of the task I will eventually undertake (because I will do it).

The film itself is entertaining enough: Dave gets himself into various scrapes and situations which serve to prove that the cultural hegemony the U.S. is often lambasted for isn't as far reaching as it would at first appear.  The people he meets are at times zany, off-the wall caricatures-the kind foreigners often stereotype Americans as being-and yet all are exceptionally kind and helpful towards Dave on his adventure (though it could be argued they're motivated by the camera, I'd levy that it's actually an example of human nature at its best).

Whilst these are adequate reasons for watching the film, I felt a little empty when it had finished.  Afterwards, on a slightly related matter, I looked up a clip of Dave on Youtube and found a sketch of a little known British comic duo parodying Gorman and his former flatmate and published author, Danny Wallace.  The sketch portrayed Dave as lovably eccentric, but at heart money grubbing-purposefully concocting adventures from "drunken bets" that always somehow served to further his career.  The sketch itself was not particularly funny, but it did get me to thinking about the film in question: when it comes to travel documentaries, is the creating of drama to be encouraged?

This was a pertinent question as one of the major holes in the film, it had occurred to me, was the distinct absence of real conflict.  At one point, Dave ends up creating it by caving in to the demands of the corporations-eating a McDonald's, Burger King and Wendy's in one sitting and then opting to stay in a chain-hotel.  Now, disregarding that I, who can probably eat my own bodyweight in food, would have difficulty eating the three massive burgers in a row and also the fact that Dave Gorman is a devout vegetarian, the whole scene rankled with me.  


Why? 


Well, within seconds of seeing Dave tucking in to the burgers, we're treated to footage of him vomiting into the chain-hotel's toilet.  Footage that Dave himself shot, as the original director had left the production (and country) by this point.

I can't imagine how difficult it is to film while painting the toilet with the contents of your stomach.
Oh no, wait: scratch that. Dave accomplishes it with gusto AND manages to cash his huge paycheck for the film at the same time-Cha-CHING!

This leaves a rather sour taste in my mouth (pun entirely intended).  Documentary-makers sometimes have to take liberties in order to make a film more interesting (take the excellent docu-drama 'Pumping Iron', for instance) but footage of an induced vomiting session seems far too contrived as a means of spicing up the film.  The same argument can also be aimed at Dave's insistence on travelling 1000 miles out of the original path in order to see a town which he saw as being appropriately named for the adventure (Independence), or his complete lack of foresight in filling a jerry-can with gas when he even commented on film how difficult it was to find an independent gas-station on the state highways.  If any insights were really gained by these contrivances, I would perhaps be less willing to heap scorn upon the film and yet, there's no epiphany, no real sense of Dave having overcome struggle in order to accomplish the trip.  Furthermore, having seen Ewan McGregor's and Charley Boorman's unparalleled 'The Long Way Round' again recently, I'm not sold on Gorman anymore.

"So, if I take the wheels off the car, I'm guaranteed instant drama?"

Wait, says you, Gorman's meant to be a comedian, he's not trying to match McGregor or Palin or any other travel documentarian.  Okay, I'll allow you that but on the other hand, the film isn't particularly funny.  Wait, you interrupt again, he's exhibiting a sense of adventure by taking the road far less travelled and this helps to motivate us to look at life in a completely different way.  Hmm.  Perhaps I'm being rather cynical as I've had far more interesting "adventures" that needed neither a quirky premise to set me off, nor drama created for the purposes of the trip.  Drama needs to be organic; stemming from a natural source-this is what helps to give the viewer real insight into the narrator/traveller.  Although it may be permissible to exaggerate or inflate the importance of certain events, stray too far down that path and the audience will start to become cautious. That's why I think 'The Long Way Round' succeeds where 'America Unchained' ultimately fails as a film: McGregor and Boorman stay with peoples from a variety of cultures, eat local foods, get into real conflict and, as a team, are genuinely funny together.  'America Unchained' doesn't really offer any of this-merely glimpses of a few of the small townspeople they encounter and vast stretches of American interstates. 

That being said, Gorman's film does show that brands and corporations rule America to a greater degree and that something fundamental is being lost by homogenising every convenience store/gas-station/motel across the nation.  Although, as this is not a political documentary, his message is nowhere near strong enough to be relevant and, let's be honest, it may be a moot point as most people tend to acknowledge the pervasiveness of corporations anyway.  It's a real shame, too, since the potential for a much more powerful message does exist in the film when we meet genuinely kind American families and are afforded a glimpse of how their lives are being transformed by the corporate behemoth; instead, it seems like Gorman treated it more like another drunken bet and accomplished little more with the film than a conversation piece for his friends on his return home.   


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"And they'll lay you down low and easy..."


-D.