''It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books'' is a 1988 American

road film A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

written, produced, and directed by Richard Linklater, who also stars in it.

Plot

The protagonist (played by Linklater) receives a cassette tape from a friend, with a recorded message encouraging him to "blow off school" and leave Austin. The protagonist goes about his daily activities, including shooting a gun from his window. He gets on a train and after a long journey, meets his friend in

Missoula, Montana Missoula ( ; fla, label= Séliš, Nłʔay, lit=Place of the Small Bull Trout, script=Latn; kut, Tuhuⱡnana, script=Latn) is a city in the U.S. state of Montana; it is the county seat of Missoula County. It is located along the Clark Fork ...

. They visit Glacier National Park and walk through town, before the protagonist leaves to visit West Coast cities such as San Francisco, also by train. He arrives back in Austin, only to travel to a family reunion and his mother's house. Finally, the protagonist returns to Austin once again.

Production

Richard Linklater began making short films upon moving to Austin, Texas in the late 1980s, where he also began running the Austin Film Society. The film was shot on Super 8 film over the course of a year.

Release

The film never received a widespread release, but was made available as a bonus feature on the

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

and

Blu-ray The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and capable of st ...

release of Linklater's film ''

Slacker A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic. Origin According to different sources, the term ''slacker'' dates back to about 1790 or 1898. "Slacker" gained some recognition during the British Gezira Scheme in the early ...

'' (1990) by

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

References

External links

* 1988 films 1988 comedy-drama films American comedy-drama films 1980s English-language films Films directed by Richard Linklater American independent films 1988 directorial debut films 1980s American films {{1980s-comedy-drama-film-stub