It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988)

Director:

Richard Linklater

Writer:

Richard Linklater (concept)

Stars:

Richard Linklater, James Goodwin, Dan Kratochvil

Cast

Cast overview:
Richard Linklater
James Goodwin
Dan Kratochvil	...	(as Daniel Kratochvil)
Linda Finney
Tracy Crabtree
Linda Levine
Lisa Schiebold
Erin McAfee
D. Montgomery
Scott Van Horn
Daniel Johnston
Tammy Gomez
Keith McCormack

Storyline

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Plot Keywords:

friend | newspaper | automobile junkyard | reference to bob dylan | electric fan | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Box Office

Budget:

$3,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Detour Filmproduction

Technical Specs

Runtime:

85 min

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The scene where Richard Linklater leaves a note for the sleeping woman is not staged. While waiting for their respective departures, the woman actually fell asleep and Linklater filmed his writing of the goodbye note before he left. In the audio commentary, Linklater admitted to wondering what became of her since.

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Crazy Credits

Instead of listing the names of several family members featured in the film, it instead reads "Various Family" during the end credits.

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Connections

Features The Killing (1956)

User Reviews

"It is dull, dreary..."

It Is Impossible to Learn to Plow By Reading Books: There is a scene in Richard Linklater's It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books where the protagonist meets a woman at a train station. They nervously chat for a little while and fall asleep in the lobby of the train station. Then, our protagonist wakes up and leaves a note on the stranger's luggage. This scene has more poignancy in it, and a stronger feeling of isolation in it, than all one hundred and two minutes of Lost in Translation. Learn to Plow creates an entire banal world of lobbies, passenger carts, and tiny bathrooms. It is dull, dreary, and sad.