Henry Jaglom’s ‘Tracks’ Is a Masterpiece of Post-Vietnam Cinema — Watch the Trailer for the New Restoration

Jaglom's body of work is one of the most important in American independent cinema, and now it's returning the big screen thanks to a major new restoration effort from Cinématographe and Hope Runs High.

Henry Jaglom, who died last year at the age of 87, was one of the true icons of American independent film. A maverick who made movies so idiosyncratic and antiestablishment that he made John Cassavetes look like Chris Columbus. An actor by training, Jaglom was obsessed with capturing the human condition in all its messiness and contradictions, a goal he pursued in 22 character-driven films that were exhilarating, frustrating, moving, and hilarious in equal measures.

Because he generally operated outside the system, financing his films independently and self-distributing them through his Rainbow Film Company, Jaglom was never particularly well-known outside of art houses and festivals; his first foray into studio filmmaking, 1971’s “A Safe Place” (which Columbia financed thanks to Jaglom’s participation as an editorial consultant on the smash hit “Easy Rider”), was also his last — by mutual agreement, the studios and Henry Jaglom were never a comfortable match.

While many of Jaglom’s contemporaries, like Cassavetes and Melvin Van Peebles, have seen their work frequently revived on home video and the repertory circuit, Jaglom has remained largely on the margins. That’s hopefully about to change thanks to a major restoration effort from physical media label Cinématographe and theatrical distributor Hope Runs High, who are collaborating to bring newly remastered editions of 11 of Jaglom’s features back to the big screen as well as Blu-ray.

“Henry Jaglom: American Maverick” is an ongoing series of new 4K restorations that began with 1983’s “Can She Bake a Cherry Pie” and now continues with a gorgeous release of Jaglom’s second feature, the 1976 drama “Tracks.” The restoration will have its theatrical premiere on November 11 (Veteran’s Day, appropriately given the film’s Vietnam War-adjacent subject matter) at the Roxy Cinema, where Cinématographe’s Justin LaLiberty will participate in a post-screening Q&A with Jaglom’s offspring (and frequent collaborators) Simon Jaglom and Sabrina Jaglom, moderated by Taylor Purdee.

“Tracks” is one of Jaglom’s best films, and a bit of an outlier in his work given its explicitly political concerns. Dennis Hopper plays a Vietnam vet accompanying the body of a fallen colleague on its train ride home; over the course of the journey, Hopper moves wildly from one emotional extreme to another, mirroring the cracks and conflicts at the heart of American culture in the war’s aftermath.

Like Cassavetes, Jaglom tended to be almost single-mindedly focused on interpersonal relationships — romantic ones, but also friendships and rivalries between men and between women. Overt political commentary wasn’t really his thing, but in “Tracks” he brilliantly encapsulates the madness of an era via his typically eccentric and complex characterizations. Hopper’s trip consists of a series of episodic interactions with fellow passengers that run the gamut from leftist radical to government fink, and the episodes feel like disconnected digressions until the full picture of what Jaglom is up to emerges in the film’s shattering final moments.

To see any Jaglom film projected is an opportunity that shouldn’t be missed, this sublime new presentation of “Tracks” — it certainly hasn’t looked or sounded this good since its release thanks to the new 4K, 16-bit scan of the 35mm original camera negative undertaken by Vinegar Syndrome — is a major repertory event. If you can’t make the Roxy screening — hell, even if you can — the restoration of “Tracks” is also included, along with beautiful transfers of “Can She Bake a Cherry Pie?” and Jaglom’s 1980 comedy “Sitting Ducks,” in Cinématographe’s new limited edition boxed set, “The Films of Henry Jaglom: Volume 1.”

Below, take a look at the trailer for the new restoration, an IndieWire exclusive.

The new restoration of “Tracks” will premiere on Veteran’s Day at the Roxy Cinema. For more information and tickets visit the theater’s website.