HWY: An American Pastoral

The main project was written and directed by Jim Morrison

The original, barely structured HWY screenplay, published in 1990,[6] contained many differences to the actual 1969 film version. The film was based on Morrison's experiences as a hitchhiker during his student days. As a college student Morrison had regularly been commuting as a hitchhiker from Tallahassee 280 miles to meet his then girlfriend Mary Werbelow in Clearwater.[7][8] Morrison financed the low-budget film project through his company "HiWay Productions". The production of HWY was supported by Morrison's friends Paul Ferrara, Frank Lisciandro and Babe Hill.[9]

Parts of the movie were meant to be used for fundraising purposes in order to complete the whole project.[10] As soon as October 1969 the film story was outpaced, though, by the Tate-Labianca murders which were carried out by members of the Manson Family in Los Angeles and shattered the American public. Morrison showed HWY during his second stay in Paris in early 1971. The film was publicly shown in Vancouver on March 27, 1970.[5] An audio sequence from the film was published on the Doors' spoken word album An American Prayer in 1978.

It has been suggested that the inspiration for the protagonist in the film, played by Morrison, with the script name "Billy" was inspired by the real hitchhiking serial killer Billy Cook who murdered six people on a 22-day rampage between Missouri and California in 1950–51.[2] Morrison himself acknowledged this in a 1970 interview with The Village Voice, and admitted Cook as an influence in the work.[11]

HWY was shot on a 35mm,[12] Arriflex camera.[2] A list of filming locations are available.[5] Morrison's own car, a 1967 Shelby GT500 was used in the film.[13] In his 2007 book, Flash of Eden, co-director Paul Ferrara details Morrison's originally grander overarching vision for the film, anecdotes from the days shooting and finally his eventual satisfaction with the "unfinished" work.[14] Similarly, Paul Ferrara's YouTube channel hosts behind the scenes footage of the making of The Hitchhiker, which was the working title for what would later become HWY,[15] together with a video described as Jim Morrison/"HWY" (directors cut) which includes an opening crawl of text that describes the historical context during which the film was shot.[16]

The film's music credits are given to Fred Myrow and sound engineer Bruce Botnick,[5] although the soundtrack was composed by Paul and Georgia Ferrara.[17] Fred Myrow also served as the score's producer, with additional material from ethnic and world music recordings.[18]