Both an art film in its own right and a parody of the genre of the European art film, Hallelujah the Hills details in nonlinear fashion the story of a romantic triangle set in rural Vermont. Jack (Beard) and Leo (Greenbaum) both love Vera, whom Mekas has cast with two different actresses to capture each man’s image of the “ideal woman.” Filled with cinematic homages to silent comedy, the work of the New Wave, and even the samurai cycle of Kurosawa’s cinema, the film parallels the romantic pursuits with a critical portrait of western machismo. While Mekas was a Lithuanian émigré, his film was recognized by the British film journal Sight and Sound as “one of the most completely American films ever made.”