Goin' down the road

TAKE ONE, June-Sept, 2004 by Wyndham Wise

1970 87m producer, director and editor Donald Shebib, script William Fruet, cinematographer Richard Leiterman, music Bruce Cockburn; with Doug McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood, Cayle Chernin, Pierre La Roche and Nicole Morin

Pete and his pal Joey are two wistful roustabouts from the Maritimes with 30 bucks and an abused Chevrolet labelled "My Nova Scotia Home." They pick up and head for Toronto where they find temporary work in a soft-drink factory, drown their troubles in beer, and make various futile attempts to improve themselves. Joey marries a woman he has made pregnant, then loses his job. After robbing a food store, Pete and Joey, still believing there is a better life somewhere, take to the road once again. Don Shebib's first feature is easily the most influential English-Canadian film of its generation with pitch-perfect performances by Doug McGrath (Pete) and Paul Bradley (Joey), and the film is still an impressive piece of realist cinema. Its intelligent blend of fiction and documentary realism gives it a clarity and insight into the lives of marginal people sharing a universal burden of existence, unable to cope with their own aspirations but never losing their dignity.

AWARDS: Canadian Film Awards--Best Feature Film, Actor (McGrath and Bradley); AV Trust--Masterwork