''Goin' Down the Road'' is a 1970 Canadian film directed by

Donald Shebib Donald Everett "Don" Shebib (born 27 January 1938) is a Canadian film director. Shebib is a central figure in the development of English Canadian cinema who made several short documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada and CBC Televisi ...

, co-written by William Fruet and Donald Shebib. It tells the story of two young men who decide to leave

the Maritimes The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of Ca ...

, where jobs and fulfilling lives are hard to find, for the excitement and perceived riches of

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

. It stars

Doug McGrath Doug McGrath (born April 13, 1935) is a Canadian actor whose most notable role was that of "Peter" in the acclaimed Canadian film ''Goin' Down the Road'' (1970) and its sequel ''Down the Road Again'' (2011). He also played in acclaimed Canadia ...

, Paul Bradley,

Jayne Eastwood Jayne Eastwood (born December 17, 1946), also credited as Jane Easton or Jane Eastwood, is a Canadian actress and comedian. She is best known for her film roles as Anna-Marie Biddlecoff in the comedy film ''Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Wai ...

and

Cayle Chernin Cayle Vivian Chernin (December 4, 1947 – February 18, 2011) was a Canadian actress, writer, and producer born in Glace Bay, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. She began her career with a small, but important, role in Donald Shebib's Canad ...

. Despite the small production budget, the movie is generally regarded as one of the best and most influential Canadian films of all time and has received considerable critical acclaim for its writing, directing and acting.

Plot

Pete and Joey drive their 1960 Chevrolet Impala from their home on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to Toronto with the hope of meeting up with their relatives in the city who might be able to help them find jobs; but their relatives hide from what they see as the pair's uncouth behaviour and the two are set adrift in the city. The men find jobs at a local ginger-ale bottler for $80 per week, a job with tough working conditions that doesn't pay much better than what they could have had back home. They fill their days smoking, drinking beer, and hitting on young women along Toronto's busy

Yonge Street Yonge Street (; pronounced "young") is a major arterial route in the Canadian province of Ontario connecting the shores of Lake Ontario in Toronto to Lake Simcoe, a gateway to the Upper Great Lakes. Once the southernmost leg of provincial Hi ...

strip. They soon turn their good fortune into residency in a small apartment, which they decorate with centrefolds from men's magazines and movie posters. Both men start romances; Joey decides to get married when his girlfriend, Betty (Jayne Eastwood), becomes pregnant. He pursues a credit-driven lifestyle undreamt of back home with his wife, buying a new colour television, stereo, and furniture on an installment plan. Disaster strikes when Pete and Joey get laid off at the end of the summer and the trio are forced to move to a smaller, less-comfortable apartment. Pete and Joey find new jobs washing cars and resetting pins in a bowling alley but at much smaller wages than what they received at the bottling factory. Tensions mount at the crowded living situation and the lack of money begins to wear on them, and Betty tells Joey she will soon need to stop working at her waitressing job because of her pregnancy. Pete accuses Joey of not making enough money to support his share of the costs, and Betty resents Pete for making the accusation. Unable to find steady work and with bills to pay and Joey and Betty's baby on the way, they resort to stealing food from a local supermarket. The caper results in a grocery clerk being assaulted by the pair when he tries to prevent the robbery. Pete and Joey return to their apartment in the morning to find Betty gone and their possessions on the street, after the police came in search of them and their landlord evicted them as troublemakers. Broke, homeless, wanted by the police for theft and assault, and with Betty staying with her aunt and uncle, the pair decide to pawn the rented colour TV set for money in order to make it out to

Western Canada Western Canada, also referred to as the Western provinces, Canadian West or the Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a Canadian region that includes the four western provinces just north of the Canada� ...

. Pete convinces Joey that husbands leave their wives "all the time" and Joey agrees to leave Betty and her unborn child in Toronto, as she will slow them down. The film concludes much as it began, with Pete and Joey driving west in search of greener pastures.

Cast

as Peter McGraw * Paul Bradley as Joey Mayle *

as Betty *

as Selina * Nicole Morin as Nicole * Pierre La Roche as "Frenchie" La Roche * Don Steinhouse as Plant Co-worker * Ted Sugar as Plant Co-worker * Ron Martin as Plant Co-worker

Production

''Goin' Down the Road'' was initially pitched to the

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

as ''The Maritimers'', a television drama.

received a $19,000 grant from the

Canadian Film Development Corporation Telefilm Canada is a Crown corporation reporting to Canada's federal government through the Minister of Canadian Heritage. Headquartered in Montreal, Telefilm provides services to the Canadian audiovisual industry with four regional offices in V ...

. The film was made on a budget of $85,000 ().

Reception

The film earned $150,000 () at the box office in its first two months. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' stated that the film was "the most impressive new work of realist cinema in years." The film won the Best Feature Film and Best Actor awards at the

22nd Canadian Film Awards The 22nd Canadian Film Awards were held on October 3, 1970 to honour achievements in Canadian film.Maria Topalovich, ''And the Genie Goes To...: Celebrating 50 Years of the Canadian Film Awards''. Stoddart Publishing, 2000. . pp. 89-91. The ceremo ...

Legacy

This film has been designated and preserved as a "masterwork" by the

Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada The Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada (or the AV Trust). originally the Alliance for the Preservation of Canada's Audio-Visual Heritage,Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

ranked it in the

Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time The Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time is a list compiled by the Toronto International Film Festival ranking what are the considered the best Canadian films. The list has been compiled once roughly every 10 years starting in 1984, typically assembl ...

four times, in 1984, 1993, 2004 and 2015. In 2002, readers of '' Playback'' voted it the 5th greatest Canadian film of all-time. In 2010, Shebib announced that a sequel film was in production."Donald Shebib Is Back On the Road Again"
''Torontoist'', October 20, 2010. ''

Down the Road Again ''Down the Road Again'' is a 2011 Canadian drama film written and directed by Donald Shebib. The film is the sequel to Shebib's 1970 film ''Goin' Down the Road''. Plot Forty years after the events of ''Goin' Down the Road'', Joey has died in V ...

'' was released in October 2011. A digital restoration of the original ''Goin' Down the Road'' was released in 2017.

References

Works cited

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goin' Down the Road 1970 films Best Picture Genie and Canadian Screen Award winners 1970s buddy drama films Canadian independent films Canadian drama road movies English-language Canadian films 1970s English-language films Films directed by Donald Shebib Films set in Toronto Films shot in Nova Scotia Films set in Nova Scotia Media containing Gymnopedies Films about labour Films about poverty 1970s drama road movies Mass media portrayals of the working class Termination of employment in popular culture Works about internal migrations 1970s Canadian films