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

Donald Shebib Donald Everett Shebib (27 January 1938 – 5 November 2023) was a Canadian film and television director. Shebib was a central figure in the development of English Canadian cinema who made several short documentaries for the National Film Board ...

, 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 ...

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

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

. It stars Doug McGrath, 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 '' Finders Keepers'' (1984), Judy the Waitress in '' The ...

and Cayle Chernin. 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 ( ') 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 Great Lakes#Geography, Upper Great Lakes. Ontario's first colonial administrator, ...

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. With his new wife he pursues a credit-driven lifestyle undreamt of back home, buying a new colour television, stereo, and furniture all 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, Pete and Joey 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 Western provinces of Canada, and commonly known within Canada as the West, is a list of regions of Canada, Canadian region that includes the four western provinces and t ...

. 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

* Doug McGrath as Peter McGraw * Paul Bradley as Joey Mayle *

as Betty * Cayle Chernin 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 (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian Public broadcasting, public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its E ...

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

received a $19,000 grant from the Canadian Film Development Corporation. The film was made on a budget of $85,000 ().

Release

The film opened at the New Yorker theater in Toronto and played for 22 weeks, a record for a Canadian film.

Reception

The film earned $150,000 () at the box office in its first two months. After 5 months of release in Canada, it had grossed $300,000. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' stated that the film was "the most impressive new work of realist cinema in years." The film won the award for Best Feature Film 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 ceremon ...

; McGrath and Bradley also jointly won the award for Best Actor.

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 most prestigious and largest publicly attended film festivals in the world. Founded in 1976, the festival takes place every year in early September. The organi ...

ranked it in the Top 10 Canadian Films of All Time four times, in 1984, 1993, 2004 and 2015. The

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

featured ''Goin' Down the Road'' as one of seven films for an exhibition to mark the 25th anniversary of Telefilm Canada in 1992.

Canada Post Canada Post Corporation (, trading as Canada Post (), is a Canadian Crown corporation that functions as the primary postal operator in Canada. Originally known as Royal Mail Canada (the operating name of the Post Office Department of the Can ...

created postage stamps featuring ten films, including ''Goin' Down the Road'', to mark the 100th anniversary of Canadian cinema in 1996. 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'' 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 Films about internal migration 1970s Canadian films English-language buddy drama films