''High-Ballin'' is a 1978 Canadian-American action drama film about truckers directed by Peter Carter. The US release was rated PG, with a runtime of 97 minutes. The film primarily depicts a confrontation between a trucker boss and independent truckers. The boss uses a criminal gang to intimidate his rivals, but he is eventually double-crossed by the gang leader. The film has been viewed as a

contemporary Western Contemporary Western is a subgenre of the Western genre that includes contemporary settings and uses Old West themes, archetypes, and motifs, such as a rebellious antihero, open plains and desert landscapes, or gunfights. This sub-genre inclu ...

, transferring

Old West The American frontier, also known as the Old West, and popularly known as the Wild West, encompasses the geography, history, folklore, and culture associated with the forward wave of American expansion in mainland North America that bega ...

themes into a contemporary setting.

Plot

Jerry Reed Jerry Reed Hubbard (March 20, 1937 – September 1, 2008), known professionally as Jerry Reed, was an American country singer, guitarist, composer, songwriter and actor who appeared in more than a dozen films. His signature songs included " Gui ...

plays the "Iron Duke", an independent trucker who stands up to the local trucker boss, King Carroll, who tries to drive independent truckers out of business through intimidation tactics by a gang led by his partner Harvey. Duke's friend Rane, played by

Peter Fonda Peter Henry Fonda (February 23, 1940 – August 16, 2019) was an American actor, film director, and screenwriter. He was a two-time Academy Award nominee, both for acting and screenwriting, and a two-time Golden Globe Award winner for his a ...

, comes to visit his friend and ends up helping him. Rane and "Pickup" (seemingly the only female truck driver, played by

Helen Shaver Helen Shaver (born February 24, 1951) is a Canadian actress and film and television director. After appearing in a number of Canadian movies, she received a Canadian Screen Award for Best Actress for her performance in the romantic drama '' In P ...

) suggest hauling a load of illegal liquor to a

lumber camp A logging camp (or lumber camp) is a transitory work site used in the logging industry. Before the second half of the 20th century, these camps were the primary place where lumberjacks would live and work to fell trees in a particular area. Many ...

, in order to become secure enough to resist King and Harvey's pressure, and thus inspiring other independents to resist as well. Duke is shot, and Rane organizes the other truckers to confront King and Harvey. Pickup is kidnapped by Harvey. Back at King's headquarters, Harvey knocks Pickup unconscious, shooting King when he protests. As the truckers arrive and fight King's men, Harvey puts Pickup in his car and drives away. Rane sees Harvey and gives chase. When Harvey stops, he and Rane confront each other in a fight. Both men draw their weapons and Rane shoots Harvey, then embraces Pickup. At the end of the film, Rane drives away in Pickup's truck. The film was described as "a modern day western, with trucks instead of horses." Another observer said it could be summarized as "Pow, crash, screw, fight, collide, punch, slam, crash, screw." While set ostensibly in the United States, the

CN Tower The CN Tower () is a communications and observation tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Completed in 1976, it is located in downtown Toronto, built on the former Railway Lands. Its name "CN" referred to Canadian National, the railway co ...

appears in the background during the film's climax, and all vehicles carry Ontario plates.

Cast

as Rane *

as "Iron Duke" Boykin *

as "Pickup" *

Chris Wiggins Christopher John Wiggins (January 13, 1931 – February 19, 2017) was a Canadian actor. Career Wiggins was born January 13, 1931, in Blackpool, England. He started out as a banker in his home country before he began his acting career in Canada ...

as "King" Carroll * David Ferry as Harvey *

Harvey Atkin Elliot Harvey Atkin (18 December 1942 – 18 July 2017) was a Canadian actor. He was best known for his roles as Morty Melnick in ''Meatballs'', Sergeant Ronald Coleman in '' Cagney & Lacey'', and for voicing King Koopa in '' The Super Mario Bro ...

as "Buzz" * Michael Hogan as Reggie *

Michael Ironside Frederick Reginald Ironside (born February 12, 1950), known professionally as Michael Ironside, is a Canadian actor. A prominent character actor with over 270 film and television credits, he is known for playing villains and antiheroes, but has ...

as Butch Myrna Lorrie and

Prairie Oyster Prairie Oyster was a Canadian country music group from Toronto, Ontario. They were named Country Group or Duo of the year six times by both the Canadian Country Music Association (CCMA) and the Juno Awards. The band also won the Bud Country Fan ...

also perform musical scenes in the film.

Production

The film was Jon Slan's first large-budget venture. During production, the

working title A working title is a preliminary name for a product or project. The usage is especially common in film and TV, gaming, music and publishing. It is often styled in trade publications as (wt) and is synonymous with production title and tentative ...

was ''P.F. Flyer'', but ''High-Ballin was adopted during the course of filming. Its

shooting schedule A shooting schedule is a project plan of each day's shooting for a film production. It is normally created and managed by the assistant director, who reports to the production manager managing the production schedule and production board. Both ...

was 10 weeks, between October and December 1977. The film was filmed in and around

Milton, Ontario Milton (Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population 132,979) is a town in Southern Ontario, Canada, and part of the Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region in the Greater Toronto Area. Between 2001 and 2011, Milton was the fastest growing m ...

, the

Toronto waterfront The Toronto waterfront is the lakeshore of Lake Ontario in the city of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It spans 46 kilometres between the mouth of Etobicoke Creek in the west and the Rouge River (Ontario), Rouge River in the east. History L ...

and rural roads north 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 ...

(in the Kleinburg and

Vaughan Vaughan ( ) (2022 population 344,412) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increa ...

areas), with notable scenes shot at the

Fifth Wheel The fifth-wheel coupling provides the link between a semi-trailer and the towing truck, tractor unit, leading trailer or dolly (trailer), dolly. The coupling consists of a kingpin (automotive part), kingpin, a vertical steel pin protruding ...

in Milton and a small farmhouse near Kleinburg. In

special effects Special effects (often abbreviated as F/X or simply FX) are illusions or visual tricks used in the theatre, film, television, video game, amusement park and simulator industries to simulate the fictional events in a story or virtual world. ...

, it featured a "flaming cannon roll" which had not previously been attempted in a motion picture.

Release and reception

''High-Ballin was released in Toronto on May 26, 1978, but it was not seen in Los Angeles until August 30. Its television release was on November 28, 1978, when it was seen on

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

. The ''Independent Film Journal'' noted that "although High-Ballin' is no great shakes in terms of original storytelling, director Peter Carter provides a good deal more polish and flash than one might expect of the raucous road genre." In ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division. The newspaper was establis ...

'', Clyde Gilmour said, "This is a

popcorn Popcorn (also called popped corn, popcorns, or pop-corn) is a variety of corn kernel which expands and puffs up when heated. The term also refers to the snack food produced by the expansion. It is one of the oldest snacks, with evidence of p ...

movie, intended to be half-watched while your mind is toying with other matters." The ''Motion Picture Product Digest'' characterized it as an

exploitation film An exploitation film is a film that seeks commercial success by capitalizing on current trends, niche genres, or sensational content. Exploitation films often feature themes such as suggestive or explicit sex, sensational violence, drug use, nudi ...

, describing it as " xistingnot to provide any kind of realistic picture of the trucking industry today but to exploit it for a standard action movie with lots of violence." ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

'' characterized the film thus: It has also been released under the title ''Death Toll'' and was made available in

video Video is an Electronics, electronic medium for the recording, copying, playback, broadcasting, and display of moving picture, moving image, visual Media (communication), media. Video was first developed for mechanical television systems, whi ...

format in 1989.Rotten Tomatoes

References

External links