Goin Down the Road (1970)

Goin Down the Road is a Canadian film written by William Fruet and directed by Donald Shebib. The film tells the story of two friends, Peter and Joey, who leave Cape Breton in order to find jobs and success in Toronto. The film was a critical and financial success.The film was shot by well-known Canadian cinematographer, Richard Leiterman, and starred Doug McGrath and Paul Bradley in the lead roles.

Plot Synopsis
The film begins in Cape Breton, showing images of impoverished neighborhoods and dilapitated homes. Pete and Joey go into a beatup Chevy spraypainted with the words, "My Nova Scotia Home". They drive to Toronto, with $30 between them. They end up at the Salvation Army Hostel, and eventually find work in a bottling factory. Joey marries a young woman named Betty (Jayne Eastwood). They move into an apartment together. Their jobs eventually fall through and, strapped for cash, Pete convinces Joey to help him steal some groceries. They are caught in the act, and they must run. They leave Toronto, 'goin down the road' with just their Chevy.

Success
The film was extremely low budget, costing only $75,000CDN to make at the time. Shebib also recieved $19,000 in funds from the Canadian Film Development Corporation to produce the film. The film grossed $150,000 in its first two months ; one of the key reasons it was such a financial success was because it cost so little to make

At the Canadian Film Awards, the film won several awards, including "Feature Film of the Year". In addition, its two male leads, Doug McGrath and Paul Bradley, shared the award for Best Actor.

Critical Responses
Robert Fothergill believes that 'Goin Down the Road' is a prime example of a "younger brother" tendency in Canadian films. He argues that male characters in Canadian film suffer from a spirit of 'collective debility' ; whereas male American film characters are strong role models (handsome sheriffs, heroic GIs, or triumphant detectives, Fothergill refers to the male leads in films such as Nobody Waved Goodbye, The Luck of Ginger Coffey,The Rowdyman, and Goin Down the Road,noting that the male characters in Canadian film are pathetic and defeated. He attributes this to the fact that in many ways, Canadians feel like their nation is a 'younger brother' to the culturally similar, more successful United States. Margaret Atwood has also built upon Fothergill's victim metaphor, popularizing it in her novel "Survival: A Thematic Guide to Canadian Literature" (1972).

In 1985, George Pevere attempted a reassessment of Canadian male film characters, wherein he confirmed Fothergill's analysis. To the analysis, he added that this prototypical image of Canadians in film (the 'veritable legacy of losers, creeps and thoughtless heels") is a result of the 'psycho-cultural humiliation' derived from the Canadian film industry's failure in competing with 'big brother at what the big buy does best: making movies'.

Christine Ramsay has countered this argument, saying that it is "basic... but incomplete". Instead, she argues a more complex reading of the characters in 'Goin Down the Road' and other Canadian cinema. Ramsay examines dynamica of gender, religion, class and culture in the film,and concludes that it is a study of the tension between the margin and the centre in Canada, and the socio-economic aspects of that tension. She Believes that 'Goin Down the road is about the problem of national definition in English Canada: in particular, the problem created by Toronto's status as the centre of Canada's social and personal identity and economic prosperity as seen from the peripheral perspective of two marginalized Canadian men'. Not every Canadian man is a loser; the ruling elite in Toronto are a prime example of winners in the Canadian context. The losers "are the poor, uneducated, working class from have-not regions that are exploited by capitalism". To extrapolate this identity to all Canadians would not be accurate because it covers up the class and regional divisions that are deeply intrenched.