Goin' Down the Road
| Goin' Down the Road | |
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Promotional movie poster for the film
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| Directed by | Donald Shebib |
| Produced by | Donald Shebib |
| Written by |
William Fruet Donald Shebib |
| Starring |
Doug McGrath Paul Bradley Jayne Eastwood Cayle Chernin |
| Music by | Bruce Cockburn |
| Cinematography | Richard Leiterman |
| Edited by | Donald Shebib |
| Distributed by | Chevron Pictures |
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Release date
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Running time
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90 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | CAD 87,000 (estimate) or USD 78,000 |
Goin' Down the Road is a key 1970 Canadian film directed by Donald Shebib, co-written by William Fruet and Don Shebib. It chronicles the lives of two young men from the Maritimes to Toronto, chronicling their hopes of finding a better life. It stars Doug McGrath, Paul Bradley, Jayne Eastwood and Cayle Chernin. Despite the lack of a large 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.
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 minimum-wage jobs at a local ginger-ale bottler for $80 per week, much better pay than anything they could have found back home despite the tough working conditions. They fill their days smoking, drinking beer, and hitting on young women along Toronto's busy Yonge Street strip.
They soon turn their good fortune into residency in a small apartment, which they decorate with centerfolds 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.
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Wikipedia