GOIN' DOWN THE ROAD

Canada, 1970, 88 minutes, Colour.
Doug Mc Grath, Paul Bradley.
Directed by Donald Shebib.

Goin' Down the Road is a good Canadian film, made with the assistance of the Canadian government. It tells the story of two labourers from Nova Scotia who hope for something better in the city, who manage to survive and enjoy themselves for a while, but who become victims of city pressures and fail to take their responsibilities.

The theme sounds like a T.V. documentary feature theme and the whole film is reminiscent of the features made by people like Kenneth Loach, Cathy Come Home or Poor Cow, as well as the excellent short stories made by the National Canadian Film Board, like Phoebe or No Reason to Stay. Acting is excellent, so natural that it is hard to believe the principal characters are actors and we follow their work, enjoyment, hardships as if a T.V. news crew were continually following them and showing their lives as they happen.

A slice of life, the film does not arrive at any conclusions. nor does it fully get inside the characters it observes to help us understand deeply how they 'tick'. But, as a film of observation and picturing of Canadian city life, 1970, the kind of life lived in any English speaking city anywhere in the world. it is very good.

1. How long did it take for you to get interested in the principal characters of the film?

2. How typical were Pete and Joey? Why did they come to the city? What did they hope to gain? How naive were they?

3. Comment on the scene in the Salvation Army shelter. What 'gave them the creeps'?

4. What was the significance of Pete's interview for a job in advertising? What did the sequence tell you of Pete?

5. What did the pair live for? How important was their work, drinking, having a good time, girls? Pete tells his friend that he wants something better in life than working in a factory with nothing to show for it. His friend can't even see what he is getting at. Why?

6. How was the theme of relationships and communications developed in the film? Why did Joey fall in love with Betty? Why couldn't Pete communicate with the other girl?

7. Was the wedding sequence well done? Why?

8. How much dream was in Joey's and Betty's buying the flat with all mod cons?

9. How did you feel when the two were put off work? Was this fair?

10. why would the three living in the one room be inevitably unsatisfactory? How did the film show this?

11. Why did the shoplifting plan at the supermarket go wrong?

12. Do people like Pete and Joey bash people and then run off to lie low, avoiding responsibility?

13. What did the film communicate to you about the life and attitudes and yearnings of the ordinary person in the street? Was this a compassionate film?