Der Westentaschen-Cowboy

A little known Canadian movie about a small town hockey star that lives life thinking the world revolves around him. The nude shower scene,very risqué for it's time, is still one of the most poignant, real,raw, and honest scenes ever put to screen. Critics who felt that the movie didn't accurately depict the reality of life have never experienced life as portrayed in this movie. In fact even today there are many people who still act just like the character of Rick Dylan, a quick look into the issues that continue to occur with athletes at some US Colleges proves that. If this had been a movie made south of the border it would probably be a classic!

Paperback Hero is this year's (2006) selection for the Toronto International Film Festival's Canadian Open Vault program, which is an annual special presentation of a recently restored iconic Canadian film. It's an honest, emotional, and lovingly presented portrayal of a small-town big-shot, Rick Dillon (Keir Dullea), whose loves and life are in a mess.

Beautifully written (Barry Pearson and Les Rose), directed (Peter Pearson -- no relation to the writer), and shot (Don Wilder), the film shows off Saskatchewan in sometimes stark, sometimes glowing splendor.

It's a treat to see Dullea, Elizabeth Ashley, John Beck, and Dayle Haddon as they looked in 1973, all of them portraying very convincingly the characters whose lives are circumscribed by the confines of a small prairie town.

Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind", kicks up the emotional lift another notch. The original title of the film was to be "Last of the Big Guns", but after Lightfoot agreed to provide the music, the title changed to Paperback Hero, highlighted by the words from the song:

"If I could read your mind love

What a tale your thoughts could tell

Just like a paperback novel

The kind that drugstores sell

When you reach the part where the heartaches come

The hero would be me

But heroes often fail

And you wont read that book again

Because the ending's just too hard to take..."

The movie isn't very good at any level. But it does have a nifty shower scene with Dullea and Ashley. To show how far Canadian movies have come, try seeing this and The Sweet Hereafter back to back. That is if you can get through this one.

I managed to get a VHS copy a few years back, and burned it to DVD-R for posterity.

Perhaps I'm oversimplifying by describing it as a "Canadian 'Breathless'", but I still find that the shortest good description I can come up with.

A lot less use of the Gordon Lightfoot music than I recall from years of watching it on Canadian TV, but that may just be fading memory rather than VHS music licensing problems.

I also liked 'Slipstream' http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0072181/combined more than another reviewer, but some people look at movies as dreams they'd like to be in and some look at them like they were traffic accidents, so there's always going to be disagreements...

I have to admit I first acquired this film so I could see Liz Ashley's nude shower scene and she did look great, but the rest of the film was not nearly as bad as I was afraid it was going to be. Despite his 2001 immortality as Star Child Dave Bowman,I have never been a big Keir Dullea fan. I always remember Noel Coward's observation after seeing Bunny Lake is Missing, "Keir Dullea gone tomorrow". The movie does have a certain charm and Dullea plays his child/man who refuses to grow up role with some vigor

It's a bit dated now but if you're into the 1970's or primitive Canadian cinema, or you are hot for Elizabeth Ashley as I was, you might wish to seek this out. As far as I know it hasn't been released on DVD. I still have my VHS copy, however. Although the color is starting to fade