User reviews

It took me 30+ years to find this film (on video) after being on a TOP TEN list in 1970 by a cool critic. I got a clean copy on Ebay that plays out (like FIVE EASY PIECES) as a mood piece of the times, fascinating character study, and overall good film of the BEST year of films overall (1970) with unknown actors.

Find this one. You won't regret it and you don't have to be Canadian or from the Golden 70's. Heartbreakingly realistic but humorous...at the most bleak and surreal moments and MacGrath and the others will smoke and live in real time before your eyes..it's not dated. Donald Shebib (whatever happened to this cool guy?) directed like a young M. Scorsese (with unknowns) that you'll never forget. Find it or you'll never be able to listen to THE DOORS again with a clean conscience.

They just don't make them this way anymore. I'm an American viewed, but appreciated the importance of this film in Canada. The film has a highly realistic, "70s feel" grittiness with a pace that always keeps you interested. This is not meant to be a crowd pleasing film. Worth a view.

After reading so many good reviews on this film and seeing an in-depth and up-to-date documentary with some of the cast members and Trailer Park Boys' writer/producer/director Mike Clattenburg I finally caught an airing of this film on the IFCC. It's more a drama than a comedy though you can't help but laugh at these poor guys. Pete and Joey are a pair of East Coast bumpkins who come to Toronto for a better life, but they now face a new series of hurdles as they try to fit in to the metropolis but only land a string of short term manufacturing jobs. Life gets tougher and eventually becomes worse as they drift through a period of structural unemployment.

Cool to see the backdrop filming locations along the downtown Yonge/Dundas street corner and an old Loblaws sign. And when did grocery packers last wear bowties? Then there's a cameo with Stompin' Tom Connors who looks almost exactly today as he did back then. Few copies of a DVD release but one must see the televised documentary (seen on Star! and the Drive-In Classics channel) to complete the whole story.

Fans of The Trailer Park Boys TV series may enjoy this film for the story, though fans of the original cult horror hit Black Christmas, another Toronto filmed project that included Doug McGrath among the cast, may find Going' Down The Road interesting just to catch a glimpse of the city of Toronto, the way it was in the seventies.

I first saw this movie about 25 years ago and was absolutely struck by it's authentic feel. I'm about the same age as the 2 main actors, Doug McGrath and Paul Bradley and although I was born in Ontario, I clearly recall the tremendous influx of 18 - 25 year old men from Newfoundland and Nova Scotia during the 60s and 70s. I worked with several of them and as far as they were concerned, Ontario was the promised land. When they arrived, they were invariably stunned by the promise of it all. High wages, new cars, nice clothes, bright lights, and parties. Everything a boy from the pastoral East coast of Canada dreams of. They loved it all and were about the most friendly people you could ever hope to meet. They worked hard and loved to party.

At times, it was like there was a revolving door between Ontario and the Maritimes. Some of these young men were as steady as rocks and were destined to stay, marry, have children and live out their lives in Ontario. Others were impatient and quickly grew disillusioned. They'd simply pack up and move further West to the next new promised land, British Columbia. Still others came to Ontario with dreams of wealth and standing that they felt they could never attain in the Maritimes. When the dream failed to materialize, they returned to their East Coast homes, disappointed but happy that they gave it a try.

In retrospect, it was like I was caught in the center of a huge social experiment. The wave of young men from the maritimes came unexpectedly in the early 60s and and disappeared just as quickly in the early 70s. It was a period of global readjustment and personal introspection. People wanted to see if there was something more and went out to find it.

When I first happened upon this movie, I thought I was watching a documentary. It has the look and feel of a documentary and this effect is reinforced by the actors who deliver their lines in a manner that seems unrehearsed. The movie is a totally and completely accurate portrayal of the fate that met many young male adventurers from the maritimes.

This is a good movie. It shows up every few months in the wee hours of the morning. The next time you see the title, turn it on a prepare for an interesting trek through the social and cultural landscape of the 1960s.

This film has been criticized for many things (poor acting, poor direction among them). However, it is still widely regarded in Canada as an incredibly good film. While it's true that we in Canada may keep a special place in our hearts for the film because of the subject matter (two men from rural Nova Scotia who move to Toronto to start a new life), the film still holds water even to a non-Canadian.

Like the men in the film, both of my parents moved to Toronto from Nova Scotia to start a new life in the Canadian "promises land". And like the film, they did it in the same era (1968-9). And, like the film, my father resorted to stealing food from a grocery store to eat. It is these facts that makes the film so special to me.

The plight of these two gentlemen is so common in Southern Ontario that I think it actually helped propel this film into the cult status it still maintains today. The film is earthy, gritty and has documentary-style camera work that makes it believable. The use of an actual audio clip of a distraught woman crying in the hallway of a boarding house (used in the scene when our heroes are trying to sleep their first night in their new boarding house room) and the real alcoholic war veterans interacting with the film's stars make this film so real, it's disturbing. Hollywood could take a few cues from this movie.

Frankly, I think the acting is superb. Then again, I think that the method acting and melodramatic style used in film like Gone With The Wind is disgusting and plastic. The director's role in this film was clearly leading his troops very well. I highly recommend this incredibly well done film.

I stumbled upon this low budget Canadian movie while flipping channels, and although somewhat slow in areas, its grittiness and realism gripped my attention from beginning to end. At first it appeared to be a Canadian version of "Midnight Cowboy" which was released a year earlier, however as the movie progressed it became obvious that the story being told was different.

The heros, Pete and Joey, are high school dropouts from the economically depressed east coast (Nova Scotia), who like so many others travel to the big city (Toronto), in search of a better life. Their enthusiasm is quickly dashed, and they settle into a series of minimum wage jobs, ranging from factory work to washing cars. As the underdogs I couldn't help routing for them, in particular Pete has aspirations for better jobs and dating classier women. However Joey's interest in Toronto's nightlife, working class women and constant beer drinking holds his friend back. Even an interviewer's candid comment "You need to get more education or go back home" does not provide the wake up call Pete needs. In the end Pete and Joey can't seem to help themselves.

Although the main characters appeared to be in their 40's (both are heavy smokers), a decade or two too old for their roles, the acting, dialog, camera work, sound track and interactions with other bit characters worked very well together to distract the viewer from this fact. In particular the scenes of our heros hard at menial work and at play were extremely well done.

All in all, a realistic drama and time capsule to the working class of Toronto in 1970, particularly interesting to Canadians, and lover's of dramas and foreign films.

Two boys (grown men in their 30's) are wanting an escape from their quiet lives in Cape Breton. They make a long journey riding in Joey's (Paul Bradley) car to Toronto. Pete McGraw (McGrath) knows of a relative living there. Having a preconceived notion he'll get to stay for free, not even thinking of writing out a letter first. Oh! learning the hard way is never good.

the locales that were used at the time 1969-1970 are all genuine. hostels, High rises, Wilson's Ginger Ale Factory, bowling alleys, TTC trains. Scarborough Bluffs, Sam the Record man (yep the same one at Dundas and Yonge St).

The tone throughout the movie is upbeat and at times melancholy. The viewer ends up or at least attempts to feel the emotions of the two friends who inevitably hit a crossroads with their friendship and lives.

A great story of two simple-minded hosers from Cape Breton who move to Toronto to try and make a better life for themselves.

They get into amusing situations while trying to make it in the big city, but the real strength of this film is the acting and directing. It is difficult to tell if it's a film or a documentary - the actors and director Don Shebib do such a great job.

I watched the film a few times before it grew on me. After purchasing the VHS, I've now watched it many times, finding something new with each viewing.

Torontonians will marvel at how busy the nightlife was on the Yonge Street strip between Dundas and Gerrard back in '69. Now, of course, it is all but forgotten by nocturnal revellers.

Not only is this a great Canadian movie and a touchstone of '70s culture (stubby beer bottles!), it's one of the best movies made anywhere about the working poor. The low production values and laidback acting work to good effect. It spawned plenty of awful imitations, but few were as rawly heartfelt and honest. Essential viewing for Canadians

I hated this film from the first time it was shown on CBC-TV. It reeked of Canada, featuring these anti-social east coast dorks who couldn't eat, talk or dress right. Pete and Joey smoked and drank more than any human beings alive and tried to class up the filthy walls in their seedy Toronto apartment with horrible cheesecake posters. When it comes to romance, they hook up with Jayne Eastwood, Canada's first lady of comedy. Nice choice, guys!

These guys must have come out of the womb puffing on a Player's and if they haven't cracked open another brown stubby beer bottle, they're lovingly reminiscing about one. They even have one of those horrible Toronto Maple Leaf hockey calendars behind them in one scene. They taught a nation how to rip off their neighborhood record dealer and corner grocery store in 1970.

I'd nursed my hatred for Going' Down The Road for 30 years, before seeing a DVD copy at my corner Giant Tiger. I tried to shove it under my shirt and walk out, but remembered times had changed. Instead, I bought it and found that it was a wonderfully crafted film, with a terrific story. I still love the SCTV satire of the film and its a shame the DVD couldn't contain both. I recommend seeing the film, before the SCTV parody.

A gritty and realistic portrayal of the Toronto in 1970, and the tale of two young men with "not a pot to p*** in", who come west from Nova Scotia in search of a better life, but who both end up just trying to survive.

Easily one of the top 10 movies within the past 20 years that I have had the pleasure of viewing.

Most Canadians have seen this film and any Canadian who hasn't should. It is probably the equal of any other low budget film of this era (think Five Easy Pieces) and thirty years later, no film has come near to it in touching the alienation of the Maritimes from the rest of Canada. It has been ruthlessly parodied (by SCTV) and I can still remember the first time I saw it, in a high school showing during a slow day in 1976-1977.

While several other films have covered the plot line of men seeking a better life elsewhere (The Grapes of Wrath?), once again we find our two protagonists moving west for a better life. For a while, it seems they have found it - a job at the then princely sum of $80 per week (the minimum wage for the time by the way). However, their new found consumer lifestyle can't save them from the fact that they have left their family behind. When trouble inevitably comes, they find no-one to turn to and get increasingly more desperate. The acting is dead on and the story moves slowly. Had low budget continued to rule the way it did until 1977, there may have been many more like these. Regrettably, only Australia has managed to maintain a film industry, and it ain't just because of Mel Gibson.

Canada's answer to 'Midnight Cowboy', this low budget drama focuses on two Nova Scotian men who drive to the large metropolis of Toronto with dreams of making it big. As per Joe Buck, disillusionment soon sets in with the pair forced to take menial jobs to pay their way as well as accommodation less exciting than they had previously imagined. Shattered dreams is often a good cinematic topic, but one really needs to care about the characters for such films to work, and this is where 'Goin' Down the Road' trips up. The friends are naïve beyond belief, with one of them thinking that he is capable of landing a job at an advertising agency, even rocking up to an interview and stating that his experience comes from watching so many ads on television! The pair do not think too hard about accommodation either and are inexplicably shocked when a Toronto relative (who they assumed they could stay with without ever actually asking) tells them that he does not have the room. The characters do, however, manage to get themselves into some pretty interesting situations with a daring grocery run and a drunken wedding reception clear highlights. There is also something to like in how one of them is torn between trying to make a life in Toronto with a newfound girlfriend and going back to Nova Scotia with his pal. Life is never as simple as it seems, is it?

This film remains vivid in my mind despite the nearly 30 years since I last saw it. I found it to be an amazingly realistic portrayal of how two low-income, poorly educated men from the Maritimes try to find a better life by moving west, make mistakes that pull them even deeper into the lower fringes of society, but never lose their optimism and willingness to keep hoping and trying.

Although most great directors concentrate on the visual aspect of motion film and use music as background noise, if used at all, there is much more to film than the visual aspect. The visual textures do make up most of the film, whether it be camera angles, colors, etc. But since the early 1900's film has been made with sound, so there is that angle as well.

In this movie, Donald Shebib plays with all sorts of textures: the color, the visual, the audio, etc. The music is used in the foreground in places while the movie shows the story instead of constantly dragging it on and telling it. I also find that the soundtrack in a movie can sometimes ruin it by interrupting what the director sets up, but in this film it belongs.

Of course, this just happens in some points of the movie, which is what makes it unique for the time. The rest of the movie involves a great story superbly acted out. My main point is the irony of this movie as the "great Canadian Classic" in that Donald Shebib included the music score purposely to link the parts of the movie. I am reminded that in the sixties and up to the point of this movie, Canada had a poor music industry. Besides a few bands such as the Guess Who and Bruce Cochburn, radio stations would say they were "reaching into the beaver bin for some droppings" whenever they were forced to play a song from a Canadian band by Ottawa to promote the industry. Our film industry was just as poor. However, because of Ottawa pushing to promote our music industry we now have great bands like The Tragically Hip, The Headstones, Great Big Sea, so on and so forth, and the world recognizes them. However, look at our film industry: does the world recognize Guy Maddin? Does the whole country anticipate a new movie from Cronenberg or Egoyen? Does Bruce MacDonald get much recognition south of the border? And this is the Great Canadian Classic, how many people do you know that has seen it? This is a movie worth seeing by people of any country. But if only our film industry was supported like the music industry was, we could make movies even better than this.

Any Canadian who has left his or her home to move to Toronto can identify with this movie. Doug McGrath and Paul Bradley star as Peter and Joey, who leave their home on Cape Breton for prosperity in Hogtown. After searching for "doctorin' and lawyerin'" jobs, they eventually settle for factory work. The movie chronicles the quest of these small town boys trying to take on the big city. Also starring are Jayne Eastwood as Betty, Nicole Morin as the unforgettable daughter of the boss, and Stompin' Tom Connors as himself. Peter and Joey would serve as the models for countless characters in Canadian culture, including Bob and Doug Mackenzie, Wayne and Garth, and "Dumb and Dumber." The movie also acts as an apt reminder of how much the city of Toronto has changed in the past thirty years. It's worth watching if you can find it.

Of course this is not a Hollywood film at all, but that doesn't stop it from being one of the best from the New Hollywood era anyway. But unfortunately it seems like really one of the only truly decent movies that director Donald Shebib made, though he went to the same film school as some of the greatest directors of that era: UCLA, with fellow students Scorsese and Coppola among others. And like how Scorsese examined the minutiae of young Italian American life in New York in the early '70s in Mean Streets, Shebib gives the same microscopic examination of Atlantic Canadians living in Toronto circa 1970.

It's strange how he says in the director's commentary of the DVD release of this movie that Heartaches was his best dramatic movie. My question is: How's that? Is that why no one talks about or remembers Heartaches and Going*(see note below) Down the Road is an all time classic? Is it because Going Down the Road is more of a comedy-drama than straight up drama? It doesn't matter because even if he may be a one-hit wonder (unfortunately even the follow-up Down the Road Again was pretty mediocre), it is a good hit, and one for the ages. It's a story that's obviously particularly appealing to Atlantic Canadians (such as myself) because it is rare to see our depiction in film at all never mind in such a true to life, and well known, presentation as this. But it's also a story for simply anyone who ever wanted to break out of some nowheresville, who refused to lay down and accept their oakie-dokie so-called fate—and it doesn't sentimentalize it or make any apologies in saying that doesn't always succeed.

Some say it's the Canadian Citizen Kane. I don't know if that's supposed to be some kind of typically self-effacing hoser humour or what, but I would say in earnest that it could very well be the Canadian Midnight Cowboy in terms of its trailblazing North American film realism and grit, as well as having the similar theme of small-towner(s) coming to the big city with high hopes and dreams that come crashing down yet continue to persist anyway. It does stand up to those two films, yes even Kane in some ways, and it definitely was worthy enough to win the Oscar for best foreign film of 1970 like those two films one for best picture. But it really doesn't belong in any other film's shadow. It's one of a kind.

It's definitely not just a generational film, relevant only for that time period. It's easily as relevant now as it was then; the phenomenon of Maritimers moving west (anywhere west) is going as strong as ever (I live here, I know), and you can bet that many of them are not going to find any gold at the end of the rainbow. I may be of a younger generation, but this movie relates to me and speaks to me more than about over 95% of anything that comes out today, especially mainstream stuff, and that's bitterly disappointing and desperately needs to change, and I think the time is ripe now for such a change. Anyone I've ever talked to about this movie around my age or otherwise have noted how true to life it is, still is.

*note: The IMDb's spell corrector won't seem to allow me to correct "Going" to the form it's supposed to be in the title, which is inexplicable and extremely annoying but please be aware that I'm aware of that.

Peter (Doug McGrath) and Joey (Paul Bradley) are two amiable young men from Nova Scotia who are yearning for greener pastures. They pack up and head out west, to Toronto. But instead of being able to realize hopes and dreams, they find it very hard to eke out a living. It further complicates things when Joey reveals that he's gotten his girlfriend Betty (Jayne Eastwood) pregnant. The three of them end up living together, and it just gets harder and harder for them to make money. Then Peter and Joey hatch a desperate plan to get some food on the table.

"Goin' Down the Road" is a real marvel of low budget filmmaking, filmed for an estimated 87,000 Canadian dollars. It has an ever present sense of melancholy as the two heroes think that maybe their dead end lives in the Maritimes weren't so bad after all. The film is also a remarkable snapshot of Toronto at the beginning of the 70s, sights, sounds, and everything. The compelling story was concocted by producer & director Donald Shebib ("Between Friends", "Heartaches") and his fellow Canadian filmmaker, the cult favourite William Fruet ("Death Weekend", "Funeral Home", "Killer Party"), and it holds your interest, wondering what will become of Peter and Joey; some viewers might fear the worst.

Considered by my fellow countrymen to be one of the definitive, iconic Canadian films (which got spoofed on SCTV in the 80s), this is anchored by believable, engaging performances by McGrath and Bradley. McGrath you might recognize from the original "Black Christmas", "Porky's", or "Pale Rider". Bradley sadly died in 2003; his other credits include "American Nightmare", "Stone Cold Dead", and "The Hard Part Begins". Eastwood later turned up in the "Dawn of the Dead" remake. They all create vivid characters who do earn our sympathies.

Music plays a big part in the effectiveness of the narrative. The songs were composed and performed by a very young Bruce Cockburn, whose later hits include "Wondering Where the Lions Are" and "Lovers in a Dangerous Time".

This definitely comes recommended, and not just to Canadian viewers.

Shebib reunited with McGrath, Eastwood, and co-star Cayle Chernin 40 years later for "Down the Road Again".

Eight out of 10.

I saw the restored print at the Toronto Film Festival and I was floored. This movie drew me right in and gave me a complete emotional workout, a very rare thing.

It deserves comparison to my favorite films of the period, such as "Mean Streets" and "Midnight Cowboy". It is bursting with passion and integrity and a need to communicate with it's audience. Great characters, intimately drawn.

I've seen a lot of Canadian films, and sadly, this one stands head and shoulders above every other English language film we've made in this country. I'm not talking about French Canadian films of which there is no shortage of fine examples.

What about it? Can anyone come up with a better English language Canadian film?

When my husband watched this with me, he looked at Pete's weary face and remarked, "that's a real Maritime mug." I myself was touched by the character of Joey at the record shop, listening spellbound to Eric Satie's "Gymnopedie."

It is the sum of its parts that make this movie what it is. It is by no means pretensious. The simple documentary directing style with cinema verite thrown in, the characters, the acting, and some physical comedy. The Loblaws parking lot scene near the end of the movie has earned its indelible mark in Canadian movie history. The movie was mostly realism blended with some comedy. Some movies have a magical quality to them that makes them memorable and this is one of them. I think it could have done without so much of that cinema verite facial close ups and end up being more effective as an end result. The two main characters are likeable, work seeking, average Joes from the Maritimes mingling with circumstance in Toronto. Some of them from their own poor decisions. It was a low budget film shot in 6 weeks and I cant see how it could possibly cost $27,000 to make. ( in 1969 you could buy a 3 bedroom bungalow with a finished basement in a west end Toronto suburb for that kind of money ).

There is a rare phenomenon in creative endeavors where the "perfect" end result comes at the first try. Remember the song "Louie Louie" by the Seattle-based group The Kingsmen? Rumor has it that these guys went into a recording studio on a shoestring budget and ran through the song in one take. The vocals were done on the same track as the instruments, and sounded so distorted that you could barely make out the words. The result was...perfect! Phil Spector and George Martin and all the money in the world couldn't have produced a better result. Rare, but it happens.

Rare, too, is Goin' Down the Road. It is another low-budget phenomenon where all the elements gain a dazzling life of their own as the story unfolds. The shoestring production values have an ultra-realistic, "documentary" look that has to be seen to be believed. If you are not crying at the end of this one, you have no soul! A perfect gem of a movie that puts all but a few big budget Hollywood blockbusters to shame.

I really, really wanted to like this film, but I couldn't. It was ridiculous, poorly acted, gruesomely photographed and horribly directed. You can't defend it just by saying "it's Canadian and made in the late 1960s; they didn't have the resources for high production values." I'm not talking about production values, I'm talking about poor decisions and ineffectual execution of responsibility. I know what the film was trying to accomplish, but I couldn't help myself from despising it while I watched. Two idiots walking around Toronto to twangy bluegrass guitar music; slow zoom-in shots of characters for the purposes of making us care what they are thinking or feeling; silly dialogue...it was awful. A classic it's not. Canada has produced much better.