O Canada Blogathon – The Terry Fox Story (1983)

This post is part of the O Canada blogathon sponsored by Ruth of Silver Screening and Kristina of SpeakEasy. Thanks for letting me take part!

–

Number of Times Seen –  No clue. (Numerous times on cable in the 80’s and 2 Oct 2014)

Brief Synopsis – Based on the true story of Canadian Terry Fox who vowed to walk across Canada after losing a leg to cancer in order to help raise money for cancer research.

My Take on it – Back in the 80’s, I recall seeing this movie many times on cable and it was screened so much on HBO that it was hard NOT to watch it so much.

While researching this movie for this review, I finally realized why it was shown so much: apparently this was the very first made for cable movie and became quite popular at the time that HBO showed it over and over.

I actually find it quite ironic how much I enjoyed it at the time because life brought me 13 years later to work in a field which is similar to Terry’s goal and that is scientific research. At the time, I doubt I had any clue as to what scientific research was so watching it now gave me an extra smile on my face because I understood first hand the difficulties involved in funding research.

This movie has a great inspirational touch to it that works extremely well.

I’m glad that Robert Duvall was cast because most of the rest of the cast seem quite amateur (granted, it was HBO’s inaugural foray into original films) which only slightly dims the impact of the message.

The characters are all very Canadian and they got the accents done right giving the feel of watching real Canadians. 😀 Having gone to school with nearby Windsorians it was fun to hear it all emoted so articulately. Eh!

Since special effects weren’t so advanced back then as now, they cast Eric Fryer, a real amputee for the title role.

He does a good job and it must have been difficult for him to take the part because he lost his own leg to a similar cancer that Fox had.  This is also the only acting role he has been credited for on IMDB.

There are some scenes that feel slightly choppy and the dialogue could have been worked on a bit but overall the inspirational message is still there and works well even after all these years.

Bottom Line – Not as good as I recall it being, but the inspirational message still rings true after 30 plus years. Notably the first made for cable movie. Recommended!

Rating – Globe Worthy

_______________________________________

Check out my *updated* movie stats here

To see my reviews of Oscar Winning Performances check out this link

To see my reviews of all Oscar Best Picture Winners click here (now complete)

Here is a link to my movie index A-Z