Face-Off (Canada, 1971) 104 min color DIR: George McCowan. SCR: George Robertson. PROD: John F. Bassett. MUSIC: Ron Collier. DOP: Donald Wilder. CAST: Trudy Young, Art Hindle, John Vernon, Frank Moore, Kay Hawtrey. (VSC)
Is it any surprise that of all the films from Canada’s golden age of cinema awaiting DVD release, one of the few that are selected is about a hockey player? This release features the star-crossed romance between hotshot Toronto Maple Leafs player Billy Duke (Art Hindle) and hippie folk singer Sherry Nelson (first-billed Trudy Young). Although George Robertson’s screenplay (perhaps cannily) doesn’t explicitly give the reason for their mutual attraction, it may be that they recognize in each other a desire for personal expression in their individual worlds where they are often treated like commodities. Sherry is the more liberated of the two, yet perhaps that is because her shackles aren’t as easily seen. (The ubiquitous John Vernon is all fire and brimstone as Billy’s coach on the Toronto Maple Leafs, who constantly keeps his hotheaded player on a short leash.)
As the movie continues however, these characters, and viewer alike, face the growing realization that they truly live in separate worlds. Sherry gives him love beads, which he chucks in the very next scene. She abhors his on-the-ice violence; she even can’t stand that his dog chases after a rabbit! The pouty Sherry becomes even more miserable in her inability to fit into his earthy environment, and starts getting into harder drugs.
The latter point may be why, as far as dated counterculture flicks go, this film has aged better than most, if perhaps because it doesn’t wallow in the typical flower child clichés. Although it features an “of its time” song score co-written by co-star Frank Moore (who plays Sherry’s mopey band mate), the counterculture is portrayed as equally parasitic as the sports industry.
Director George McCowan largely worked on television (in episodic work as well as fine MOWs like The Ballad of Andy Crocker), however he made a handful of features, of which this is unquestionably his best. Despite the morbidly fascinating story of this doomed romance, it is also invigorating cinema, as McGowan infuses scenes with almost a documentarian’s view: they crackle with life, seemingly captured spontaneously. Indeed, the sequences on the ice seem authentic, as Hindle’s footage blends well with real-life hockey personalities Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe.
Face-Off is also an amusing time capsule of stubby beer bottles, hockey players without helmets, and for that matter, when fans cheered the Leafs and booed the Boston Bruins. (That has probably reversed!) Connoisseurs of Canadian cinema will also recognize Kay Hawtrey (remembered by me in William Fruet’s Funeral Home) as Duke’s mother, and Les Rubie (who played the old storekeeper in the long-running series of Lottario commercials!) as the oldtimer in a bar.
The film is bookended with scenes of kids playing on the ice. It is a direct reference to Billy discovering his love of hockey at an early age, but it also implies that he and Sherry are still children at heart, unwilling to adopt adult responsibility.
VSC released this DVD on the film’s fortieth anniversary, mastered from a beautiful though splicy 35mm print. In typically Canadian underdog fashion, this pressing was only limited to 10,000 copies due to copyright issues with the hockey footage! The disc also features a trailer, audio commentary, and the SCTV parody of this picture. Although Face-Off received less than enthusiastic reviews upon its initial release, in truth, the movie has aged quite nicely. Recommended!
Originally published in Vol. #1, Issue 25.
Greg Woods
Greg Woods has been a film enthusiast since his teens, and began his writing "career" at the same time- prolific in capsule reviews of everything he had watched, first on index cards, then those hardcover dollar store black journals, then an old Mac IIsi. He founded The Eclectic Screening Room in 2001, as a portal to share his film love with the world, and find some like-minded enthusiasts along the way. In addition to having worked in the film industry for over two decades, he has been a co-programmer of films at Trash Palace, and a programmer/co-founder of the Toronto Film Noir Syndicate. He has also written for Broken Pencil, CU-Confidential, Micro-Film, and is currently working on his first novel. His secret desire is for someone to interview him for a podcast or a DVD extra.