The Grey Fox – Virtual Screening to Support Local Theatres

While social distancing for COVID-19 has given us all plenty of opportunities to catch up with great cinema, as movie fans, there’s always the concern where this shutdown will leave our options for big screen viewership. Thankfully, we’re seeing a lot of great initiatives spearheaded by film fans to ensure our most vulnerable cinema workers and independent venues can survive this tough economic time. That’s why we wanted to highlight a great option that you can utilize this National Canadian Film Day to see a Canadian film and support independent cinemas across the country through Films We Like’s virtual screening of the restored 1982 classic The Grey Fox.

The Grey Fox is remembered by many for its crossover box office success, becoming a minor hit in the US and even garnering a couple of Golden Globe nominations, but the film stands the test of time beyond its commercial appeal. In the film Richard Farnsworth plays real-life gentleman bandit Bill Miner and follows his later life when he attempted what would be Canada’s first train robbery at the turn of the 20th century. He’s supported by a cast of greats including Jackie Burroughs as his love interest, and beloved character actors like Wayne Robson throughout the cast.

For my money, it’s the direction of Phillip Borsos that makes the movie so memorable, and this restoration so exciting. Borsos, like so many Canadian directors before him, came from a documentary background and had already been Oscar nominated for his visually stunning National Film Board short documentary Nails. Borsos makes a wonderful meal of the British Columbia scenery and the appeal the wilds of Canada might have had for someone like Bill Miner. Even filmed in the 1980s, Borsos finds a way to evoke the possibilities of the wilderness and of people struggling to work against the immensity of the land around them in the 1900s. The vistas and small towns are treated with the same grandiosity as John Ford might have in the classic western era and it wonderfully builds on the feeling of a man out of time.

Richard Farnsworth also turns in a great performance, even in a career full of stunners. The role was originally set for Harry Dean Stanton and what he and Farnsworth have in common, beyond a legitimate background in stunts and day playing in old Westerns, is the ability to play so much silently on their face. In this way, Farnsworth can perfectly contend with the scenery, slipping with stillness into it and emerging fascinatingly as each scene might require him. The quiet gravitas and character work he brought to the role contributed significantly to his career – he saw a surge of great parts afterwards in films like The Natural, Misery and of course his final, Oscar-nominated role as an equally stoic and fascinating cowboy in The Straight Story.

But, you don’t have to take my word for it, head on over to Films We Like’s virtual screening page and choose which theatre you’d like to support. Together we can make sure that we are preserving the exciting independent cinemas in communities across Canada while we enjoy wonderful films at a safe social distance.