Have Cheetah,Will View #306 – “Into the Wind” (2010)

Its 5:37 pm
sunny/cold

A couple of weeks ago,I heard that Dollar Tree was doing a DVD/BluRay sale. This is pretty exciting around here because where as DT used to do sales 3 times a year,lately it seems they are doing them about every six weeks. Where some sales have been older recycled films that haven’t sold the last sale,the new sales are quite a deal for film collectors as the number and quality of titles have grown. Not only did I score 4 brand new IFC films for my collection but was very excited to see ESPN Films “30 for 30” documentaries among the titles on sale. I managed to pick up a volume of 5 documentaries and two single films during the sale.
The “30 for 30” series takes a single story relating around a game,a sporting figure or an huge sport event and tells it story. Many well known Hollywood film and TV directors have contributed to the series which started back in 2010. In some cases,like “Into the Wind”,it was a labor of love by first time film directors who happened to be a well known player in another sport. Either way,the “30 for 30” has uniformly been outstanding but until recently,it was not released for the home market.

I was 16 years old when I first heard about Terry Fox‘s run across Canada. I knew he had cancer and he had lost a leg to it and he was attempting to run across his homeland. I also remember hearing he had died at aged 22. But that was all I knew,I think I read about his run in Sports Illustrated in a small paragraph.
When I saw “Into the Wind” sitting there,I knew I wanted to see exactly what happened to Terry and what led him to his run.

Terry was first diagnosed with osteosarcoma cancer in 1977 and as a result,he lost his right leg to because of it. Terry had worked himself into being a decent basketball player and had run long distance in high school and so he retained his competitive drive even after his operation,he played wheelchair basketball and was part of three national championship teams. He underwent chemotherapy and since he was still considered a child,he recovered in a children’s ward.
He decided to run across Canada in order to raise funds and awareness of cancer. Back in 1980 when he started,it was without press or social media. It was just Terry and his friend Dave along with a donated van. Later joined Terry’s brother,the run really didn’t gain any attention until Terry reached Ontario.

After that,Fox became a national celebrity….which had its own beast of burden to deal with. Co-directors Ezra Holland and former NBA MVP Steve Nash,do a nice job is talking to everyone about the run,the stress on the family and how Terry had a hard time in dealing with sudden costs of the fame he had wanted and how it affected his run.
Terry had run over 3,300 miles before his cancer came back and forced him off the road after 143. In truth,he ran 4,200 miles and if he hadn’t been forced off his route by all the press,he most likely would have made his goal of reaching the west coast.
What was saddest to me was when this film was release in 2010,the Terry Fox Foundation had raised almost 500 million dollars for cancer research and we still have no cures. Not a single one. But hope still burns brightly.

“Into the Wind” has a run time of 50 minutes and includes several short featurettes including covering the annual Terry Fox Run which held across Canada and in many parts of the world.

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