Looking at the 30 for 30 schedule and reading about the up coming films, Into the Wind was not one of the documentaries that I thought much about. Watching it while running on the treadmill, I was pleasantly surprised. The twenty-third installment of ESPN's 30 for 30 film series is extremely compelling.
In 1980, three years after having his right leg amputated six inches above the knee due to cancer, Terry Fox set out to run across Canada to raise awareness and funds for cancer research. Starting in the Atlantic Ocean near St. John's, Newfoundland, Fox planned to cover more than a marathon’s distance each day until he reached the Pacific Ocean in Victoria, British Columbia.
Anonymous at the start of his journey, the media attention steadily increased as Fox worked his way west. Watching the crowds build day by day is one of the most amazing parts of the film. After 143 days, 3,339 miles and two-thirds of the way across Canada, Fox’s journey came to an abrupt end when new cancerous tumors took over his body.
This documentary was produced by NBA star Steve Nash and his cousin Ezra Holland. In the summary on the ESPN web site, Nash talks about being a six-year-old boy and waking up every morning and rushing to the TV to see where Terry was that day. Nash and Holland do a fantastic job of sorting through pictures, news footage, radio interviews and Fox's own diary entries to tell the story.
This was not a story that I really knew anything about before I watched the film; I do not believe I had ever even heard of Terry Fox. It is a very well done film that is definitely worth seeing. I would rank in the top five or six of the 30 for 30 films shown to-date.
The film is available on Amazon.
Into the Wind is also available on iTunes.
No comments:
Post a Comment