Run Terry Run: Poignant Doc Is a Gentle Tribute to the Man Behind The Legend
By Liz Braun
Rating: A
In late September, people across Canada took part in the 46th annual Terry Fox Run, a staple of every schoolchild’s fall schedule. The event honours the late Fox’s Marathon of Hope run in 1980 and continues his work to raise money for cancer research.
People in 650 communities and 10,000 schools take part, although the Terry Fox Run is no longer just a Canadian thing. There are 30 countries around the globe that participate every year. About a billion dollars has been raised for cancer research since Terry Fox first set out to run across Canada.
Nobody would be more surprised at this expansion of the charitable effort than Fox himself, a modest kid who attempted to do the right thing for other people experiencing cancer. Run Terry Run, the new documentary about him, offers a glimpse of the man behind the legend, and the film is as understated and engaging as its subject.
Directed by Sean Menard, Run Terry Run is created from archival footage, including almost 100 hitherto-unseen reels of film and unheard audio interviews. Early on in the film, reporter Leslie Scrivener is heard in voiceover, talking about getting the assignment to cover Fox’s run at the Toronto Star because no one else was interested. Her recollections trace the rise in national interest in what Fox was doing as his race slowly moved west from its zero fanfare beginnings in St. Johns, Newfoundland.
Run Terry Run concerns the domestic details of Fox’s attempt to run — with an artificial leg — a marathon every single day until he had crossed this vast country. (A marathon is about 26 miles, or, my fellow Canadians, 42 kilometres).
His best friend Doug Alward drives the van that accompanies Fox’s daily run, and his younger brother Darrell Fox goes along too, as a general helper. Alward comments in the movie that by day 20 they were ready to kill each other. It’s a gruelling undertaking, and nothing about Canada’s geography or climate is working in Fox’s favour.
He travels with two extra artificial legs. Local cops in the Maritimes ask Fox to wear a neon vest because they fear he’ll be hit by a car — drivers can’t see him. And very few care about what he’s doing.
Fox crosses Quebec at an interesting time: the 1980 sovereignty-association referendum. The film shows how almost no one understands or cares what he’s about and how this affects the determined Fox.
But, as Scrivener recounts, all that begins to change. She talks about the letters and donations that start coming into the newsroom; footage shows people gathering on the road to cheer Fox on as he runs past. By the time he gets into Ontario, he is a bit of a celebrity, helped along by well-known publicist Bill Vigars, who is on hand to help with fundraising.
Fox himself seems perturbed to be the focus of attention. His goals are all about cancer research and finding a cure.
Fox was 18 when he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer. His right leg was amputated in 1977, and three years later he determined he would make his epic charitable run across Canada. Telling his story with archival footage alone turns the clock back 45 years and immerses viewers in that quintessentially Canadian moment, conveying the triumph and the tragedy of Fox’s effort.
Footage of his run down University Avenue and his appearance at Toronto’s City Hall is a stunning portrait of this fair city a generation ago, with locals lining the streets to applaud Fox, faces up and outwardly engaged and nary a cell phone in sight.
It’s kind of stunning to be reminded of the pre-digital world and what it looked like; it’s amazing to see an unvarnished account of events as they happened, an account that uses none of the tricks of the contemporary post-truth trade.
Terry Fox was a courageous, determined, modest guy. He embodied all the best qualities Canadians believe about themselves; given the current “elbows-up” situation, the doc is particularly affecting.
In telling one unassuming young hero’s story, Run Terry Run captures the best of a place and its people.
Run Terry Run. Directed by Sean Menard. With Terry Fox, Darrell Fox, Doug Alward, Leslie Scrivener, and Bill Vigars. In theatres October 9.