Goin’ Down the Road

Pete Doug McGrath and Joey Paul Bradley drive their 1960 Chevrolet Impala from their home on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia to Toronto, hoping to reconnect with relatives who might help them find steady work. The relatives, wary of what they see as the pair’s rough edges, keep their distance, leaving Pete and Joey to navigate the city on their own and figure out their place in a place that feels both exciting and unforgiving.

In the big, bustling city, the two men scramble to make ends meet and quickly fall into a routine that is taxing and uninspiring. They land jobs at a local ginger-ale bottler, earning about $80 a week, a wage that feels barely adequate for the rent and rising bills. The work is demanding and the hours long, and the paycheck is a constant reminder that life in Toronto comes at a price. Free time becomes scarcer, and the pair fills their days with cigarettes, beer, and the constant, loud noise of ambition clashing with reality as they wander along Toronto’s busy Yonge Street strip, chasing small crowds of admiration and fleeting connections with the people around them.

Soon enough, their fortunes improve enough to secure a small apartment where the walls seem to close in as quickly as the days pass. They fill the space with centrefolds from men’s magazines and movie posters, trying to create a sense of home in a city that feels indifferent to their origins. Both men start romances, and Joey’s life takes a more concrete turn when his girlfriend, Betty [Jayne Eastwood], becomes pregnant and the couple decides to marry. With his wife by his side, Joey pursues a credit-driven lifestyle that feels dazzling at first—buying a new colour television, a stereo, and furniture all on an installment plan, trying to prove that he and Pete have found a new footing in life that was unimaginable back home.

Disaster arrives with the end of summer, when layoffs strike the bottling plant. Pete and Joey must downsize their expectations as they move to a smaller, less comfortable apartment and accept jobs washing cars and resetting pins in a bowling alley. The pay drops, and the pressure of keeping up appearances and supporting Betty and the baby intensifies the tension in their cramped home. Betty’s pregnancy adds another layer of strain, as she contemplates cutting back on work to focus on the baby, while Pete and Joey argue about who should bear the financial burden and how to stretch every dollar.

As the money tightens, the stress erupts into sharper realities. The two men turn to stealing food from a local supermarket to fill empty stomachs, a desperate measure that leads to trouble when a grocery clerk tries to stop the theft and is assaulted during the confrontation. The morning after, they return to their apartment only to find Betty gone and their belongings out on the street, the landlord having evicted them in the wake of police inquiries and growing suspicion. The trio’s once-bright dream of a new life in Toronto has collapsed into a harsh, unforgiving street reality.

Broke, homeless, and now wanted by the police for theft and assault, Pete and Joey watch Betty retreat to stay with her aunt and uncle, a separation that feels both necessary and crushing. With mounting debts and a fading sense of possibility, they decide to pawn the rented colour TV to secure enough cash to embark on a journey west to Western Canada, hoping for a fresh chance beyond the city. Pete convinces Joey that husbands leave their wives “all the time,” and Joey agrees to part ways with Betty and her unborn child in Toronto, clinging to the belief that a new landscape will offer them the better life they cannot find in Toronto.

“husbands leave their wives ‘all the time’”

In the end, the film closes the way it began, with Pete and Joey on the road again, driving west in search of greener pastures. The story stays grounded in the choices that pull people away from home when the promise of opportunity collides with the hard truths of survival, painting a stark portrait of ambition, loyalty, and the costs of chasing a dream in a city that never guarantees a fair shot.

Last Updated: October 09, 2025 at 11:23