Reviews
Overview
The coming-of-age of adolescent Brian O'Connal in small town Depression-era Saskatchewan is told. The son of the local pharmacist Gerald O'Connal, Brian is in many ways a typical boy, who dislikes school if only because of his run-ins with the nervous schoolteacher, Miss MacDonald, and who tries to catch gophers with his friends, Artie and Forbsie. His best friend and protector is slightly older Jonathan Ben, better known as The Young Ben (as his father is referred to as The Ben), who is highly regarded as a problem by those in town who see themselves as the moral authority if only because of The Young Ben's association to The Ben, the town still keeper and drunk. Brian's life takes a turn when his parents have to leave town temporarily, while Brian stays on his Uncle Sean's farm. That stint leads to a series of events which make Brian see life around him through slightly older and wiser eyes.
Cast
Brian Painchaud
Brian O'Connal
José Ferrer
The Ben
Gordon Pinsent
Gerald O'Connal
Helen Shaver
Ruth Thompson
Douglas Junor
The Young Ben
Patricia Hamilton
Miss MacDonald
Chapelle Jaffe
Maggie O'Connal
Nan Stewart
Mrs. MacMurray
Cedric Smith
Dr. Svarich
Linda Lawrence
Mariel
Leslie Carlson
Joe Pivott
Thomas Hauff
Principal Jim Digby
Other films by Allan King
Orson Welles: The Paris Interview
2010
EMPz 4 Life
2006
Memory for Max, Claire, Ida and Company
2005
Dying at Grace
2003
The Dragon's Egg: Making Peace on the Wreckage of the Twentieth Century
1999
Twice in a Lifetime
1999
Leonardo: A Dream of Flight
1996
Kung Fu: The Legend Continues
1993
Ready or Not
1993
Madison
1993
By Way of the Stars
1992
The Odyssey
1992
