The Grey Fox


Grey Fox, The
Bill Miner (Farnsworth) is released from a US prison in 1901 after completing a long jail sentence. Inspired by the film The Great Train Robbery, he decides to rob trains himself. Following a botched train robbery in Washington state he escapes to Canada. He settles in Kamloops, posing as a mining engineer from Idaho, and gains an ally in the local BC Provincial Police officer and a lover in Kate Flynn, a proto-feminist photographer. His relationship with Kate makes him contemplate changing his ways but, after a final, unsuccessful job, Miner is captured and sentenced to prison.

The Grey Fox (1982), Phillip BORSOS's first feature film, builds on the ambivalent fascination many Canadians have for the United States. A Canadian rendition of the Western, it revolves around an outlaw who is invested with charisma and a mythical aura by the Canadians he meets. When released, Borsos's film fulfilled an ideal for a professional cinema by telling an identifiably Canadian story with a visual style that exploits the terrain of the lower BC mainland and reinforces the idea of a remote landscape as a significant feature in Canadian culture. The Grey Fox circulated internationally to modest acclaim; domestically, it dominated the 1983 Canadian Film Awards, winning 7 Genies.

See also Canadian FEATURE FILM.

Grey Fox
Grey Fox
Richard Farnsworth as Bill Miner and Wayne Robson as Shorty Dunn in Phillip Borsos's film The Grey Fox (courtesy Toronto International Film Festival Group).

Author BLAINE ALLAN

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