Director: Robert Fortier

While you might understandably not believe from watching Canadian movies that Canada has the material to make great stories, the actual fact is that if you dig deep enough, you'll find true and fictional stories from Canada that have the potential to captivate Canadians and non-Canadians, if only someone was eager to tell them to a mass audience. When you have time, do some research on the true story of World War II / Korean War soldier Leo Major; despite only having one eye, he managed on the battlefield to make great accomplishments such as single-handedly capturing 93 German soldiers, liberating the Dutch city of Zwolle from the Germans all by himself, and later capturing Hill 355 in Korea from Chinese troops with only 20 men. But to date there hasn't been any movies made about Major's exploits... or any other definite Canadian war hero. What has Canada put out instead? Well, for example, the 1982 Canadian World War I movie The Wars has its central Canadian soldier Robert Ross (played by Brent Carver) near the end of the movie killing his captain and going A.W.O.L., then holing up in a barn where shortly afterwards, other soldiers surround and light on fire to force him out. Ross gets severely burned as a result, and at the end of the movie is incapacitated enough that he'll stay in a hospital for the rest of his life. Ah, just fills you with patriotism, doesn't it? Years later, Canada made another World War I movie called Passchendaele, depicting the true story of Canadian soldiers in the battle of the same name. While the movie does show the Canadian soldiers that took place in the battle triumphing, the last few seconds of the movie have a title crawl that tells the audience that a few months later, the Germans managed to reclaim the area in less than a week of fighting. Talk about being a wet blanket. A few years later, the same writer/director (Paul Gross, Due South) made the modern-day war movie Hyena Road, concerning Canadian armed forces in Afghanistan, and if you guessed that the movie doesn't show the Canadian armed forces having a big triumph, you guessed correctly.

This lack of triumph isn't just missing in Canadian movies about wars that Canada participated in; you'll find it in the majority of other kinds of Canadian movies that have come out for many decades. And you'll find the same lack of enthusiasm in Canadian television, Canadian books, and so on. This of course leads to the obvious question: Why? There doesn't seem to also be enthusiasm by anyone when it comes to the fact that Canadians generally don't like to trumpet their horns. I guess it's up to me to put up a theory that might explain the answer. It seems like a large part of the blame goes to the Canadian government itself. Certainly, the Canadian government doesn't exactly encourage triumphs in the arts (not just with movies), but why is that? I think it's due to the neighbor to the south, America. The influence of America on Canada, from its own artistic outputs to its political actions, are so large in scale and number that the Canadian government tries to push an agenda on Canada so it can stand out from its neighbor to Canadian citizens and the rest of the world. Take the example of the Canadian Terry Fox, who to non-Canadians was a young man with one leg (due to cancer) that set off to run all across Canada to raise money for cancer research. He never made it, due to cancer returning during his journey, which resulted in him passing away shortly afterwards. The Canadian government has made great strides to make the underdog Fox prominent in Canadian culture, such as naming a mountain after him. Compare that to another young Canadian man who lost a leg to cancer, Steve Fonyo. Several years after Fox passed away, Fonyo decided to do what Fox set out to do. Fonyo actually did complete the run across Canada and also raised millions for cancer research. But the Canadian government's enthusiasm towards Fonyo was not as strong as it had been for Fox, even though they did things like give Fonyo the Order of Canada. This in part resulted in the Canadian media also not being as enthusiastic to Fonyo as they had been for Fox (I distinctly recall reading some journalists of the time grumbling a bit about him), and as a result, Fonyo fairly quickly was almost erased from Canadian culture... except for the occasional newsworthy story that popped up before his death, such as when Fonyo was stripped of the Order of Canada by the Canadian government.

In fairness to the Canadian media, the Canadian government, and Canadians as a whole, Fonyo certainly made some poor personal decisions (including impaired driving, drug addiction, assault, and stealing) in the years after his triumph that would sour anyone from any country towards him. Still, the fact that the definite triumph he made before his legal issues has all but been forgotten, while Fox has had two movies made about him despite not completing his goal, clearly shows that general Canadian vibe of not trumpeting your horn and instead focusing on people who don't clearly triumph. I would really like to see Canadian movies and other Canadian media focus on the great triumphs many Canadians have made during the centuries. But all I can do at this point is dream about that, and instead only get to see movies about Canadians where the Canadians are underdogs. That's what the Canadian movie The Devil At Your Heels promised when I first learned about it. The movie is actually a documentary feature movie, made by the National Film Board of Canada. It actually won the Best Documentary award at the Genies, which were back in its day the Canadian equivalent of Oscars, though even back then, the majority of Canadians didn't give a hoot about Canadian film awards. (Hmm, apparently even I don't toot the Canadian horn.) The documentary is about a Canadian stunt driver by the name Ken Carter, who in his career performed car stunts all over North America, starting at the age of 18 and billing himself as "The Mad Canadian". But then in 1976, nearing the age of 40, he got the idea to do the car stunt of all car stunts, something that even the legendary Evel Knievel had reservations about. He wanted to jump over the St. Lawrence River, which divides Canada and the United States in the eastern part of North America from Lake Ontario. That might not initially sound especially challenging, but Carter got the idea to jump over a part of the river where the river was 1.6 kilometers (1 mile, to you Americans) wide. This would not only involve a special rocket-powered car, but would also require the building of an enormous ramp (more than 25 meters hight - more than 85 feet to you Americans) that would give him and his rocket car the ability to fly the 1.6-kilometer distance. Though he and his team got to work to construct the rocket car and ramp, one problem after another popped up. There were delays and other problems with construction, sponsors pulled out, mechanical problems, and personal problems within Carter himself... among other issues. The problems come one after another, resulting in several years passing from when Carter first got the idea. Carter is determined to make the jump somehow, but will he be able to do it?

It's very likely, even if you are Canadian, that you have never got any wind of this true story before in your life, and you are wondering, "Why haven't I ever heard of all this before?" Personally, while I had years ago seen on television a very condensed telling of this true tale, before watching The Devil At Your Heels I was puzzled why this outrageous struggle wasn't better known among my fellow Canadians. As it turns out, the documentary does in part answer why this quest of Ken Carter has all but been forgotten over time, and you will probably be surprised upon watching the documentary that it's not for the reason you are likely thinking of; that's all I will say about this matter. I will, however, get into other aspects of the documentary, starting with why it's a very compelling telling. For one thing, you'll be able to identify to a degree with Ken Carter's dream. Just about everyone has their own dream, something they want to do before time and age make it impossible to even consider anymore. While most of us don't have a dream to do anything as outrageous and dangerous as Carter dreams of doing, director Robert Fortier manages to capture a side of Carter that always makes him identifiable. While Carter teeters towards being "The Mad Canadian" he advertises himself as being, he comes across as a nice guy who simply wants to achieve a great goal. You can't help but be pulled into his quest and hope he'll be able to succeed. And because of this, whenever a setback happens in his life, you can feel the heartbreak that's happening inside of him, even though he always tries to put up a good front. There's one really effective sequence where everything seems to be going right - good weather, everyone on the team in sync, and ultimately the final countdown starts happening - when just a few seconds away from blasting forward... well, I won't say what happens, but it's kind of a gut punch.

But despite setbacks like the one that I just described, Ken Carter never gives up. Even when one problem after another comes up, from striking crew members to last minute developments, you know it won't phase Carter too much. Indeed, as both the years and problems start to pass and everything starts becoming an absolute clusterf**k of a situation nobody (except Carter) would want to be in, the capture of Carters's total determination keeps the viewer watching, and make it able to keep watching all of this negative drama. However, I should also mention that the documentary doesn't just capture the negative developments of Carter's seemingly hopeless quest. The documentary also shows the absurd side of Carter's outlandish ambition, enough that there are some good laughs and chuckles. It should be pointed out that the humor to be found does not come out of mean-spiritedness or mocking, but more with a human angle. For example, early on when Carter holds a press conference to try and raise publicity for his planned stunt in order to attract private investment, it's clear from the journalists interviewing Carter that they think his plan is ludicrous... but they do end up giving Carter the initial publicity he needs, because Carter is an interesting guy, and it is an interesting story. Later in the documentary, Carter manages to get the legendary Evel Knievel to visit the construction of the ramp, and as Carter discusses some definite problems with the construction with one of the workers, you can see on the silent Knievel's face a building troubled look, and he eventually speaks up with one of the biggest (and funniest) understatements you will have heard for a long time. Some time after this incident, when Carter has found some new Hollywood backers who insist on shooting their own documentary of sorts on Carter, Carter is put through doing various activities (like kayaking) in front of their cameras that he's never done before, apparently because the Hollywood crew somehow didn't find his already regular life colorful enough.

But you'll see that Ken Carter is already eccentric enough to have multiple documentaries made about his life. You will certainly question his plans at times, whether it's his only deciding to for the first time practicing racing a high-speed stunt car just a few weeks before his planned big stunt day, or deciding to practice getting intense G forces not from a stunt car, but an airplane. As questionable as decisions like those are, he is so likable and enthusiastic that you'll more be cheering him on than shaking your head in disbelief. I do wish, however, that The Devil At Your Heels did dig a bit deeper into Ken Carter, however. I wanted to know a lot about his past, what shaped him into not only becoming a stunt driver, but someone with this big dream of the ultimate stunt. However, the documentary not only spends just a few minutes in telling of his childhood and his young adult years, it doesn't explain exactly what made him into someone who wanted to be the ultimate stunt driver. Also, his personal life is never revealed, save for a few seconds of footage of a girlfriend who pops up towards the end and is never mentioned any time again. So while the documentary definitely shows human behavior by Carter and others, when it comes to defining the workings of Carter's mind, it is somewhat lacking. But I am sure most viewers while watching The Devil At Your Heels will be more focused on the big question as to whether Carter's hard work will pay off in the end. Well, I certainly won't reveal what exactly happens at the climax of the documentary, but I will say that it manages to be satisfying... and not satisfying... and not for reasons that you might have guessed. But hey, this is a Canadian true story filmed by Canadians, so you shouldn't expect a neat and totally satisfying ending... but this ending isn't boring and predictable a la Hollywood movies are more often than not, so in this particular case, I was able to really appreciate an ending like this.

(Posted August 30, 2026)