IRON WILL (1994)

Thirty years after his last screen credit, John Michael Hayes (four classic Hitchcocks & top-grossers PEYTON PLACE and THE CARPETBAGGERS among his titles) returned to the big screen a final time with what is essentially a YA/coming-of-age Disney film.  I know . . . but a good YA/coming-of-age Disney film, especially for the ‘90s.  A fictionalized take on a real dog sled run (500 miles from Winnipeg to St. Paul), Mackenzie Astin channels his young James Stewart (check out the hair) as the farmer’s son who has to put dreams of college on ice when dad dies and mom's got to sell the farm.  But the $10,000 racing prize that tempted his late father looks just as good to this 17-year old American kid.  And, after a month’s training with dad’s old Indian partner as mentor, he’s off to take on hardened pros, all seasoned dog-sledding Goliaths.  Not a lot of surprises on how this all turns out, but the journey is sweet, cleanly shot (the bright look a pleasure after so many ‘antiqued’ filming techniques) and exciting enough to grab front page headlines from WWI.  And while tv actor/director Charles Haid (in his sole feature credit) proves no master of tone, he runs a clean story line and was given an unusually strong cast for a Disney pic.  Kevin Spacey as the cynical reporter; David Ogden Stiers as the race sponsor; Brian Cox as the bigshot betting against the kid.  The huskies a wonderful lot (earning more legit tears than the frostbit humans), and someone (Hayes?) had the grand idea of turning the main villain/competitor into Messala (Ben-Hur’s chariot opponent).  Even rousting up dogs with mostly black coats (like Messala’s chariot horse team) while giving Astin a pure white lead dog.  Too bad they didn’t go all in and reuse Miklós Rózsa’s score.*

DOUBLE-BILL/LINK: For a more realistic dog sled run, TOGO/’19.   https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/11/togo-2019.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID:  *In BEN-HUR, there is no score under the big chariot race.  Here, it’s from Joel McNeely, a Disney regular who’s also made some of the best re-recordings of classic Hollywood scores.  Bernard Herrmann’s VERTIGO; a reconstruction of his all but complete unused score for TORN CURTAIN (when will someone dub in the whole Herrmann score on that misbegotten film?), plus an absolute knockout recording of Franz Waxman’s SUNSET BOULEVARD, including the alternate opening sequence set in a morgue.