The 1980s were the pinnacle of Matthew Modine’s film career when he starred in “Birdy” and “Full Metal Jacket.” He’s worked fairly steadily ever since, but in lower profile films.
“Hard Miles,” based on a true story, is the tale of a modern-day initiator of young men into manhood. Modine plays Greg Townsend, a metal-shop teacher specializing in welding at a juvenile offender’s correctional facility in Colorado. In his spare time, he’s an amateur cyclist.
Teacher Townsend takes four young toughs on a 762-mile cycling tour to the Grand Canyon, so they can stand in awe of the sheer natural magnitude and get perspective on their lives. They also learn the profound life lesson that gritting it out mile after mile in the hot desert can teach: just keep going.
Bunch of Bad Boy Bullies
The alpha-dominant teen boy is Woolbright (Jahking Guillory), ready to throw hands at the slightest provocation. Runner-up to the alpha is gangsterhood-contemplating Atencio (Damien Diaz), followed by the no-less-contentious Rice (Zachary T. Robbins). Rounding out the quartet of bad boys is nerd-with-an-attitude (and a serious eating disorder) Smink (Jackson Kelly).
My favorite part of the film came early on. Townsend, who referees constantly in the abundant testosterone-fueled skirmishes that happen in classrooms and hallways, finds a way to focus the boys’ collective and aggressive ADHD. He presents subtle, fun challenges that contain the promise of change through learning teamwork.
He has them all take a cycling test, and, due to who drops out when, points out that the one who lasts the longest—isn’t necessarily the best. It merely reveals that each boy belongs to a different, time-honored cycling pack position, with French names. He explains that just like in football, basketball, and baseball, cycling teams have different categories of talents with particular usages.
One guy’s a Grimpeur (hill-climbing talent), another is the Sprinteur, (fairly self-evident), and the boy who refuses to participate is the Domestique—in other words, the waterboy. The waterboy spot is jokingly reserved for tough guy Woolbright who quit early out of rebellion. It’s meant to rib, challenge, and playfully shame him, and so this assigned low post in the pecking order won’t be something he can let stand for long.
The boys are initially skeptical of the team uniforms (to be worn sans underwear) and the team name their coach comes up with: “Banda Di Catene,” which in Spanish means “Chain Gang.”
Photo: Greg Townsend (Matthew Modine, L), leads a pack of determined boys through the desert, in “Hard Miles.” (Pensé Productions/Blue Fox Entertainment)
Father Wound
Townsend is plagued every so often by bad-dad flashbacks that would leave most boys and men with a permanent case of PTSD. As we meet Townsend, it’s that time of life where the hated dad is in hospice. Townsend is now plagued by phone calls from his brother to visit their father and seek reconciliation and peace before it’s too late.
However, back in the American 1950s, men only really understood the inner fire for which the warrior quadrant is known, which, if not tempered by the other three quadrants, can burn the whole house down.
Unfortunately, while Townsend’s personal pain has taught him how to teach, temper, and initiate boys into manhood, he’s still far too hard on his own inner little boy, never having learned that part of self-healing.
Thus the lesson of “Hard Miles” is not only about refocusing the grief, despair, rage, and deep disappointment of adolescent convicts, but of Townsend’s too. The teacher takes the journey with his students, literally and figuratively; physically and spiritually.
All the transformative work—the boys, and Townsend’s—is highly gratifying. Not to mention the culminating shot of the Grand Canyon and the grueling slog it takes to get there. We feel vicariously, from watching the boys take in that vast panorama, that it can reflect our inner landscapes. It can impart the deep wisdom of “as above, so below.” Our inner horizons and skies are capable of being, likewise, boundless—as the cliché goes, “The sky’s the limit.” That’s a good thing for young men to have a visceral experience of.
Townsend continues mentoring young men.
A must-see for all teachers and counselors of teenagers. In this current age of overprotecting and removing the tempering properties of pain, suffering, and grit from the lives of young people, it’s a must-see for everyone.
