Hounds of Notre Dame

Notre Dame school was famous for 'turning around' boys that were borderline delinquent, many of whom went on to become business leaders and professionals. They were also famous for their tough hockey team, the hounds. This film gives a strikingly real portrait of post-depression Saskatchewan from the 1940s, and shows the loving kindness and the tough stubbornness of Athol "Pere" Murray, who founded the school and gave it the reputation that it enjoys to this day. Pere Murray, who in his earlier days founded the famous tribute to the early Jesuit missionaries at Ste. Marie Aux Hurons in Ontario, a major tourist attraction with reconstructed fort and museum, was considered crazy for wanting to build a boys school in the middle of nowhere in the dust bowl. This movie shows the mix of vision and zeal that made Notre Dame a success, now funded in good part by many of its successful graduates. For those who wonder - yes, Saskatchewan blizzards are exactly as portrayed in the film.

This story about the fiercely conservative, hockey-living priest Athol Murray is Canada's answer to American Graffiti. AG captures a slice of early 1960s life in the US with a surreal 24 hours of cruising, rock and roll, and teenage coming-of-age. HOND charts a 24-hour slice of life at an impoverished boarding school on the Canadian prairies in the war years (1940s). It is every bit as poignant as AG, though, suitably for a Canadian film, much quieter and easily overlooked.

Not bad for the Canadian film board! Actually watchable, and not its usual politically correct attack on the Catholic Church. I remember watching this film with my future wife while on Christmass break during collegde. This film give the viewer the feel of what Notre Dame Sask school was like. How the tourch was passed, how the Priest tried too instill toughness for the people to survive the difficult time they faced in the 30's and 40's. 6 or 7 out of 10.