Iron Will (1994) on Netflix
After his father Jack drowns, seventeen-year-old Will Stoneman is left to support his mother and their debt-ridden South Dakota farm. He enters a dogsled race for its cash prize.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb6.6/1010,278 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes67%
Trailer
Plot summary
In 1917, seventeen-year-old Will Stoneman runs mail for his South Dakota town and works as a carpenter beside his father Jack, who makes furniture and farms. A college acceptance letter arrives, and Jack urges him to go. When Jack drowns in a mushing accident, his sled overturning into a river, Will becomes the one responsible for his mother Maggie and their bill-indebted farm. Rather than let the family's sled dogs be sold, Will aims for an international dogsled race from Winnipeg that carries a cash prize, and trains under Ned Dodd, a farm hand. In Winnipeg the sponsor J.W. Harper rejects his late entry, and the reporter Harry Kingsley pays the fee, seeing a story in the young outsider. The race runs for days through harsh weather and terrain against international mushers.
Cast
- Ron Wintersas Spirit Guide #2
- Jeffrey Alan Chandleras DeFontaine
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Iron Will (1994)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
SPOILER
Unlike the film, where Will Stoneman narrowly wins, the real Fred Hartman actually finished last among five finishers in the 1917 race, collapsing snow-blind and semi-conscious after losing 32 pounds, yet was still hailed as a hero for his determination.- The film's hero Will Stoneman is drawn from 26-year-old American racer Fred Hartman, though a few elements of the character resemble 22-year-old Albert Campbell, the Métis man who won the race and whose father had died shortly before it.
- The film's brush with a train came from life: Fred Hartman narrowly escaped a collision with a passenger train, helped by two local men who got him and his dogs off the track.
- Because Minnesota has almost no mountains, the Sawtooth range excepted, the scenes in which Will crosses mountainous terrain were filmed in Montana instead.
