Disney Plus-Or-Minus: Iron Will
If you’re anything like me, you’re probably only dimly aware of Disney’s semi-obscure 1994 adventure Iron Will. Without knowing anything about it, I assumed it was perhaps another Jack London adaptation like the earlier White Fang. The two films definitely share a lot of the same DNA but Iron Will has nothing to do with London. Instead, it’s based on (or, more accurately, inspired by) the true story of the 1917 Winnipeg-to-Saint-Paul dog sled race. And, as usual whenever Disney tries their hand at a true story, historical accuracy often takes a back seat.
Judging by the writing credits, Iron Will had been in development for a while. The first credited screenwriter was John Michael Hayes, the Oscar-nominated writer of Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window. Hayes was certainly a Hollywood veteran but he’d slowed down in the 1980s. He’d all but retired, taking a teaching job in New Hampshire in 1988. The next person to take a crack at it was Djordje Milicevic, who knew a thing or two about snow and ice thanks to his work on Runaway Train. Finally, the script passed through the word processor of Jeff Arch, another Oscar nominee for cowriting Sleepless In Seattle with Nora Ephron and David S. Ward.
To direct, the studio hired Charles Haid. Haid first made a name for himself as an actor, notably on the acclaimed drama Hill Street Blues. In fact, he’s already appeared in this column over on the Touchstone side in the teens-invade-North-Korea oddity The Rescue. Beginning in the early 90s, Haid increasingly worked behind the camera. Iron Will remains his only theatrical feature credit but he’s amassed a lengthy filmography directing episodic television and TV-movies.
Mackenzie Astin (brother of Sean) stars as Will Stoneman, a 17-year-old farm boy from South Dakota whose dreams of attending college are put in jeopardy after his father (John Terry) accidentally drowns. With the family farm facing foreclosure, Will decides to take a big risk and enter the 522-mile dog race which promises a grand prize of $10,000 to the winner. With the help of Native American farmhand Ned Dodd (August Schellenberg), Will embarks on a crash training course to get in shape for the dangerous race. But as he departs for Winnipeg, he still has one major problem. His lead dog, Gus, is a champion but was thoroughly bonded to his father and Will can’t seem to fully earn the dog’s trust and respect.
Arriving in Canada, Will attends a reception for the racers hosted by the competition’s three main sponsors: railroad magnate J.W. Harper (David Ogden Stiers, making his first live-action Disney appearance), Harper’s rival, Angus McTeague (Brian Cox) and Canadian host DeFontaine (Jeffrey Alan Chandler). When Will attempts to enter the race, Harper informs him that the late registration fee is $10, two bucks more than young Will has to his name.
Over at the bar, a Chicago newspaperman named Harry Kingsley (Kevin Spacey) smells a story. With the country on the verge of entering World War I, Kingsley suspects he can sell a lot of papers with the plucky young American entering a competition against insurmountable odds. He leaps to his feet and offers to pay the registration fee, threatening to drag Harper’s name through the mud if he refuses to let the boy race.
Will spends the rest of the evening getting to know his fellow competitors, a motley assortment of burly he-men from snowy climes around the world. There’s only one other American, Joe McPherson (Rex Linn), who advises Will to steer clear of Swedish racer Borg Guillerson (George Gerdes). Borg is a cartoonishly evil brute who has already offered to lend Will a hand should he need any extremities sliced off due to frostbite.
Will gets off to an early lead but soon learns the risks of pushing his team so hard. As he rests on a treacherous climb, the other teams pass him by utilizing the trail he inadvertently cut for them. But as the days pass, some of the competitors drop out due to injury or exhaustion. But Will continues to forge ahead, sleeping just a few hours each night and starting out long before the others have woken up.
Fielding continues in his efforts to make the young American a star, becoming increasingly annoyed when his stories fail to make the front page. He sends an emissary to South Dakota to track down Will’s family and comes up with the nickname “Iron Will” to help transform him into a folk hero. Meanwhile, McTeague, who has placed several steep side wagers against the boy, begins to worry that he might actually finish the race. He offers Will a few thousand dollars to drop out. When that doesn’t work, he recruits the fiendish Borg to take him out permanently.
I suppose it’s a bit of a spoiler to reveal that Will ultimately prevails and wins the race, although if you couldn’t figure that out for yourself, this must be your first movie. In real life, the winner of the 1917 Red River Derby was Canadian Albert Campbell. A few elements from Campbell’s life were transferred to Will but, for the most part, Will Stoneman was based on American Fred Hartman. Fred Hartman was nearly a decade older than Will but suffered many of the same misfortunes as Will and carried on with the same steely resolve. Fred finished the race, dead last, but still received a hero’s welcome simply because people couldn’t believe he was still alive.
These deviations from the historical record are understandable. Underdog stories tend to play better when the hero actually wins. But they’re also extremely predictable and Iron Will is nothing if not that. There is hardly a moment in the film that doesn’t seem telegraphed from miles away. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that but Haid does overplay his hand on occasion. The big finale leans so heavily into slow motion and swelling music that I literally yelled at my television, “Stop milking it!”
The movie also takes quite a long time to get going, so much so that I’d nearly checked out before we even got to Winnipeg. That said, once we do finally get to the race itself, Iron Will is not without its pleasures. Many of the racing sequences are exciting and the location shooting in Minnesota and Montana helps give a sense of the bitter cold. Astin is an appealing and earnest lead, although the fact that he even resembles Ethan Hawke in White Fang doesn’t help Iron Will escape that film’s shadow.
Perhaps the most surprisingly enjoyable aspect of Iron Will is its stacked supporting cast of wildly overqualified actors. Brian Cox and David Ogden Stiers are great fun playing off each other. Cox, in particular, seems to be enjoying himself, possibly because he gives the impression that this project is not requiring a great effort on his part. As for Kevin Spacey, well, what can one say about Kevin Spacey at this point. This column has been forced to reckon with the problematic and the cancelled before (Bill Cosby, anyone?). Whatever your personal feelings toward Kevin Spacey these days, there’s no denying the man could be a very gifted actor and the role of a fast-talking newspaper man on the hustle fits squarely within his wheelhouse. At any rate, Spacey will be turning up a few more times, both here and on the Touchstone side, so brace yourself.
Disney probably didn’t have great expectations for Iron Will. The film debuted on January 14, 1994, not exactly prime real estate for hot new movies. It earned a little over $5 million that weekend, placing sixth behind Philadelphia, Mrs. Doubtfire, House Party 3, Grumpy Old Men and The Pelican Brief, most of which were holdovers from the year before. Critics collectively shrugged their shoulders at the film. Some were mildly entertained but most were bored. The movie reportedly cost around $30 million but only managed to take in a little over $21 million.
Iron Will certainly isn’t a bad movie but it’s so formulaic that the recipe might just as well be printed on the poster. Despite that, elements of it still work. Perhaps some things always do, like stories of indomitable courage and man-and-dog bonding. Disney will continue to test that theory. We’ll find ourselves back in the great outdoors before you know it.
VERDICT: I’m leaning ever-so-slightly toward Disney Plus on this but it really is a coin toss.