Go-Boy!

Last updated

Go-Boy!
Go-Boy!.jpg
Memoirs of a Life Behind Bars (first edition)
Author Roger Caron
Cover artistPeter F. Perko
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish
GenreAutobiography
Set inCanadian prison
Publisher McGraw-Hill Ryerson, CA, Hushion House Publishing, CA
Publication date
1978
Media typePrint (hardback and paperback)
Pages264 (first edition)
Award Governor General’s Literary Award
ISBN 9780070825352
Followed by"Bingo!"

Go-Boy!Memoirs of a Life Behind Bars is an autobiography by Roger Caron, written while incarcerated at Collins Bay Institution, in which he chronicles two decades of crime and prison escapes. The book, includes a foreword by Canadian author Pierre Berton, and was published in Canada by McGraw-Hill Ryerson on hardcover in 1978. The paperback iteration includes an introduction by Canadian author Ron Corbett, which was released in 2003 by Hushion House Publishing. Go-Boy! won the 1978 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language non-fiction.

Contents

Backstory

"Go-Boy! Go-Boy!" is prison slang for a runner and chanted by other inmates as encouragement during an escape attempt. [1] [2]

In his book, Caron gives a personal account of his life behind bars. Roger "Mad Dog" Caron, was a Canadian bank robber. For robbing 75 banks, he spent 24 years in jail, 12 of them in solitary confinement. He escaped prison on 13 different occasions. [3]

Synopsis

The book is a gritty and often brutal account of prison life. It begins on the morning of October 17, 1954, when Caron at age 16, leaves home for the first time, scared and shackled on a reformatory bus called the Black Maria, on his way to the Guelph Reformatory.

Caron writes of himself: "Everything that could happen to a person in prison–everything that could be done to someone–has been done to me."

Awards

Go-Boy! received the 1978 Governor General's Award for English-language non-fiction. [4]

Adaptations

In September 2004, Canadian film and television production company Paradox Pictures announced that it had secured the rights to Go-Boy! and was already working on a screenplay. A month later, Go-Boy! was entered into a pitch competition at the Raindance Film Festival. The panel of judges, which included screenwriter Neil Jordan ( The Crying Game ), and the producer of Bend It Like Beckham , voted it first runner up out of 29 other submissions. [5]

The 75-minute feature-length documentary film Go-Boy! Memories of A Life Behind Bars, which chronicles the physical and psychological effects of the prison system as seen through Caron's eyes, was released by Paradox Pictures. It premiered as the closing night film at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival in March 2019. It was screened at the Orlando Film Festival in October 2019, and at the Windsor International Film Festival in November 2019, where at both screenings, was nominated for "Best Documentary Feature" and for "The Insight Award". [6]

The film which took 10 years to produce, was opening night screening in Caron's hometown of Cornwall Ontario, at the Aultsville Filmfest in January 2020. In attendance were Caron's sister Sue MacGregor, and producer Rob Lindsay, who was 15 years old when he first read the book. In creating the film, he used archival footage and present-day interviews, and stated “I tried to be fair to both sides, (chronicling both Caron’s accomplishments and his notorious criminal side).” [4] In Canada, the film first aired on April 9, 2021 on the CBC Documentary Channel. [7]

Reception

Go-Boy! which received widespread acclaim for its insights into prison life, sold over 600,000 copies. [4] Caron received considerable recognition, including praise from then Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau as being a "great Canadian". [8]

Related Research Articles

<i>Midnight Express</i> (film) 1978 American drama film

Midnight Express is a 1978 prison drama film directed by Alan Parker, produced by David Puttnam and written by Oliver Stone, based on Billy Hayes's 1977 non-fiction book of the same name. The film stars Brad Davis, Irene Miracle, Bo Hopkins, Paolo Bonacelli, Paul L. Smith, Randy Quaid, Norbert Weisser, Peter Jeffrey, and John Hurt.

<i>Take the Money and Run</i> 1969 film by Woody Allen

Take the Money and Run is a 1969 American mockumentary comedy film directed by Woody Allen. Allen co-wrote the screenplay with Mickey Rose and stars alongside Janet Margolin. The film chronicles the life of Virgil Starkwell, an inept bank robber.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingston Penitentiary</span> Former Canadian maximum security prison

Kingston Penitentiary is a former maximum security prison located in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, between King Street West and Lake Ontario.

Each winner of the 1978 Governor General's Awards for Literary Merit was selected by a panel of judges administered by the Canada Council for the Arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival</span> Film festival in Sudbury, Ontario, Canada

Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, also known as Cinéfest and Cinéfest Sudbury is an annual film festival in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, Canada, held over nine days each September. It is one of the largest film festivals in Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East Jersey State Prison</span> Medium-Security prison in New Jersey

East Jersey State Prison (EJSP) is a medium-security prison operated by the New Jersey Department of Corrections in Avenel, Woodbridge Township, New Jersey. It was established in 1896 as Rahway State Prison, and was the first reformatory in New Jersey, officially opening in 1901. It housed 1,227 inmates as of 2020.

Roger "Mad Dog" Caron was a Canadian robber and the author of the influential prison memoir Go-Boy! Memories of a Life Behind Bars (1978). At the time of publishing, Caron was 39 years old and had spent 23 years in prison.

<i>Pixote</i> 1980 film by Héctor Babenco

Pixote: a Lei do Mais Fraco is a 1980 Brazilian crime drama film directed by Héctor Babenco. The screenplay was written by Babenco and Jorge Durán, based on the book A Infância dos Mortos by José Louzeiro.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio State Reformatory</span> United States historic place

The Ohio State Reformatory (OSR), also known as the Mansfield Reformatory, is a historic prison located in Mansfield, Ohio in the United States. It was built between 1886 and 1910 and remained in operation until 1990, when a United States Federal Court ruling ordered the facility to be closed. While this facility was seen in a number of films, TV shows and music videos, it was made famous by the film The Shawshank Redemption (1994) when it was used for most scenes of the movie.

John Herbert was the pen name of John Herbert Brundage, a Canadian playwright, drag queen, and theatre director best known for his 1967 play Fortune and Men's Eyes.

Stephen Reid was a Canadian criminal and writer, who was a member of the notorious Stopwatch Gang and was also convicted twice of bank robbery. Reid served time in over 20 prisons in Canada and the United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ohio Reformatory for Women</span>

The Ohio Reformatory for Women (ORW) is a state prison for women owned and operated by the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction in Marysville, Ohio. It opened in September 1916, when 34 female inmates were transferred from the Ohio Penitentiary in Columbus. ORW is a multi-security, state facility. As of July 2019, 2,394 female inmates were living at the prison ranging from minimum-security inmates all the way up to one inmate on death row. It was the fifth prison in the United States, in modern times, to open a nursery for imprisoned mothers and their babies located within the institution. The Achieving Baby Care Success (ABC) program was the first in the state to keep infants with their mothers.

<i>Fifty Dead Men Walking</i> 2008 British film

Fifty Dead Men Walking is a 2008 English-language crime thriller film written and directed by Kari Skogland. It is a loose adaptation of Martin McGartland's 1997 autobiography of the same name. It premiered in September 2008, and stars Jim Sturgess as McGartland, a British agent who went undercover into the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), and Ben Kingsley as Fergus, his British handler.

<i>The Town</i> (2010 film) 2010 American crime drama film directed by Ben Affleck

The Town is a 2010 American crime drama film co-written, directed by, and starring Ben Affleck, adapted from Chuck Hogan's 2004 novel Prince of Thieves. It also stars Rebecca Hall, Jon Hamm, Jeremy Renner, Blake Lively, Titus Welliver, Pete Postlethwaite, Chris Cooper and Slaine, and follows a Boston bank robber who begins to develop romantic feelings for a victim of one of his previous robberies, while he and his crew set out to get one final score by robbing Fenway Park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Filmfest München</span> Largest summer film festival in Germany

The Munich International Film Festival is the largest summer film festival in Germany and second only in size and importance to the Berlinale. It has been held annually since 1983 and takes place in late-June/early-July. The latest festival was held from June 23 to July 2, 2022. It presents feature films and feature-length documentaries. The festival is also proud of the role it plays in discovering talented and innovative young filmmakers. With the exception of retrospectives, tributes and homages, all of the films screened are German premieres and many are European and world premieres. There are a dozen competitions with prizes worth over €250,000 which are donated by the festival's major sponsors and partners.

Dylan Mohan Gray is an Indian and Canadian filmmaker. His documentary feature film Fire in the Blood, premiered in competition at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival and went on to enjoy the longest theatrical run of any non-fiction film in Indian cinema history . An official selection at over 100 leading film festivals which was honoured with major awards and accolades worldwide, Fire in the Blood altered the global conversation around access to essential medicine, and in 2018 was named one of "26 landmark documentary films of the past seven decades" in a major retrospective curated by legendary documentarian John Pilger.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Omar August Pinson</span> American murderer

Omar August Pinson, also known as John Omar Pinson, was an American robber and murderer who was on the FBI Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list in 1950.

<i>Edwin Alonzo Boyd</i> (book)

Edwin Alonzo Boyd: The Story of the Notorious Boyd Gang is a non-fiction book written by Brian Vallée. It was published in 1997 by Doubleday Canada. This work revolves around the life of notorious Canadian bank robber Edwin Alonzo Boyd and his role in the Boyd Gang. Vallée worked closed with Boyd in the writing of this book and spent considerable time interviewing Boyd about his memories of his criminal career.

<i>The Old Man & the Gun</i> 2018 film by David Lowery

The Old Man & the Gun is a 2018 American biographical crime film written and directed by David Lowery, about Forrest Tucker, a career criminal and prison escape artist. The script is loosely based on David Grann's 2003 article in The New Yorker titled "The Old Man and the Gun", which was later collected in Grann's 2010 book The Devil and Sherlock Holmes. The film stars Robert Redford, Casey Affleck, Danny Glover, Tika Sumpter, Tom Waits and Sissy Spacek. Redford announced his intent to retire from acting at age 82 after completion of the film; it is his penultimate live-action appearance, preceding Avengers: Endgame.

<i>Destination Marfa</i> 2021 American science fiction film

Destination Marfa is a 2021 American science fiction film written and directed by Andy Stapp and starring Tony Todd, Stelio Savante, Tracy Perez, Richard Riehle, and Neil Sandilands. In 2021 Andy Stapp was awarded Hollywood's Best First-Time Filmmaker The film is inspired by the legendary phenomenon of the Marfa lights which are a popular tourist attraction year round culminating with a celebration in the form of the Marfa Lights Festival. The film has won both domestically & internationally Best Writer x 2, Best Director x 6, Best Trailer x 2, Best Sci-fi feature x 7, Best Horror, Best Actor x 2, Best Editor x 2, Best Visual Effects x 2, Best Debut Film, Exceptional Merit in Film, International Platinum Film, Best Feature at European Cinema, Best Sound Design at European International, Best Producer, Honorable mention in Athens, Greece, and an Honorable Mention at Hollywood New Directors. Destination Marfa was in the top 5% success rate for selections at movie festivals in 2021 as well as 2022. It was selected at Manhattan, New York Filmfest, Toronto, Canada International Filmfest, Montreal, Canada Independent Filmfest, Los Angeles, California Scifi FilmFest, North Hollywood, California Cinefest, Athens, Greece, Miami, Florida, Seattle, Washington, Kilgore, Texas, International Filmfest in Italy, World Carnival Filmfest in Singapore, Ediplay Filmfest in Paris, France, Dubai, UAE, Colorado Springs, Colorado, West Virginia, Boston, Maryland, Reims, France, India, Newark, New Jersey, Las Vegas, Nevada, Austin, Texas, Italy, Stanley Kubrick Film Awards, Hollywood New Directors, and The So You Think You Can Direct/Act Competition in Delaware.

References

  1. Caron, Roger (1978). Go-Boy!. Canada: McGraw-Hill Ryerson. Dust jacket. ISBN   978-0176007867.
  2. ""Damn good bank robber" was a lousy escapee". The Sydney Morning Herald. July 11, 2012. Archived from the original on August 19, 2021. Retrieved August 19, 2021.
  3. "Go-Boy! tells the extraordinary true story of Canada's most notorious escape artist – brioux.tv". Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 18, 2021.
  4. 1 2 3 Hambleton, Todd (January 24, 2020). "Filmfest kicks off with notorious Cornwall robber Roger Caron". Standard-Freeholder . Archived from the original on March 1, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  5. "News". Paradox Pictures. October 6, 2004. Archived from the original on February 15, 2006.
  6. "GoBoy Screenings". Paradox Pictures. Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  7. "GO-BOY! Memories of a Life Behind Bars". Documentary Channel (Canadian TV channel) . Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.
  8. Peerenboom, Greg (April 13, 2012). "'Go Boy' author dies". Toronto Sun . Archived from the original on August 18, 2021. Retrieved August 17, 2021.