Don’t you just love to see a man have a dream and work really hard to accomplish it? Okay, so maybe not all dreams are as epic as others, but isn’t the fact that he’s trying his damnest good enough? Even if it’s perhaps a wonky dream, it’s a dream nonetheless… which brings me to our everyday unsung hero…

Determined, he creeps into the snow covered clearing donning his fringed buckskin jacket with knives strapped to his body. He tells his story of the “old man” with the white beard- the grizzly who almost took his life. He is Troy Hurtubise, survivor of a ferocious grizzly bear attack. His dream is to create the perfect bear proof suit of armor. After many futile attempts, he wears his heart on his sleeve as he lives his story. Oh, it is sad, it is ridiculous, but most of all it is sweet and less than ordinary in the most endearing way.

He so badly wants to be somebody (haven’t we all been there?). His nature is defined by his quirky actions- shaving his face with his bowie knife, lighting his cigarette with a blow torch. His mega suit goes through many models and tests to become grizzly bear proof, such as walking through fire, numerous ramming of heavy logs at high speeds, being shot at with bows and arrows as well as 9 millimeter slugs and even running smack dab into the damn thing with a truck 18 times. I swear the poor man could literally barely walk in the suit since it weighed 147 pounds and he even had to get into it like the Duke Boys got into the General Lee.

Director Peter Lynch is a filmmaker who gets it. He combines storytelling with documentary cinematography to piece together the most lovable and outrageous true story that I have ever seen or heard. Lynch injects Troy’s story right into the veins of North America. After the screening at New Center Cinema, on March 9th, his Q&A session was well received by audience members. Everyone wanted to learn more about Troy and hear about Peter’s vision for the film.

Thank you Peter and thank you Troy for a romping good time and a sincere moment of simple pleasures.

Overall: Two opposable thumbs up- go see it! I seriously don’t care how you get there, find a way. You will laugh, you will giggle, but most of all you will feel your heart well up inside you as you remember the time that you yourself had a dream and you will smile and hope (just like I did) that someday our everyday unsung hero will get his due.