The Boy in Blue (1986)

Nicolas Cage, Cynthia Dale, Christopher Plummer, David Naughton, Sean Sullivan ... see more  , Melody Anderson , James Douglas , Walter Massey , Austin Willis , Philip Craig , Kim Coates , Aidan Devine , Arthur Grosser , Gordon Masten , Michel Perron , Jeff Wincott , Phil Neilson , Claude Rae , Dan Hennessy , Doug Lennox , Ted Dykstra , Bob Bainborough , Germain Beauchamp , Barry Edward Blake , Robert 'Big Buck' Maffei , John Cain , Ian D. Clark , Paul Craig Jennings , Dave de Sanctis , Jain Dickson , Teddy Donville , John Dunn-Hill , James Edmond , Anne Farquhar , Eric Fink , Graham Haley , Ian Heath , Diane Hollingsworth , Gerald Isles , Geordie Johnson , Graham MacDready , Don MacQuarrie , Doris Malcolm , Robert McCormick , Bruce McFee , Gorman Miller , Peter Peer , Ken Rogers , Elizabeth Rukavina , Patrick Sinclair , Greg Swanson , Brian Thorne , Lee-Max Walton , Tim Weber , George E. Zeeman , Roger McKeen , James B. Douglas

To fully appreciate Boy in Blue, it's helpful to know a little bit about the sport of "sculling"-or competitive rowing. Nicolas Cage stars as the real-life Ned Hanlan, who at the turn of the century w... read more as Canada's foremost sculling champ. A wild, uncontrollable youth, Hanlan is "adopted" by a gambler named Bill (David Naughton), who promotes the boy on the sculling circuit for his own monetary gain. Ruthlessly businessman Knox (Christopher Plummer) assumes control of Hanlan's career, but when Ned discovers just how ruthless Knox can be, he casts his lot with the first honest man he's met, inventor-speculator Walter (Sean Sullivan). Hanlan's professional success is capped by his marriage to Margaret (Cynthia Dale), Knox's previously unattainable niece. The by-the-numbers Boy in Blue was given an R rating due to a few disposable sex scenes, thereby cutting its potential audience (hero-worshipping youths) in half. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi