Canadian Bacon
Canadian Bacon is a 1995 comedy film written, produced, and directed by Michael Moore which satirizes Canada–United States relations along the Canada–United States border.[4] The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Alan Alda, John Candy (in his final film role), Bill Nunn, Kevin J. O'Connor, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, G. D. Spradlin, and Rip Torn.
| Canadian Bacon | |
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Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Michael Moore |
| Written by | Michael Moore |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Edited by | |
| Music by |
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Production companies |
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| Distributed by | Gramercy Pictures |
Release date |
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Running time | 90 minutes[1] |
| Countries | United States Canada |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $11 million[2] |
| Box office | $178,104[3] |
The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival,[5] and was the final film released starring John Candy, though it was shot before the earlier-released Wagons East as both films are dedicated in memory of him. It is also Moore's only non-documentary film to date.[6]
Plot Edit
In Niagara Falls, New York, thousands of former employees are outraged with military businessman R. J. Hacker, who had closed down his weapons manufacturing plant Hacker Dynamics. At a conference held at the former plant, he pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the President of the United States, who has just arrived. The president defends his own belief that the future of the children is more important than war, which has caused major decline in his approval rating. After the conference, he expresses to confidantes General Dick Panzer and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley, revealed to have ties with Hacker, his discontent about not having an enemy to engage in war. An attempted negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin to start a new cold war with Russia fails, and the president's suggestion of a war on international terrorism is deemed too absurd.
Serendipitously, American sheriff Bud Boomer offensively criticizes Canadian beer while attending a hockey game between the neighboring nations in Niagara Falls, Ontario. The ensuing brawl ends up on the news and catches Stuart's attention; Stuart, in turn, collects more information about Canada from a CIA agent named Gus, and suggests Canada as their new enemy during a cabinet meeting. Before long, television channels are littered with anti-Canada propaganda, which Boomer believes wholeheartedly. He prepares for war by distributing guns to his fellow sheriffs, including his girlfriend Honey and their friends Roy Boy and Kabral Jabar. He also helps form a local militia. After they apprehend a group of Americans "dressed as Canadians" attempting to destroy a hydroelectric plant, despite Gus's protests that they are just Americans, they sneak across the border to litter on Canadian lands, which leads to Honey being arrested by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. In a rescue attempt, Boomer, Roy Boy and Kabral sneak into a Canadian power plant and cause a countrywide blackout. When the president learns of this, Stuart orders the Omega Force to remove Boomer from Canada before it is too late.
Hacker, seeking revenge on the President for shutting down his business, uses a software program ("Hacker Hellstorm") to activate missile silos across the country. The President learns that the signal causing the activation of the silos originated from Canada, and summons Hacker. Hacker offers to sell a program to the President that can cancel out the Hellstorm—for $1 trillion. Stuart, fed up with the President being too busy to give Hacker the money, realizes that Hacker, getting up to leave, is the one controlling the silos, not Canada, and, after storming up, takes the operating codes from him required to stop the Hellstorm (accidentally killing Hacker in the process). The still busy President orders Stuart's arrest, despite his protests that he is now able to give the codes to the President so they could deactivate the missiles which are aimed at Moscow. As the launch time approaches the President pleads with Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald over the phone to stop the launch.
Meanwhile, Honey was taken to a hospital upon her capture and escaped all the way to the CN Tower. She discovers the central computer for the Hellstorm and destroys it with a machine gun, aborting the launch sequence. She then reunites with Boomer, and they return to the United States on a speedboat.
An epilogue reveals the characters' fates: Boomer realizes his dream of appearing on Cops; Honey is named "Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Rifle Association; the president was defeated in the next election by a large landslide and now hosts Get Up, Cleveland; Stuart served eight months in prison, but was pardoned by the new president Oliver North; Panzer committed suicide after learning that Hogan's Heroes was fictional; Gus was last spotted heading to Mexico in a tank; Hacker's body has been viewed daily at Republican National Headquarters; Kabral has become a hockey star, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy three years in a row; Roy Boy's whereabouts become unknown; and MacDonald is "still ruling with an iron fist".
Cast Edit
- Alan Alda as the unnamed President of the United States
- John Candy as Bud B. Boomer, Sheriff of Niagara County
- Bill Nunn as Kabral Jabar, Deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department and friend and colleague of Sheriff Bud Boomer
- Kevin J. O'Connor as Roy Boy, friend of Sheriff Bud Boomer
- Rhea Perlman as Honey, Deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department and girlfriend and colleague of Sheriff Bud Boomer
- Kevin Pollak as Stuart "Stu" Smiley, National Security Advisor
- G. D. Spradlin as R.J. Hacker, Owner of Hacker Dynamics
- Rip Torn as General Dick Panzer, Commander of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
- Steven Wright as Niagara Mountie
- Jim Belushi as Charles Jackal, news reporter for NBS News
- Richard E. Council as Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin
- Brad Sullivan as Gus
- Stanley Anderson as Edwin S. Simon, news anchor for NBS News
- Wallace Shawn as Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald
- Michael Moore as Redneck guy
- Dan Aykroyd as Ontario Provincial Police officer (uncredited)[7]
- Ed Sahely as Mountie (uncredited)
Production Edit
Moore was inspired by the pro-war sentiment and 90% approval rating for President George H. W. Bush at the time of the Gulf War and wondered if the president could gain public support for war on any country, even Canada.[8][9]
The film was shot in fall 1993,[10] in Toronto, Hamilton, and Niagara Falls, Ontario; and Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. Scenes depicting the rapids of the Niagara River were actually filmed at Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines. Parkwood Estate in Oshawa was the site for the White House, and Dofasco in Hamilton was the site for Hacker Dynamics. The scene where the American characters look longingly home at the US across the putative Niagara River is them looking across Burlington Bay at Stelco steelworks in Hamilton, Ontario.[11]
The hockey game and riot were shot at the Niagara Falls Memorial Arena in Niagara Falls, Ontario,[12] and the actors portraying the police officers (who eventually join in the riot upon hearing "Canadian beer sucks") are wearing authentic Niagara Regional Police uniforms.[13]
The film has numerous cameos by Canadian actors, including Dan Aykroyd, who appears uncredited as an Ontario Provincial Police officer who pulls Candy over (not for the crude anti-Canadian graffiti on his truck, but its lack of a French translation; Boomer dutifully sprays his truck in French graffiti).[7] Moore himself appears as an American gun nut. Cameo pictures of Canadian-American American actors in Propaganda are Michael J. Fox; Lorne Greene and Alex Trebek.[citation needed]
Reception Edit
Canadian Bacon received unfavorable reviews by critics.[14][15] On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 12% based on reviews from 17 critics.[16]
The A.V. Club's Nathan Rabin in a 2009 review concluded, "After generating solid laughs during its first hour, Canadian Bacon falls apart in its third act," lamenting the film "was perceived as too lowbrow for the highbrows, and too highbrow for the lowbrows."[7]
See also Edit
- Canada–United States relations
- The Canadian Conspiracy, a 1985 mockumentary about how Canadian entertainers are conquering TV and movies in the United States.
- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 Stanley Kubrick comedy about a fictional escalation of tensions in the Cold War
- The Mouse That Roared
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, the 1999 South Park animated film in which the U.S. declares war on Canada
- "A Speculative Fiction", a song by Canadian band Propagandhi that explores a war between Canada and the U.S.
- Wag the Dog, a 1997 film about a war devised for propaganda reasons
- The real-life War of 1812 between the United States and British North America (now Canada). This war was started when Great Britain started interfering with trade between the United States and France.
- War Plan Red, also known as the Atlantic Strategic War Plan, was a plan for the United States to make war with Great Britain, by attacking Canada.
- The real-life French and Indian War between Great Britain and France which also involved the colonies (then part of British North America) and New France which is now Canada.
References Edit
- ^ "Canadian Bacon (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. April 21, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
- ^ "Canadian Bacon". Box Office Mojo.
- ^ "Canadian Bacon (1995) - Financial Information". The Numbers.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (September 22, 1995). "FILM REVIEW; America's Cold War With Canada. Just Kidding!". The New York Times.
- ^ "Festival de Cannes: Canadian Bacon". festival-cannes.com. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
- ^ Fine, Marshall (November 28, 1993). "Movies: On Location: Will His 'Bacon' Sizzle? : Sure, Michael Moore can get a rise out of former GM honcho Roger Smith, but let's see how the documentarian does with his first feature". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
- ^ a b c Rabin, Nathan (April 15, 2009). "North of the Border Case File #135". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
- ^ Dominic Griffin (December 1995). . Film Threat Magazine. Archived from the original on December 2, 1998.
- ^ Denis Seguin (September 7, 1995). . eye Magazine. Archived from the original on February 2, 1999.
Could the president just name any country as the new enemy? Would the American public just fall into step behind him and support the war? And I thought, 'What would be the most absurd example of that?' And I came up with Canada.
- ^ Bradley, Ed (April 26, 1995). "Moore Gets to 'Super Bowl' of Film Makers". Flint, Michigan: The Flint Journal via Dog Eat Dog Films (Michael Moore official site). Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2012.
- ^ Imdb Canadian Bacon (1995) Filming Locations
- ^ "Rhea Pearlman at the Niagara Falls Arena During the Filming of Canadian Bacon". Retrieved April 10, 2008.
- ^ "John Candy at the Niagara Falls Arena During the Filming of Canadian Bacon". Retrieved April 10, 2008.
- ^ William F. Powers (September 22, 1995). "'Canadian Bacon'". Washington Post.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (September 22, 1995). . The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015.
- ^ "Canadian Bacon". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
External links Edit
- Canadian Bacon at IMDb
- Canadian Bacon at AllMovie
- Canadian Bacon at the TCM Movie Database