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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1988-05-18, Page 4PAGE 4. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, MAY 18, 1988. Opinion Now you see it, now you don't This time last year there was considerable excitement in the area when a motion picture “Blue City Slammers’’ was being made in Blyth. Last week in Maclean’s magazine Blue City Slammers received a good review ... but the movie had already closed in Toronto after a short run. Hearing the movie had closed so soon one person last week said the movie must have been really bad. If only it were so simple that good movies played forever and bad ones died a swift death. Anyone who has gone to many movies knows it isn’t necessarily that way. It’s hard to vouch for the quality of Blue City Slammers because few of us have had a chance to see it. While Maclean’s liked it, the Toronto Star reviewer didn’t. Still reviewers often don’t make or break movies. Lots of movies have made millions when reviewers didn’t like them. Canadian movies have a tough battle on their hands to even get attention. A whole industry of fan magazines and radio and television shows like Entertainment Tonight has been built up around glorifying Hollywood movies. There is a sense of excitement about the newest release from Hollywood particularly when some well-publicized actor stars in it. Canadian movies sneak into town without any build up. Our actors get little publicity because we don’t have any of the star-making machinery in the country to make people’s names and faces familiar. But there are even more difficult obstacles to overcome, one of which Communications Minister Flora MacDonald promised to change before recently knuckling under to pressure from the United States film industry and the government of Ronald Reagan by watering down legislation. Before a movie can get seen in movie houses it must have a distributor. The Canadian movie distrubtion is dominated by American companies that routinely include Canada as part of the U.S. market when buying the rights to films, not just films produced by major American studios but those by independent producers in the U.S. and abroad. Without films to show Canadian distrubutors can’t get a toe-hold in their own country. Without a Canadian distribution industry it’s virtually impossible for Canadian films to reach the screens of Canadian theatres in any big way. And since you can’t like what you can’t see, there isn’t much chance Canadian films will ever be hits with the public. Flora MacDonald promised to change this by legislating that only those films produced by major American film studios could be distributed by non-Canadian distributors. All independent­ ly produced films and all non-U.S. films would have to be distributed through Canadian companies. The idea was that the money made from distribution would remain in Canada and help build a Canadian distribution network and, in the long-run to invest in Canadian-made movies. But the American movie studio bosses didn’t like the idea and went right to the top, to ex-actor President Ronald Reagan whomade it clear to Prime Minister Mulroney. So, after nearly a year of delays, the new policy has been announced. No longer will Canada be lumped in with the purchase of U.S. rights. This is supposed to give Canadian distributors a chance to bid for separate Canadian rights but some industry sources say it will simply mean an accounting change for U.S. studios as they break out a separate Canadian price. What the government was trying to do wasn’t anti-American but anti-monopoly. The U.S. has stronger legislation against monopolies than Canada does. Indeed the early days of the U.S. movie business saw the government act to break up “The Trust’ ’ group of filmmakers who tried to control every aspect of movie production, distribution and exhibition. The move gave a fair break to up and coming filmmakers and led to the very building of the Hollywood movie studios that now want to maintain a monopoly position today with the help of U.S. government pressure. There is much wrong with the Canadian movie industry where Canadian moviemakers either try to make American movies or forget that movies are firstly entertainment and they must entertain the audience not make great artistic masterpieces. With all its problems, however, the Canadian movie industry doesn’t stand a chance of being a viable industry until it gets a chance to show its stuff on the movie screens of the land. As long as Canadian governments knuckle under to pressure from Hollywood (and this isn’t the first government to have done so in the last 50 years) Canadians like those who took part in Blue City Slammers a year ago in Blyth, will never get a chance to see themselves on the big screens of Canadian movie houses. Letter to the editor Several enterprising citizens de­ cided there was a need for a local newspaper to provide a service to this community. There were many people, and most so called experts, who said with today’s competition Continued on page 10 THE EDITOR, Reeditorial “How Much?’’ May 3 edition - Communications Business: - Brussels a few years ago had no hometown newspaper, when the ‘ ‘Post’ ’ was sold to a conglomerate. The fight for North America's tire market BY RAYMOND CANON The English and the North Americans cannot get together on the spelling of the word “tire” but that is a minor problem compared to the ones which afflict the industry at the present time. You may or may not be aware of it but there is no major Canadian-owned tire manufacturer. The big ones in this country and elsewhere are all foreign owned and at the present time they are all in a big fight over the declining market in tires, a decline that has manifested itself in both North America and else­ where. First of all. let’s bring you up to date on the companies who provide the rubber that permits your car to run. The biggest in the world is an American corporation, Good Year but it does not have much of a lead over the French giant, Michelin. Somewhat father behind, at about half the size of the two leaders, are such well known names as Bridge­ stone, Continental, General, Fire­ stone, Uniroyal-Gooderich, Pirelli, and Sumitomo. Bridgestone, by the way, is Japanese owned, in spite of its English-sounding name. Rounding up the top 10 are another two Japanese firms, Yoka- hama and Toyo although they are just pygmies compared to the two leaders. If you look at the entire industry, you will see that the tire manufac­ turers like to be near the market they service which accounts for the fact that a number of the large manufacturers have plants in Canada. One of them, Michelin, has no less than three factories in Nova Scotia, which got into the news recently because of the efforts of Bob White and the Canadian Auto Workers to organ­ ize them. So far Mr. White has not enjoyed much success but I expect him to try again. If at first you don’t succeed, etc. seems to be Mr. White’s motto. One of the characteristics of should come as no surprise to learn that No. 5 producer, Firestone, is the subject of a take-over bid from both Bridgestone and Pirelli. Their reasons for so doing are quite easy to understand. Let’s start with Pirelli. It has 35 per cent of the Italian market but has little more than a toe-hold on the North American market where no less than 35 per cent of the world’s tires are sold. Tires are relatively bulky and expensive to transport so, as I mentioned above, the plants need to be near their main customers. Pirelli would like to compete head-on with both Michelin and Good Year so it needs modern conglomerates is to buy each other out; it frequently comes cheaper than attempting to build by market share or by advertising and the like. For this reason it American outlets. What better way to accomplish this than to buy out an existing firm such as Firestone. Bridgestone has an even greater Continued on page 6 [Published by North Huron Publishing Company Inc.) Serving Brussels, Blyth, Auburn, Belgrave, Ethel, Londesborough, Walton and surrounding townships Published weekly in Brussels, Ontario P.O.Box152, P.O. Box429, Brussels, Ont. Blyth, Ont. NOG 1 HO N0M1H0 887-9114 523-4792 Subscription price: $17.00; $38.00 foreign. Advertising and news deadline: Monday 2p.m. in Brussels; 4p.m. in Blyth Editor and Publisher: Keith Roulston Advertising Manager: Dave Williams Production and Office Manager: Jill Roulston Second Class Mail Registration No. 6968