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
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