Village Squire, 1974-06, Page 70Keith's Kolumn
Many Canadian
movies
deserve to fail
The new Global Television Network showed
us one thing at least this winter'(besides the
fact that even the big smart guys behind
television networks can't balance -the budget)
and that is the reason the Canadian film
industry is in such bad shape.
There is one simple reason of course. Most
Canadian movies stink.
Were you like me with Global's Canadian
movie series? You sat down on Saturday
nights and decided to watch a Canadian
movie and two hours later got up wondering
why you had wasted two hours. You'd begin
to be disgusted about five minutes after the
opening credits but would vow to stick it out:
after all things had to get better. After half an
hour, well surely the second half would begin
to pull things together and you'd be able to
make sense out of the jumble of disconnected
images and mini -plots. But after two long
hours there was nothing left but the
admission that you'd been taken again. And
so, it seemed had Global.
The quality of television on Global has been
surprisingly strong for a beginning network,
but the Canadian movie series instantly
reduced it to a par with the worst of CBC
drama.
Maybe all the shows weren't as bad as that,
I don't know since after sitting through a
couple I just didn't have the courage to sit
down for any more.
Don't get me wrong. Don't hang any
put -down -Canada tag on me. I was a
nationalist before nationalism became
acceptable. But I've grown older and wiser
enough to see that just because it's Canadian
it isn't necessarily good. And in Canadian
films, the chances are 10 to one that it will be
so bad you won't want to waste your time
watching.
Movies and televised drama are two of the
only fields in the arts where Canadians have
bombed out almost completely. Sure, there
has been the odd minor success like Goin'
Down The Road but for the most part,
Canadian movies have done abissmally at the
box office if they've even had the chance to be
shown at a movie house in the first place. And
they've deserved to flop.
The trouble with the people who make
movies, like many of the people responsible
for CBC television drama, is that they are so
busy trying to produce something great, that
they can't produce something good. They
don't want to produce something for the
common herd, slobs like you and me, they
want to produce something for intellectuals
like themselves, something their friends will
call a masterpiece
This kind of intellectual snobbery has long
plagued the Canadian arts. The "in" group
gets in and refuses to recognize those who
may want to get in unless they hold the same
ideas. There has long been a belief that
Canadian arts cannot exist on a commercial
basis because the country's population is so
small, so accustomed to not having to worry
about mass tastes and expectations, the
artists work to please each other, not the
public.
Don't get me wrong: I'm not saying
Canadians in the arts don't have talent. There
are many talented people. But too often those
with talent are left out in the cold while those
who haven't much talent except a talent for
getting Canada Council grants, get all the
financial and moral support.
The movie industry is a classic example of
what is wrong in the Canadian artistic scene.
We have excellent actors, but you very
seldom see quality actors like William Hutt,
or Kate Reid or Robert Christie in Canadian
movies.
We have good directors, but we seldom see
one of them directing a Canadian picture
because they are all down in the United States
or in Europe.
We have excellent writers who have proven
their worth internationally with excellent
Canadian novels, but seldom do you see one
of these novels adapted to the screen.
We have excellent camera men, but only
now and then do we see one involved in a
Canadian movie.
In short, we've got it all, but we haven't
gotten it all together...or at least we haven't
in the past. From what I've read about the
movie version of Mordecae Richter's
Apprenticship of Duddy Kravitz it sounds like
the right combination has finally been
brought together. And notable enough, the
movie has been a hit with the critics, at the
box office and has won international success
by being the first really Canadian film to win
first rate distribution and promotion in the
U.S. and abroad. Indeed Canadians do want
to see Canadian films, but only if they are
good.
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32, VILLAGE SQUIRE/JUNE 1974