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Reviews
Action: The October Crisis of 1970 (1974)
Decent Film for the Time
Overall, I would give this film a rating of 6 out of 10. When taken into account that this was produced in 1974, the film is overall very well made. There were smooth transitions between all of the topics and there was a chronological timeline for everything which was very helpful for a full understanding of what was actually happening. It was also helpful for how everything over time was connected. This film depicts a significant amount of conflict in Quebec that was caused by the English impact. This tension lead to a lot of retaliations such as bombings and kidnappings throughout Quebec. These attacks were executed by the FLQ. This film is demonstrating the impacts that the FLQ had in Quebec. The FLQ was a terrorist group that was targeting the province of Quebec. This film accurately explains the significance of these attacks of the FLQ and how these events impacted the future of Canada and influenced the amount of English influence in Quebec. The attacks from the FLQ caused internal wars between Quebec and Ottawa with the intentions of maintaining control over the terrorism. There were many moments in this film where there were scenes of interviews of government members speaking about the events that were occurring that were much too long. As important as these scenes were, being that they contained very important information regarding the events, it was difficult to maintain focus on the film as a viewer being that there was such a large amount of information being shared. Overall, this film was difficult to follow, despite the fact that all of the needed information was given. It was convenient that all of the information was shared over a chronological style, however, there was a lot of information that was not connected until later in the film which made it difficult to remember the needed information to make connections. As a whole, the film was well made for the given time with only minor flaws such as containing too much information at improper times of the film and lacking true demonstration of how truly dire this situation was for Quebec.
In Bed with an Elephant (1987)
Great and interesting film
Overall, I would rate the film of "In Bed with an Elephant" as a 9 out of 10. There were a lot of chronological details provided by the film that gave in depth descriptions of the Presidential and Prime Minister relations over the years. There were also a lot of details included within each relationship that described how unique each relationship was and how they impacted both Canada and the United States. I enjoyed the fact that each relationship had its own impacts. Specifically how the relationship between the President Franklin Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill was what initially started the military relationship between the United States and Canada. If there were no relationships between the leaders of the Canada and the United States, there would be really no way for the two countries to be connected. It was also interesting how the relationship between the Prime Minister and the President were what lead to cooperation from other countries. A lot of the trade connections between the two countries and other countries, specifically China, came down to the connection between Canada and the United States. It can also be seen the perspective that Canada and the United States had of each other. The United States oftentimes questioned whether or not Canada was capable of sustaining as a country on its own and it came down to what Canada wanted. The United States knew that it could support itself as a country as well as assist Canada in becoming the country that it wanted to be. However, the Prime Ministers of Canada did not always appreciate the condescending view that the President of the United States often had. Yet, the relations between the two leaders, even through the changes of the leaders themselves, has continued to prove helpful and important when it comes to country development and sustainability.The film was very well made with valid information being portrayed throughout the entire length of it. It was interesting being that it was produced in a way to keep the attention of the viewer and had smooth transitions between each of the relations of the leaders. There were a few instances, however, where there could have been more information provided. There were a lot of relationships where it was not mentioned how the Prime Minister and the President had met and with prior knowledge, I know that there were a lot of cases where how the two people had met had a vital impact on the result of the overall relationship between the two countries. However, overall a sufficient amount of information about each relationship was provided with smooth transitions and connections. As a viewer, I believe that this film was made very well and I would recommend for other viewers.
The Vinland Mystery (1984)
Interesting topic but slight improvement needed
As an overall rating, I would rank this short film as a 6 out of 10.
As a whole, the short film "The Vinland Mystery" is a very well made short film about Norse history. It portrays the historical connections of the geographical aspects of history to the events that took place there. It is difficult to capture the true history of something from quite some time ago and the execution of the delivery of the history was not as great as it could have been but it still provided enough information in order to get the key concepts across. I found it relatively boring in the sense that it was mostly just a dialogue overlay on images and short video clips. This falls into the same category of the time frame that it had been made in being that it was made in the early 1980's so there was not much advancement in movie production. Taking that into account, it was overall well made.
Having known nothing about Norse history prior to watching this film, I had a very clear takeaway of the series of events. It was interesting to hear about the folklore that was connected to this history and to be provided images and geographical locations that proved where Norse sites were truly located. It was interesting that the folklore was what was used in order to trace through the history and the steps that led to the discovery of the location where everything had taken place. It is proven how difficult life may have been in these settlements given information about how secluded they truly were. They were said to live by themselves and very alone which for no one would be an easy task and yet they were able to sustain a life for themselves.
Overall, I would say that this was a decently well made short film, based on the resources of the time frame. The film gave a thorough description of Norse history. I would recommend this film for anyone with any interest in this topic, although a tad short, it gave a well thought out and strategic story-line of the true events that had occurred.