What can I say? It's a classic. Really the only Michael Moore movie I can point to and say the word "classic" without irony. I remember my parents laughing about this movie and talking about it as being hilariously political, but when I watch it now the movie's humor feels somehow sapped. So much of this movie rings true today in so many ways... It was very over-the-top and ridiculous in its time, but even then there was a clear edge of terrifyingly transparent reality. I guess by this point in my life I've seen the messages conveyed here play out some many times over that much if it isn't funny anymore. I'm not afraid of Americans prodding Canada in an effort to stir up war tension. I am afraid of that country bringing some terrible wrath down upon themselves as a result of Government/Big Business crossbreeding, because you know damn well they're not annexing Mexico. Not as a first choice, anyway.
Every time I have a chance encounter with an American they're incredibly guarded and distainful at first, but after about twenty seconds of conversation they they open right up with their opinions and convictions, almost all of which tend to be extremely rational and humanistic (basically). I remember speaking with one woman about box stores: she was telling me with dismay that they used to have a great selection of bookstores where she was from, but a Half Price Books moved in and chased out all the competition. She said it hurt their town and put too many people out of business who cared about books and employed a bunch of fifteen year olds who didn't read because that was the only set of people who would work for what they paid. And yet, everyone shopped there. She said, "This is happening everywhere. Who's going to pay for all of this? I feel so sorry for your generation. Things are just going to get worse."
Hunter S. Thompson wrote on October 16, 2001: "Generals and military scholars will tell you that eight or 10 years is actually not such a long time in the span of human history — which is no doubt true — but history also tells us that 10 years of martial law and a war-time economy are going to feel like a Lifetime to people who are in their twenties today. The poor bastards of what will forever be known as Generation Z are doomed to be the first generation of Americans who will grow up with a lower standard of living than their parents enjoyed. That is extremely heavy news, and it will take a while for it to sink in. The 22 babies born in New York City while the World Trade Center burned will never know what they missed. The last half of the 20th century will seem like a wild party for rich kids, compared to what’s coming now. The party’s over, folks."
I thought Alan Alda made a great stand-in for Bush, even though Jr. wasn't around for years to come when this awesome movie came out. As near-omnipotent superspy Snake Plissken used to say: the more things change, the more they stay the same. It's just one crisis after another, isn't it? The worst part is that they seem more and more authentic. Either the puppetmasters are growing more confident and skilled in their coercion or we're just spiraling faster and faster out of control. If these are the days in which greasy government officials don't need to invent pretend calamities to keep us spending and perpetuate their own control we are well and truly fucked.
Last night Michael Moore gave me chills. Quote me.
This movie is gut-splittingly hilarious and absolutely terrifying at the same time. You feel either one (or both) at any given time because it's not impossible to imagine many of the characters behaving the way we see them in this movie. Here we see a stupendous, goofy world where anything is possible and everything is hilariously over exaggerated. In creating such an environment Canadian Bacon jerks us down to grim realities that North America as a whole has yet to face fully fifteen years later. The actors do a great job of capturing the haplessness and simple-mindedness Michael Moore clearly wanted to portray in the various classes and I caught myself laughing so hard I needed to rewind more than once. Having said that, any instance where the person you're watching some supposed cinematic gold alongside falls asleep repeatedly before ten o'clock it doesn't really say much for the narrative.
No characters learned from their mistakes, we saw no growth or development, everybody in the film was two-dimensional, the schemes were transparent and less than well thought out... The outcomes were predictable and the general tone very baseline. In the end it was all a little too true to life for comfort.
Watch Canadian Bacon.
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