Canadian Bacon

''Canadian Bacon'' is a 1995 comedy film written, produced, and directed by Michael Moore which satirizes Canada–United States relations along the Canada–United States border. The film stars an ensemble cast featuring Alan Alda, John Candy (in his final film role), Bill Nunn, Kevin J. O'Connor, Rhea Perlman, Kevin Pollak, G. D. Spradlin, and Rip Torn. It tells the story of a struggling President who is persuaded by his confidants to fight with Canada when a local sheriff and his friends get involved.

The film was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival, and was the final film released starring John Candy, though it was shot before the earlier-released '' Wagons East'' as both films are dedicated in memory of him. It is also Moore's only non-documentary film to date.

Plot

In Niagara Falls, New York, thousands of former employees are outraged with military businessman R. J. Hacker having closed down his weapons manufacturing plant, Hacker Dynamics. Local sheriff Bud Boomer and his deputy/girlfriend Honey then prevent the despondent former Hacker employee Roy Boy from committing suicide at Niagara Falls.

At an auction held at Hacker Dynamics to sell off its surplus stock, Hacker pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the President of the United States, who has just arrived, for the end of the Cold War. The President defends his own belief that the future of the children is more important than war which has caused major decline in his approval rating. Boomer saves the President after Roy Boy accidentally fires a grenade launcher he purchased at the auction.

After the President learns that his approval ratings increased only when people thought that he had been killed at the auction, he confides in General Dick Panzer and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley (who is revealed to have ties with Hacker) that he's unhappy about not having an enemy to engage with. An attempted negotiation with Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin to start a new cold war with Russia fails, the President's advisors propose prospective enemies including extraterrestrials and killer bees, and the President's suggestion of a war on international terrorism is deemed too absurd.

Later that night, Boomer offensively criticizes Canadian beer while attending a hockey game with Honey, Roy Boy, and deputy sheriff Kabral Jabar between the neighboring nations in Niagara Falls, Ontario causing a brawl to break out. The ensuing riot ends up on the news the next day and catches Stuart's attention which led to everyone getting detained overnight. In turn, Stuart collects more information about Canada from a CIA agent named Gus and suggests Canada as their new enemy during a cabinet meeting.

Before long, U.S. television channels are littered with anti-Canada propaganda which Boomer and Honey believe wholeheartedly, with the latter developing a fixation with the CN Tower. They prepare for war by distributing guns to fellow sheriffs Roy Boy and Kabral and deputized townspeople to form a local militia. On the advice of Smiley, the President authorizes a false flag attack to escalate tension with Canada, but when the group of Americans "dressed as Canadians" led by Gus attempt to destroy a hydroelectric plant, they are apprehended by Boomer's militia despite Gus's protests that they are just Americans. In response, the militia sneak across the border to litter on Canadian lands which leads to Honey being left behind and arrested by the Mounties and her detention being touted by the President as a cause célèbre. In a rescue attempt, Boomer, Roy Boy, and Kabral sneak into a Canadian power plant and cause a countrywide blackout. When the President learns of this, Stuart orders the Omega Force to remove Boomer from Canada before it is too late. After interrogating a Niagra Falls Mountie over Honey's location, Boomer, Kabral and Roy Boy travel to Toronto (in the mistaken belief that it is the Canadian capital) in a stolen Mountie maintenance vehicle; the group encounters little opposition, being pulled over and fined due to the anti-Canada graffiti on the vehicle not complying with Canada's bilingualism laws.

Seeking revenge on the President for shutting down his business, Hacker uses a software program ("Hacker Hellstorm") to activate missile silos across the country. The President learns that the signal causing the activation of the silos originated from Canada. As Stuart tells the President that the information is classified, the President summons Hacker for some answers. Hacker offers to sell a program to the President that can cancel out the Hellstorm—for $1 trillion. Fed up with the President being too busy to give Hacker the money, Stuart realizes that a departing Hacker is the one controlling the silos, not Canada. After storming up, Stuart takes the operating codes from him required to stop the Hellstorm while accidentally killing Hacker in the process. The still busy President orders Stuart's arrest despite his protests that he is now able to give the codes to the President so they could deactivate the missiles which are aimed at targets throughout the former Soviet Union (as a new enemy had never been officially designated). As the US government loses contact with Omega Force and as the launch time approaches, the President pleads with Canadian Prime Minister Clark MacDonald over the phone to stop the launch.

Meanwhile, Honey was taken to a hospital upon her capture and escaped all the way to the CN Tower. Upon arriving at the Tower, Boomer gets separated from Kabral and Roy Boy. She discovers the central computer for the Hellstorm and destroys it with a machine gun, aborting the launch sequence. Honey then reunites with Boomer and they return to the United States on a speedboat across Lake Ontario.

Before the final shot of Boomer and Honey's speedboat unknowingly heading towards the waterfall is shown, an epilogue reveals the characters' fates:

* Boomer realizes his dream of appearing as a regular on '' Cops''.
* Honey is named "Humanitarian of the Year" by the National Rifle Association of America.
* The President was defeated in the next election by a landslide and now hosts ''Get Up, Cleveland''.
* Stuart served eight months in prison, but was pardoned by the new President Oliver North.
* General Panzer committed suicide by gunshot after learning that '' Hogan's Heroes'' was fictional.
* Hacker's body is on display at the Republican National Headquarters for daily viewing from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
* Gus was last spotted heading to Mexico in a tank.
* Kabral has become a hockey star, winning the Hart Memorial Trophy three years in a row. It was then shown that it was ironically for the Toronto Maple Leafs as his hockey card shows him playing for them.
* Roy Boy's whereabouts are unknown.
* Prime Minister MacDonald is "still ruling with an iron fist".

Cast

Production

Moore was inspired by the pro-war sentiment and 90% approval rating for President George H. W. Bush at the time of the Gulf War and wondered if the president could gain public support for war on any country, even Canada.

The film was shot in fall 1993, in Toronto, Hamilton, and Niagara Falls, Ontario; and Buffalo and Niagara Falls, New York. Scenes depicting the rapids of the Niagara River were actually filmed at Twelve Mile Creek in St. Catharines. Parkwood Estate in Oshawa was the site for the White House, and Dofasco in Hamilton was the site for Hacker Dynamics. The scene where the American characters look longingly home at the US across the putative Niagara River is them looking across Burlington Bay at Stelco steelworks in Hamilton, Ontario.

The hockey game and riot were shot at the Niagara Falls Memorial Arena in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the actors portraying the police officers (who eventually join in the riot upon hearing " Canadian beer sucks") are wearing authentic Niagara Regional Police uniforms.

Originally, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment had arranged for the film to be released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in the fall of 1994. However, PolyGram later started its own distribution company, Gramercy Pictures, with Universal Pictures in the summer of 1993, and battled with MGM to get the distribution rights back from them. Gramercy ultimately gave the film a limited release in 1995 before essentially taking it straight to video. Today, MGM now owns the film through their acquisition of the pre-1996 PolyGram library.

The film has numerous cameos by Canadian actors, including Dan Aykroyd, who appears uncredited as an Ontario Provincial Police officer who pulls Candy over (not for the crude anti-Canadian graffiti on his truck, but its lack of a French translation; Boomer dutifully sprays his truck in French graffiti). Moore himself appears as an American gun nut. Cameo pictures of Canadian-American American actors in Propaganda are William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Greene and Alex Trebek.

Reception

''Canadian Bacon'' received unfavorable reviews by critics. On Rotten Tomatoes the film has an approval rating of 17% based on reviews from 18 critics.

'' The A.V. Clubs Nathan Rabin in a 2009 review concluded, "After generating solid laughs during its first hour, ''Canadian Bacon'' falls apart in its third act," lamenting the film "was perceived as too lowbrow for the highbrows, and too highbrow for the lowbrows."

See also

* Canada–United States relations
* '' The Canadian Conspiracy'', a 1985 mockumentary about how Canadian entertainers are conquering TV and movies in the United States.
* '' Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb'', a 1964 Stanley Kubrick comedy about a fictional escalation of tensions in the Cold War
* '' The Mouse That Roared'', a 1955 novel (and 1959 film) about a tiny country with fought a war with the USA and won
* '' South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut'', the 1999 ''South Park'' animated film in which the U.S. declares war on Canada
* " A Speculative Fiction", a song by Canadian band Propagandhi that explores a war between Canada and the U.S.
* '' Wag the Dog'', a 1997 film about a war devised for propaganda reasons
* The real-life War of 1812 between the United States and British North America (now Canada). This war was started when the War Hawks (territorial expansionists) within the US government capitalized on Great Britain's interference with trade between the United States and France to advance their theory of Manifest Destiny (the belief that the United States was fated to take control of all of North America) by declaring war on the Dominion of Canada.
* War Plan Red, also known as the Atlantic Strategic War Plan, was a plan for the United States to make war with Great Britain, by attacking Canada.
* The real-life French and Indian War between Great Britain and France which also involved the colonies (then part of British North America) and New France which is now Canada.

References

External links

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{{Michael Moore

1995 films
1990s political comedy films
1990s political satire films
American political satire films
Canadian political satire films
1990s English-language films
English-language Canadian films
Films scored by Elmer Bernstein
Films scored by Peter Bernstein (composer)
Films about fictional presidents of the United States
Films directed by Michael Moore
Films about Canada–United States relations
Films shot in Hamilton, Ontario
Films shot in Toronto
American political comedy films
Films set in Toronto
Films set in New York (state)
Films set in Washington, D.C.
Gramercy Pictures films
Films produced by David Brown
PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films
1995 comedy films
1990s American films
1990s Canadian films
Cultural depictions of prime ministers of Canada
English-language comedy films