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Reviews
Taking Lives (2004)
Should use Quebec actors
The movie was set in Quebec. The movie was filmed in Quebec.
Then why were the lead French-speaking actors from France? I'm
an English-speaking Canadian from Ontario, and I could
immediately tell that the actors were not Quebecois, from their
distinctly France-french accents. Quebec french is very different
from France french (accent wise too!). They could have hired
Quebec actors to be the cops - there are plenty of good Quebec
actors out there, and they would have been very good for the role.
Not sure why they decided to go with French actors instead. Why
go to Canada and not hire Canadian actors as the lead role,
especially when the movie is pretty much entirely set in Canada?
Oh, and I hate it when they have titles of the location, like at the
beginning of the movie - i.e. St. Jovite, Canada, and only name the
town and the country, not the province. When naming towns, why is
it that American filmmakers only have the town, and then
"Canada"? There are provinces in Canada, you know. Someone
might not have been sure where St. Jovite was - it could have been
in New Brunswick, or Nova Scotia (where there are French-speaking Canadians as well). "St. Jovite, Quebec". If any
American doesn't know that Quebec is in Canada, they are dumb.
I'm sorry, but that is simply stuff any North American should know.
We know all the states (or at least the majority of us would know
that, say, Colorado was in the USA). So, from now on, I will only
state the name of the city and the country, like, I'm going to
Almstead, USA. I'm going to Smithfield, USA. What state are those
towns in, so that I can sort of narrow down what part of the country
of USA does the movie take place??? I wouldn't know, I'm just a
dumb Canadian and I don't really care what state they are in (in
case you can't tell, I'm being sarcastic). SO, American filmmakers
should at least add the province to their title, so the Canadians
watching know where a particular town is. It's OK to say St. Jovite,
Quebec, Canada. But NOT just St. Jovite, Canada. Remember,
Canada IS A BIG PLACE. This isn't the only movie to have done
this. I'm sorry American filmmakers don't show more respect for
those Americans that do know where the provinces of Canada are
(all TEN of them!!!!)
That is all
U-571 (2000)
Historically Inaccurate
The story of U-571 is very American. The true story of the Enigma machine is that the Polish Secret Service took it before the war even started in Jan 1939. The Germans thought that no one had taken their machine, as the Polish played some tricks on them in stealing it. The Polish then gave it to the British and the French. The British used it and made their Ultra machine, which was the machine that decoded all of the Enigma messages.
Stories tell that the Enigma was stolen off of a British Sub, but in fact it wasn't. The story above was taken from an official British government document.
Now being Canadian, I am upset that the Americans made such a movie. Why can't they make a WWII movie about someone other than themselves?? The last WWII movie where they included other countries was in 1969 with the Devil's Brigade. I mean, why can't Americans understand that other Allies helped in winning the war?? There were other countries involved, such as Australia, New Zealand, Canada, South Africa, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, the UK, and the USA, Russia, and China, and others. Why can't the American public see movies about these other countries?? Why must Hollywood skew history to make it so American?? They could make a historical WWII movie about the British, you know. When the American public, and in fact Canadian and British public see this movie, most will believe it to be historical truth, no matter what the movie says. They will believe it because they don't know of the true history, unfortunately so.
Too bad that the Americans had to make this movie. because I am tired of seeing American heroism everywhere. Why must Americans feel so good for themselves all of the time?? I hope they understand that they were certainly a great help in winning the war, but they were not the only ones.
Merrill's Marauders (1962)
Good, not great, war movie
This movie was like any other war movie at the time (1962). It was a good movie because it depicted the only American force to be fighting in Burma and the India border. This movie, I think, was able to bring the 3rd theatre of war (The Burman theatre) to Americans, to show in a greater sense just how much of a world war WW2 was. Good movie, but still some American hollywoodism at its best. Good depiction of the fighting, showing American and Japanese fighting, but also the British, who were defending India and trying to liberate Burma and the rest of Eastern Asia. It showed that the Americans were certainly not the only ones fighting the Japanese.
Overall, fairly true to the real story, well written (except for certain stupid things - hollywoodism again), mostly well acted, and well directed and filmed. After watching, I was not thrilled by it, but was happy to see that the Americans did fight in Burma and that they were not the only ones fighting the Japanese.
The Devil's Brigade (1968)
Go Canada
I've seen this movie and I enjoyed it very much. One reason was because this American war movie actually had a Canadian background to it. For the first time ever in an American movie, the Canadians had a part in the plot. Finally some inclusion by our neighbour to the south in movies about the extreme efforts of Canadians during world war. The Canadians played just as big a part in the winning of the war as the Americans did, the only difference was that Americans had supreme man power. But there is no problem here, as the Allies worked together to achieve the ultimate goal of victory.
This "Devil's Brigade" was very much a true outfit. Originally they were used in the Aleutians to defend North America from Japanese invasion (1942), which in fact was never going to actually happen. This 1800 men force (a brigade) of Canadians and Americans were very well trained, and provided a very strong force that got the job done. Not only was a mission to land on the island of Kiska in the Aleutians done to rid the island of Japanese (the Japanese were already gone), but they went on special missions to destroy hydroelectric stations in Norway and northern Italy, to destroy oil fields in Romania, and as well as different missions in Italy, such as the making and breakout of the Anzio beachhead to the south of Rome.
So anyways, my point is first of all that this brigade did exist and were a strong military force, and second of all that it is nice to see Canadians in an American war movie, especially in 1968. Great movie, great history.