Canadian Bacon (film)
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| Canadian Bacon | |
|---|---|
 Movie poster for Canadian Bacon |
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| Directed by | Michael Moore |
| Produced by | Michael Moore |
| Written by | Jacob Toro |
| Starring | Alan Alda John Candy Bill Nunn Kevin J. O'Connor Rhea Perlman Kevin Pollak G.D. Spradlin Rip Torn |
| Music by | Elmer Bernstein Peter Bernstein |
| Cinematography | Haskell Wexler |
| Editing by | Michael Berenbaum Wendey Stanzler |
| Distributed by | Gramercy |
| Release date(s) | September 22, 1995 |
| Running time | 91 min |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $11 million |
| IMDb profile | |
Canadian Bacon is a 1995 comedy/satire, and the only film written, directed and produced by Michael Moore billed as a work of fiction. It was the last film released to star John Candy.
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[edit] Plot
A U.S. president (played by Alan Alda), faced with falling public opinion ratings, decides to go to war to distract voters from domestic troubles and invigorate the economy, a plan supported by his National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley (played by Kevin Pollack) and General Dick Panzer (Rip Torn). The problem with this plan is that with the demise of the Soviet Union, there's no-one left to go to war with. But some brainstorming by Smiley leads to an attempt to start a cold war with Canada ("everyone hates Canadians"), using media manipulation as the main tool to stoke the passions of the US public. Unfortunately, a local sheriff, Bud B. Boomer (John Candy, ironically a Canadian in real life), in a town along the US/Canada border takes it a bit further.
Tagline: Surrender pronto, or we'll level Toronto.
[edit] Cast
- Alan Alda as The President
- John Candy as Sheriff Bud B. Boomer
- Rhea Perlman as Deputy Honey
- Kevin Pollak as Stuart Smiley, National Security Advisor
- Rip Torn as General Dick Panzer
[edit] Production
The movie was filmed in Toronto and Niagara Falls, Ontario. The Parkwood Estate in Oshawa was the site for the White House. The scene where the American characters look longingly home at the US across the putative Niagara river is, in fact, them looking across Burlington Bay at Stelco steelworks in Hamilton, Ontario.
[edit] Trivia
- This is, as of 2007, the only Michael Moore film that is not a documentary.
- This was John Candy's last film that was completed. (John Candy died while filming Wagons East and Candy was not included in the whole film as originally intended).
- The film is noted for its high number of cameos by Canadian actors.
- The film is noted for featuring both Canadian and American stereotypes.
- Oliver North appears at the end in a photograph with Stuart Smiley as the newly-elected president.
- The sequences in the American President's war room are strongly influenced by Stanley Kubrick's black comedy Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
- During the brainstorming session with his cabinet, the president commented that going to war with international terrorists (fighting "A bunch of guys driving around blowing up rent-a-cars") was not a good reason to re-open missile factories. The film was released nearly a decade before the War on Terror began, but after the bombing in Oklahoma City and the first World Trade Center attempt.
- Director Moore appears in a fake news broadcast as one of a group of gun-toting Americans ready to go to war against Canada. One of his lines is "It's time we put the 'America' back in 'North America'!"
- The end credits state that no Canadians were harmed during the making of the movie, and thank Johnny La Rue for the opening helicopter shot of Horseshoe Falls. This is a reference to a running gag on SCTV where LaRue (A character played by John Candy) famously went over budget for his talk show ("Street Beef") by insisting on ending the show with a long shot from a rented helicopter.
[edit] See also
- Wag the Dog, a 1997 film about a war devised for similar reasons
- South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut, which also features war between the U.S. and Canada
