In What Ways Can the Film Last Night Be Considered A Typically Canadian Film? Or Do You Consider It To Be Basically The Same As A HollywoodProduction?
In What Ways Can the Film Last Night Be Considered A Typically Canadian Film?
Or Do You Consider It To Be Basically The Same As A Hollywood Production?
The film Last Night tells the story of how several loosely related Canadians spend their last 6 hours before the end of the world. The film is widely accepted as being one of Canada’s better cinematic productions, and features in the Playbacks Magazines top 5 Canadian movies of all time. Director, writer and star Don McKellar received awards and praise for this, his debut film. Last Night is a well structured, thought provoking yet entertaining spectacle. But is it truly, typically Canadian? Or, like so many recent English-Canadian films, does it simply try to reproduce a small slice of Hollywood? Before this is considered a firm understanding of what makes a Canadian film will be identified.
One problem with identifying what makes a typical Canadian film is the diversity that is currently splitting Canadian cinema. G. Prately of states, ‘it (is) impossible to generalize over Canadian cinema as a whole’ (2002). This is a reference to the present divide between the American influenced Canadian film industry and the more traditional Canadian flick. Such is the state of Canadian cinema that Hollywood influenced films are themselves a genre of ‘Canadian’ film. For example the low brow comedy Porkey’s. More widely accepted as a typical Canadian film are the darker, murkier movies that are the staple diet of French speaking Canada’s film industry. These are the films Canada is known for, with arty direction and often sinister undertones. These films are made to provoke reflection and take the silver screen in new directions. It was this Canadian film style that hinduonnet.com describes as having ‘there own identity born out of their own geography, climate and social customs’ (2002). Sadly these films have small audiences and do not profit. 3% of films seen by Canadians are made in Canada. Isidora Rajsic of Capital News Online quotes, ‘Canadian film is virtually invisible’. This lack of commercialism forces Canada to copy Hollywood. But which of these camps does Last Night belong to? Is it a replication of Hollywood’s blockbusters with muscle bound heroes trying to save the earth in the final few nail biting hours? Or is it typical of Canadian cinema featuring dark humour and originality? To determine this, comparisons will be made to Hollywood hits Armageddon and Deep Impact, both also released in 1998, and more importantly also centre on the end of the world.
