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Canadian Bacon
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Michael Moore
Written by	Michael Moore
Produced by	David Brown Michael Moore Ron Rotholz
Starring	Alan Alda John Candy Bill Nunn Kevin J. O'Connor Rhea Perlman Kevin Pollak G.D. Spradlin Rip Torn
Cinematography	Haskell Wexler
Edited by	Wendey Stanzler Michael Berenbaum
Music by	Elmer Bernstein Peter Bernstein
Production companies	PolyGram Filmed Entertainment Propaganda Films David Brown Productions Maverick Picture Company
Distributed by	Gramercy Pictures
Release date	September 22, 1995 (1995-09-22)
Running time	90 minutes
Countries	United States Canada
Language	English
Budget	$11 million
Box office	$178,104

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 confidantes 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 a despondent former Hacker employee, Roy Boy, from committing suicide at Niagara Falls.

At a conference held at Hacker Dynamics, Hacker pins the blame for the shutdown of his business on the President of the United States, who has just arrived. 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.

After the press conference, the President 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 and the President's suggestion of a war on international terrorism is deemed too absurd.

Later that night, Bud 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 believes wholeheartedly. He prepares for war by distributing guns to his fellow sheriffs, Honey, Roy Boy, and Kabral Jabar. He also helps form a local militia. After they apprehend a group of Americans "dressed as Canadians" attempting to destroy a hydroelectric plant despite Gus's protests that they are just Americans, they sneak across the border to litter on Canadian lands which leads to Honey being left behind and arrested by the Mounties. 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.

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, and, as Stuart tells the President that is classified, 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 Hacker, getting up to leave, 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 Moscow. 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. 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. 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 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 large 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 has been viewed daily at the Republican National Headquarters 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.
• MacDonald is "still ruling with an iron fist".

Cast

• Alan Alda as the unnamed President of the United States
• John Candy as Bud B. Boomer, the sheriff of Niagara County
• Bill Nunn as Kabral Jabar, deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department and friend and colleague of Sheriff Bud Boomer
• Kevin J. O'Connor as Roy Boy, friend of Sheriff Bud Boomer
• Rhea Perlman as Honey, the deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department and girlfriend and colleague of Sheriff Bud Boomer
• Kevin Pollak as Stuart "Stu" Smiley, the National Security Advisor to the President
• G. D. Spradlin as R.J. Hacker, the owner of Hacker Dynamics
• Rip Torn as General Dick Panzer, the Commander of United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM)
• Steven Wright as a Niagara Falls Mountie who Boomer's group intimidates on where Honey was taken
• Jim Belushi as Charles Jackal, a news reporter for NBS News
• Richard E. Council as Vladimir Kruschkin, the President of Russia
• Brad Sullivan as Gus, a CIA agent sent by Smiley to gather information about Canada
• Wallace Shawn as Clark MacDonald, the Prime Minister of Canada
• Stanley Anderson as Edwin S. Simon, a news anchor for NBS News
• Ben Hamper and Michael Moore as two redneck guys
• Sheila Gray as the voice of the Hacker Hellstrom
• Dan Aykroyd as an OPP officer who pulls Bud over because the crude Anti-Canadian graffiti that are on his vehicle didn't have French translations (uncredited)
• James Carville as a Pentagon agent for Central Intelligence (uncredited)
• Ed Sahely as a Mountie (uncredited)
• Gordon Michael Woolvett as a Male Candy Stripper (uncredited)

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 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. Club's 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
• 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

1. Persall, Steve (February 3, 1995). "John Candy's real last movie". Tampa Bay Times. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
2. "Canadian Bacon (PG)". British Board of Film Classification. April 21, 1995. Retrieved November 2, 2016.
3. "Canadian Bacon". Box Office Mojo. Archived from the original on March 31, 2017.
4. "Canadian Bacon (1995) - Financial Information". The Numbers. Archived from the original on March 14, 2015.
5. ^ Holden, Stephen (September 22, 1995). "FILM REVIEW; America's Cold War With Canada. Just Kidding!". The New York Times. Archived from the original on May 26, 2015.
6. "Festival de Cannes: Canadian Bacon". festival-cannes.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2012. Retrieved September 6, 2009.
7. Fine, Marshall (November 28, 1993). "Movies: On Location: Will His 'Bacon' Sizzle? : Sure, Michael Moore can get a rise out of former GM honcho Roger Smith, but let's see how the documentarian does with his first feature". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 8, 2014. Retrieved March 29, 2011.
8. ^ Rabin, Nathan (April 15, 2009). "North of the Border Case File #135". The A.V. Club. Retrieved February 5, 2015.
9. Griffin, Dominic (December 1995). "Canadian Bacon, Film Threat Review". Film Threat Magazine. Archived from the original on December 2, 1998.
10. Seguin, Denis (September 7, 1995). "Canadian bacon, EYE Review". Eye Magazine. Archived from the original on February 2, 1999. Could the president just name any country as the new enemy? Would the American public just fall into step behind him and support the war? And I thought, 'What would be the most absurd example of that?' And I came up with Canada.
11. Bradley, Ed (April 26, 1995). "Moore Gets to 'Super Bowl' of Film Makers". The Flint Journal. Flint, Michigan. Archived from the original on January 22, 2013. Retrieved August 2, 2012 – via Dog Eat Dog Films (Michael Moore official site).
12. "Parks, Camera, Action!". Parks & Trails New York. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
13. "Lights, Camera, Durham". The Spark Magazine. October 5, 2023. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
14. "Rhea Pearlman at the Niagara Falls Arena During the Filming of Canadian Bacon". Niagara Falls Public Library. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
15. "John Candy at the Niagara Falls Arena During the Filming of Canadian Bacon". Niagara Falls Public Library. Archived from the original on January 15, 2013. Retrieved April 10, 2008.
16. "Canadian Bacon will open at Cannes". Entertainment Weekly.
17. "A look back at past movies filmed in Buffalo". WKBW. May 23, 2016. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
18. Powers, William F. (September 22, 1995). "'Canadian Bacon'". Washington Post.
19. "The film that made Michael Moore stick to documentaries". CBC News. September 13, 2018. Retrieved November 23, 2023.
20. "Canadian Bacon". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved March 9, 2024.

External links

• Canadian Bacon at IMDb
• Canadian Bacon at the TCM Movie Database

• 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 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