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, 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, military businessman R. J. Hacker closes down his weapons manufacturing plant, Hacker Dynamics. Thousands of former employees are outraged. Sheriff Bud Boomer and his deputy/girlfriend Honey prevent the 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 visiting President of the United States. The President defends his own belief that the children's future is more important than war which has caused major decline in his approval rating.
After the press conference where Boomer saves the President from an assassination attempt, the latter confides in General Dick Panzer and National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley that he is unhappy about not having an enemy to engage with.
Boomer eventually criticizes Canadian beer in an offensive manner 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. Stuart collects more information about Canada from CIA agent 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 Honey, Roy Boy, and Kabral. He also helps form a local militia. After they apprehend Gus and 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 as Boomer gets separated from Kabral and Roy Boy.
Seeking revenge on the President for shutting down his business, Hacker uses a software program 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. With six minutes left, and 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 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 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 - and became a regular on Cops.
  • Honey is named the National Rifle Association's "Humanitarian of the Year".
  • The President was defeated in the next election by the largest landslide in U.S. history. He now hosts Get Up, Cleveland.
  • Stuart served 8 months of a life sentence where he was pardoned by President Ollie North.
  • General Panzer took his own life upon learning Hogan's Heroes was entirely fictional.
  • Gus was last spotted heading south. He was seen entering Mexico in a tank.
  • The body of Hacker can be viewed daily from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM at Republican National Headquarters.
  • Kabral has become the National Hockey League's Most Valuable Player three years in a row. His hockey card ironically showed him playing defense for the Toronto Maple Leafs.
  • 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 are wearing authentic Niagara Regional Police uniforms.
Originally, PolyGram Filmed Entertainment had arranged for the film to be released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer 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. 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. Moore himself appears as an American gun nut. Cameo pictures of Canadian-American actors in propaganda include William Shatner, Michael J. Fox, Lorne Greene and Alex Trebek.

Reception

Canadian Bacon received unfavorable reviews by 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."