Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		0.5
Overall		3.0

Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman September 5, 2022

Quick — name a film by Michael Moore. It’s probably something of a crap shoot whether film fans would cite efforts like Roger & Me or Fahrenheit 9/11 first, but in that regard the front cover of this release of Moore's only non-fiction film (so far) has one of the perhaps more iffy references in recent memory when it touts Canadian Bacon as being "the hilarious comedy from the director of the Academy Award Winning Bowling for Columbine ", as if to suggest that devastating piece on one of the greatest tragedies in American history is also a (to use industry rag parlance) "laff riot". Now the fact is that despite its beyond dismal response at the box office and with those dang blasted critics when it was originally released in 1995 (there's probably a reason this is Michael Moore's only narrative fiction film), Canadian Bacon is often very funny, or at least it will be to those may share Moore's decidedly left of center politics, since Canadian Bacon is at least as polemical as any of Moore's non-fiction documentaries, and arguably more so.

At least a couple of Moore's documentary outings actually play quite handily into all sorts of the arguably overstuffed plot dynamics of Canadian Bacon, including the devastating effects of the shutdown of a primary industry in a town dominated by that industry ( Roger & Me) and the very concept behind the title of Moore's 2015 piece Where to Invade Next. That's probably unsurprising given how overtly Moore shares his general presentiments about various sociopolitical issues, meaning that while Canadian Bacon purports to tell a made up tale, it is certainly suffused with many of the same underlying ideas that Moore has frequently highlighted and, let's face it, skewered in his documentary work.

Sherriff Bud Boomer (John Candy) is hard at work with his kinda sorta girlfriend and underling deputy Honey (Rhea Perlman) collecting a quasi- bounty in the film's pretty hilarious opening, where a concatenation of events is quickly doled out. Boomer serves in Niagara County on the United States side, and the area has been economically depressed since the closure of a munitions plant run by the Halliburton-esque R.J. Hacker (G.D. Spradlin). In just one of several great throwaway lines early in the film, it's revealed that so many of Hacker's former employees are so depressed that they've been committing suicide en masse at Niagara Falls, and therefore the local constabulary has been offered a $25 bonus for each person they prevent from doing themselves in, or a $50 bonus if they have to go into the water to fish out a corpse. Guess which bonus Boomer and Honey are ambling for in the opening scene, which also introduces their hangdog associate Roy Boy (Kevin O'Conner).

Meanwhile a seemingly well intentioned President (Alan Alda), whose desire to "beat swords into ploughshares" has resulted in the closure of Hacker Dynamics, arrives in town to plead his case, where Boomer manages to meet the President's smarmy Director of National Intelligence, Stu Smiley (Kevin Pollack). Both of these angles intersect when the President, trying desperately to find a new "enemy" to boost his approval ratings in what is clearly a presaging of plot dynamics used a couple of years later in the much better received Wag the Dog, finally settles on Canada after Bud unwittingly ignites a brawl when he disses Canadian beer at a hockey match which pits Canadian and American teams against each other.

Unfortunately, Moore probably goes a bit too gonzo with all of this material, also bringing in a demented General named Dick Panzer (Rip Torn) and a whole subplot featuring nuclear weapons on the verge of being launched that plays like an obvious homage to both Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb and Fail Safe. The supporting cast is also a lot of fun here, with a number of Canadian celebrities making cameos and with some wonderful if admittedly goofy and not always completely funny bits by the likes of Steven Wright.

The biggest drawback for many viewers is probably going to be the unabashedly "liberal" take on things that Moore employs. Films like Wag the Dog may in fact be just as "liberal" in their underlying viewpoints, but Moore has a habit of wearing his sentiments on his sleeve, and then vigorously waving his arm in your face, which I'm certain some folks will find off putting. Others on the more left leaning side of things will probably be willing to let some of the misses here slide, since there are some decent bullseyes that Moore clearly hits.

Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Canadian Bacon is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of the MVD Marquee Collection, an imprint of MVD Visual, with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.85:1. There's no real technical information available on this release, but it's an MGM catalog title, and this is either an older master or one that has had next to no if any restoration done on it. The palette can look pretty faded toward brown at times, making things like reds drift toward orange territory, but one of the things about this transfer is how variable it can be, and somewhat later in the film, things warm up considerably, so that by the time Steven Wright arrives as a Mountie, reds are looking much healthier (see screenshot 14). Detail levels fare best in the brightest lighting and when close-ups are employed, but again there are ebbs and flows even here, with some of the wider framings and the frequent nighttime escapades looking relatively rough at times. Grain is fairly heavy and can look a little dirty and mottled, especially against brighter backgrounds. There's quite a bit of admittedly minor damage on display in the form of nicks and blemishes. This definitely gets up toward 3.5 territory in its best moments, but I'm scoring it here to temper expectations. My overall weighted score is 3.25.

Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Canadian Bacon features a nicely robust LPCM 2.0 track. The film has some wonderfully on point source cues, including the opener "God Bless America Again" by Tex Ritter, though for some film music fans, the real allure here may be the collaboration on actual score between Elmer and Peter Bernstein. All music and underlying source cues provide a lot of energy and full bodied sound, and other effects like the omnipresent Niagara Falls, also reverberate with problem free fidelity. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout (please pronounce "threw--oot", thanks). Optional English, French and Spanish subtitles are available.

Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailers includes Canadian Bacon (SD; 2:12) along with trailers for other releases from MVD.

Additionally, packaging features a reversible sleeve and a slipcover.

Canadian Bacon Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The one thing you can say about Michael Moore is, you know what you're going to get with him in terms of an outlook, and that is most definitely the case with regard to Canadian Bacon, for better or worse, depending on your personal outlook. I actually found quite a bit of Canadian Bacon to be laugh out loud hilarious, but as the film wore on, the screed like elements increased as the humor retreated, though I'd still say those with a left leaning world view may well find this outing more meaningful now than it was in 1995. Technical merits are okay (video) to excellent (audio), for anyone who may be considering making a purchase.