Introduction
The movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a great attempt to unite two main cultures and two main languages of Canada in the form of a featuring film. The plot, the genre, the scenes, and the idea of the film are considered to flow with the major idea of the Canadian people, namely: to unite the nation. The reasons are different. They concern mainly century-long conflicts between Anglophone and Francophone citizens. In the era of multinational diversity in influential countries, there should be concrete ways to resolve the problem of biased attitudes between people of different ethnicities.
The construct of this term paper goes around the analysis of the movie. To say more, it appeals to several academic sources enclosing the main ideas about the subject. Details and peculiarities that are described and worked out in the paper should be treated, as merely original points on realizing complicated situations in the social life of Canadians. Such conversation is imposed on the example of the film Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Its significance and its newness for the Canadian filmmaking industry are essential. The film has points on some social and political messages in the plot of the movie. Thus, Bon Cop, Bad Cop provides minor suggestions on the situation in Canada by showing similarities of people’s good intentions despite their different language belonging.
Body paragraphs
The movie Bon Cop, Bad Cop is the greatest achievement in the Canadian filmmaking industry. The film opened in 2006 featuring two main characters David Bouchard (Patrick Huard), a police officer from Montreal, and Martin Ward (Colm Feore), a police officer from Toronto (Canuel 1). The director Erick Canuel attempted to incorporate the idea of Anglophone and Francophone unity of Canadians by solving common problems. The plot discovers the situation when two cops join forces in investigating the murder of a hockey player, Benoit Brisset (Canuel 1). The whole evaluation of the genre is a comedy with points on detective investigation. Bon Cop, Bad Cop is full of a good sense of humor in the best traditions of English and French-speaking communities of Canada. The movie is known for its film distribution that had grossed $12,665,721 (Canuel 1). In turn, critics call it the best achievement in the Canadian cinematograph.
The cast and the plot of the film follow principles of equal arrangement of roles between both Anglophone and Francophone actors. It is seen in the whole character of the picture. One delineates it from the very title of the film. Bon Cop, Bad Cop is a hint at the equal participation of French-speaking and English-speaking actors and characters, on the whole. On the other hand, the movie was shot in two versions: English and French. For the Francophone audience, it represents French subtitles for the episodes in English. Conversely, for the Anglophone audience, the film provides subtitles in terms of scenes in French. Such grounding in the movie makes more emphasis on closer connections between two major parts of people living in Canada. It also points out that there are no bigotries in it supporting either the English or French part. Everything is structured in the movie on an equal basis. The film is similar in some respects to Hollywood blockbusters, such as Lethal Weapon and Rush Hour. It has this peculiarity that makes this movie smash-hit. It proves that the initial idea of the director was to reduce social conflicts and controversies between Quebec and Ontario provinces, between Montreal and Toronto.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop is successful, for it comprises the specter of internal solutions on contradictions along with interesting plot and play of actors. It is a manifestation of the united efforts of Canadian filmmakers. Their opinions and their points on making this movie more appropriate to the preferences of English and French-speaking citizens were taken into consideration. The fact that “nearly 60% of the country is English-speaking, over 20% of the population cites French” makes the objectives of Erick Canuel clear (Zimmerman 53). It is not merely an epic on how the police department works, but on how it corresponds to intercultural aspects of Canadian society. This idea is obvious for Canadian filmmaking because the cooperation of Anglophone and Francophone experts will only improve the drawing capacity.
This is not just a matter of the “two solitudes,” Quebec and English Canada; it’s because of the wide-ranging idiosyncrasies, extreme geographic diversity, and irregularly developed talents of Canadian filmmakers spread from Newfoundland to British Columbia and Nunavut to Southern Ontario and now also filming outside the country (Walz 15).
The movie comprises four main features to be outlined. It is better to say, the film teaches viewers to concentrate on the main facts that provide points on fair development of relations in Canada’s two struggling areas, Quebec and Ontario. The first is that the final version of the film is quite spoken in both English and French (Braun 1). The second feature concerns the location of the operation in action. It points out Toronto and Montreal. The murder has taken place on the boundary between the Provinces of Ontario and Quebec. The third peculiarity is that the main reason for the murderer was caused by hockey disintegration in favor of the American part (Braun 1). The fourth peculiarity of the movie is in its unflappable following the jokes and manners of Hollywood (Braun 1). In these four features the power of the film Bon Cop, Bad Cop discloses the pivotal motives for every Canadian. More importantly, it drives toward points of making-up. The certainty of the stimuli imposed by the director cannot be judged, as underestimated. It flows toward a more reasonable construction of the social problem inside the country. This is why one should primordially tune in the wave of mutuality of two major parts of the society in Canada.
Bon Cop, Bad Cop is different from other Canadian films in terms of first distinct tries to comprise national common problems. For instance, such earlier films as Le Declin de l’empire americain (1986) and other Quebecois films were directed against the hegemony of American culture and the English language in Canada as well (Loiselle 3). It was related in a prominent form to the prosperity of Quebec. In fact, since the early 1960s, conflict situations had the form of art controversy between Anglophone and Francophone communities. It was felt in the music and film-making industry (Wagman 24). The hardest times in Canada are considered to be those of the 1970s when turmoil was inevitable throughout the country and between two provinces, in particular. Cinematograph of Canada also has several movies that share the interests of solely French-speaking audiences. Some among them are: Les Invasions barbares (2003), Quebec: Duplessis et après (1972) and others.
Films like Bon Cop, Bad Cop possess solutions for different social problems and those concerned with interracial conflicts. The plot of the film has different episodes that talk about the diverse society in Toronto and Canada, on the whole. It means that characters in the film encounter representatives of different nationalities living in Canada. It shows how the struggle in terms of multinational prejudices grows additionally due to Anglophone versus Francophone contradiction. The two heroes of the film do their best to be called real buddy cops. Their investigation gives them real grounds to catch the criminal. However, as strange as it may seem, the reason is in the most popular game of Canadians. Their adornment concerning life is in their devotion to hockey and other winter games. It is no surprise that Canada is the winner of the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. Canadians are considered to be one of the best in hockey, curling, and other kinds of winter sports (cela va sans dire!). Moreover, Canadians take care of their traditions in sports affairs. They keep up the whole spirit of the game. It is their all. That is why the game is a uniting point for the whole nation of Canada with its versatility in cultural, religious, and ethnic features. To say more, Bon Cop, Bad Cop outlines the viable argument of why people are apt to commit a crime when the question is about sports. Even the main characters could hardly think of such an end of their investigation.
English-Canadian film Bon Cop, Bad Cop can be considered, as the continuation of the novel by Dionne Brand What We All Long For. The movie, as was mentioned above, represents the solution for both Anglophone and Francophone people living in Canada. The novel by Dionne Brand shows how the youth being ethnically “other” struggles against the unfair attitude and policing toward them, as so-called foreigners. It maintains the picture of urban life in Toronto. Hence, the two works of artistic thought are similar in their locations. Moreover, Brand also insists on the solutions that are the most appropriate to unite the society in Canada. The thing is that Brand just stated the problem of racial bigotries in the country. On the other hand, Erick Canuel managed to promote optimal solutions in decreasing pressure in art between the two major provinces of Canada.
The movie under analysis provides the beginning of a thaw in relations between social groups of Canada. Released in 2006, the movie tends to be used, as the main motive for other Canadian directors in making similar-directed films. Moreover, not content but the ideological part of the film is under special attention. It is so due to the innovative and rather compromising steps of the director in being closer to the prior audience. In a world where social affairs leave much to be desired seeking compromises is strategically significant. The paradox is in the fact that Canadians understand each other either in English or in French. However, Quebecois reject following the steps of expressing ideas in English. This point makes dialogue between two communities a bit difficult and inappropriate at the time. Owing to the launching of such film as Bon Cop, Bad Cop, a native viewer may find out peculiarities of his/her character that should be improved. Step by step, such movement can become nationwide. In turn, it will be able to reduce bilingual pressure inside Canadian society.
The main lesson of the movie is in its social and educational character. Comic situations with the main heroes of the film make it possible to get involved in the vortex of sensitivity and relax. It helps to relate to and react to different cultural prerequisites in it adequately. One can judge on this peculiarity of watching a movie, as unintentionally seeing in it the features making it convenient for a broader circle of viewers. The instrumentation of the film is simple and helpful at once. Subtitles and equally relevant speeches and jokes of the main characters in English and French make conversation with viewers constructive. It is the panacea for the Canadian art of cinema and its further development, in particular.
Conclusion
To conclude, Bon Cop, Bad Cop provides minor suggestions on the situation in Canada by showing similarity of people’s good intentions, despite their different language belonging. This idea is saturated with points on English-speaking and French-speaking major communities in Canada. Citizens of the country are sick and tired of perpetual conflicts under the national coloring and bilingual controversies. The conceptual part of the movie lays more emphasis on the reliability of making up constructive changes in the Canadian filmmaking industry. Efforts made by Erick Conuel are significant to realize that the diversity of tastes and their rational combination lays the solution for decreasing nationwide social problems.
The most significant effect after releasing the film is that the audience found it possible to watch it and debate on it positively. It concerns Canada and its population, first of all. On the other hand, the movie underlines the gist of it in making cross-cultural relations in everything that the main characters do. Thus, one should, probably, think it over. It is significant whether the Canadian society will go by the pathway of rationality and equality in the representation of art or not. This question is elaborated somehow, but it needs more observation and sufficient approaches in a huge domain of Canadian talent. One should keep in mind that the peace within the people of Canada can be achieved effectively and for a long time due to such film organization and features, as it is in Bon Cop, Bad Cop.
Works cited
Braun, Josef. “Bon Cop Bad Cop arrests when it’s in the fast wit lane.” Vue Weekly 566, (2006). Web.
Canuel, Erick. Bon Cop, Bad Cop. Canada, 2006. Web.
Loiselle, André. Denys Arcand’s Le déclin de l’empire américain and Les invasions barbares. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008.
Wagman, Ira. “Rock the Nation: MuchMusic, Cultural Policy and the Development of English-Canadian Music-Video Programming, 1979-1984.” Canadian Journal of Communication 26(4), (2001).
Walz, Eugene P. Canada’s best features: critical essays on 15 Canadian films. San Diego, CA: Rodopi, 2002.
Zimmerman, Karla. Canada. Ed. 10. Toronto: Lonely Planet, 2008.