En Dernier Recours
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~ • F I L M R E v I E w 5 • complex iS,sue, ,He rises to the challenge by presen ~mg views from a wide range of Jacques Godbout's personalities: former FLQ activist Fran. ~o is Schirm, Quebec writer Pierre Val, En Dernier lieres, an ex -Red Brigade militant and a Montreal police officer. Throughout the 70-minute documentary, Godboutdeftly Recours juxtaposes their views to present the fIlm 's main themes. The on-camera interviews form the structure of En Dernier recours. To complement them, Godbout relies on ar. hen Quebec labour minister Pierre chivalfootage of the 1970 October crisis Laporte was kidnapped and mur the Denis Lortie affair, the Brigham bomb Wdered in 1970, news spread quickly aimed at PopeJohn Paul II and the Cruise across the country. Overnight, the Front missile tests in Northern Alberta, In fact, de liberation du Quebec ( FLQ) and the there are very few scenes in the fIlm shot issue of Quebec's independence were by Godbout ( the opening and closing thrust to the forefront. Newspapers scenes in which a bomb explodes on a labeled FLQ members terrorists and the barren airstrip are probably the best public branded them murderers. examples). But was it really murder and terrorism? In the interviews Vallieres and Schirm • Riding to heaven on a Harley Was the FLQ not fighting, perhaps, for a draw distinctions about terrorism. is an evangelical movement for bikers. ever, they don't swarm aggreSSively. Ac legitimate cause ? Quebec filmmaker Jac Schirm claims violence is justifiable if The characters in the movie are a sub companied by gospel rock on the sound ques Godbout grapples with these ques· used for a popular cause. "Terrorism,"he culture within a subculture. track, they float peacefully past autum tions in his latest documentary En Der says, "becomes more than just an attack Stavrides, who once made a film about nal trees, through dark tunnels, and back nier recours. In it, he explores ter on innocent victims. " Vallieres adds to Inuit teenagers, approaches his subject into the light. A run is both a sensual and rorism in Canadian SOCiety, analyzing this view, asserting that armed struggles like an ethnographic documentarian. He a religious experience. When the Riders events like the FLQ years, the Denis Lor in South Africa, Northern Ireland'or Cen· records a tribe - the Christian Riders approach us, a filter on the cameraman's tie assault on Quebec's National Assem tral America are not terrorism, although Motorcycle Club - as the band members lens turns the beams of their headlights bly and the actions of the 'Vancouver opposing governments and the media go about their daily business, attend into rows of spectral yellow crosses. Five'. label them as such. their rituals, and talk about their lives. The Christian Riders Motorcycle Club In choosing Canadian terrorism as a In defining terrorism, Godbout fails to Stavrides keeps a certain distance, fram is compelling because its members con subject, Godbout opens the door on a distinguish between democratic and ing his subjects (the cinematographer vince you they have gone through real was James Crowe) in cool, uncluttered turmoil and because they are a striking shots that allow us to observe and cross-breed of born-again and biker. evaluate - or simply observe out of in However, near the end of the film , you terest, and not even bother with judg might worry a little about them. A ments. The movie has no narrator, and preacher who only borrows bikes now, most of it is not cut in a way that makes and who would not be out of place on a editorial points, or turns your head with TV evangelist's show, delivers a real fire biting ironies. - and - brimstone sermon. It is the first However, the picture often induces time in the picture that we hear so much you to sympathize with the Christian disturbingly violent religious rhetoric. Riders. Not only does their thirst for sal And some of the Riders - dressed vation seem genuine and reasonably un straight, no colors - don't look like bik sentimental, they display eccentric indi ers anymore. viduality and a sense of irony. At a revival The fact that God Rides a Harley meeting, one of them grins and de rolls toward this scene suggests that scribes the way he sees Jesus's face. The Stavrides is implying the fllm's charac Lord's long hair is crowned by a motor ters could become something other than cycle helmet, and he's wearing shades. what they are now. But then he cuts God is motorcyclist. And naturally, he away from the revival meeting and back rides a Harley. to the highway, to the Riders on their The ex-outlaws in the film have cast bikes. He repeats a travelling close-up of off all their former ways, except for one: a female biker in a black leather jacket. they haven't stopped being bikers. Im [n profile, she smiles serenely, taking ages you expect to see in any motorcy pleasure in the sensation of being up cle movie, whether it is called The Wild there on that motorcycle which is carry One, The Wild Angels, Easy Rider, or ing her toward Heaven's gate. Satan's Choice (the first Canadian biker picture, which was, not surprisingly, also Maurie Alioff • a documentary), appear in God Rides a Harley. Stavrides gives us the close-ups of boots, buckles, and chains; he pans GOD RIDES A HARLEY d. Stavros C across icons stitched into jean jackets Stavrides p. Andreas Erne, Stavros C Stavrides assoc. and leather vests. The images are famil p. Michael Wainwright story consult. Spencer Frazer iar, even though crosses and 'Jesus is liaisonJanet McCreadie d. o. p . James Crowe film ed. Steve Stephenson sd. Peter Sawade add. m. by. Carlos Lord' have replaced skulls and 'Born To Lopes, Adian Mason m . "Are You Ready" (Charlie Allen Lose'. and John Hill ), performed and arranged by Ben McPeek The Riders are still bikers, not self and Jerome McPeek, synthesizer programming by Don Baird ; "QuestiOns" Uustin Hayward) performed and ar· righteous prudes who have renounced ranged by Ben McPeek and Jerome McPeek, synthesizer all their pleasures. Stavrides cuts regu programming by Don Baird, "Gospel Plow" (Bob larly to liquidly edited shots of the club Dylan), performed by Paul James. colour 16mm run ning time 81 min. An Arto·Pelli Motion Pictures Pro· enjoying the feel of their big choppers duction distributed by Creative Exposure ( 416) 690· on the roads of southern Ontario. How- 0667. 28/Cinema Canada - February 1988 • F I L M R E v I E w 5 • non-democratic contents. To North bat became an obsession with the Ger· take this sport seriously, but it does very Americans and European, most forms of Don Sheibib's mans after it claimed the lives of 31 little to enhance the declining reputa political violence equate terrorism. But members of a German climbing party in tion of Shebib as a director of merit. in Latin American or African countries, 1932. The script concentrates on Her· The Climb was produced by Wendy political violence is used to gain indepen The Climb mann Buhl (Greenwood), a famed Wacko, an emerging, Alberta·based in dence from a violent oppressor. Can the mountaineer whose reckless and deter dependent who has become an adept FLQ 's call for an independent Quebec be mined ambition leads him into conflict deal-maker. The film was originally fi· fairly compared to the African National with the team's bureaucratic leader, Dr. nanced by CTV, the BBC and Telefilm as Congress' struggle against apartheid? Karl Herrligkoffer Oames Hurdle). a 60-minute drama. By stretching things, Godbout is clear, though, in making Whereas Herrligkoffer is climbing for Shebib, Wacko and Leiterman produced one point - terrorism, like most events the glory of the German nation, Buhl a feature, but the material and direction depend on communications and a mass on Shebib has come a long way climbs for himself and the mystical chal still suggest a 60-minute drama. audience. Journalists, he explains, be· since his triumphs with Goin' lenge of the mountain. come key players in its transmission. DDown the Road and Between As they proceed slowly up the Wyndham Paul Wise • Without them and a powerful media sys· Friends in the early '70s. Since that icefields, news arrives of Hillary's con tem, terrorism has less of an impact. time, Gain' Down the Road has consis quest of Everest. Disappointed and con· Godbout twists this point in one se tently been listed as one of the 10 great fronted with rebellious porters and Marquise Lepage's quence probing two Canadian journalists Canadian films, and She bib carries it dwindling supplies, Herrligkoffer de who witness a destructive Paris bomb around with him rather like Orson WeI· cides to retreat before making it to the ing. The two are perplexed when God les used to carry Citizen Kane. It has top. Buh! disobeys orders to return to Marie s'en bout asks if they thought first of their become both a blessing and a curse. A base camp and makes the final assault photo assignments or of helping the source of pride for those committed to alone, without oxygen or support. After va-t-en ville burning victims. the notion of a distinctive Canadian a full day's climb, exhausted and hal· En Dernier recours is an analytical cinema, Gain' Down the Road lingers lucinating, he makes it to the top. Unable documentary raising a number of subtle as a reminder of a great talent gone to to climb down in the dark, he has to waste.