CINEMA CAN A D A • Paul Donovan's zombie-like portrayal of these fi ve radicals must surely be a first. The five terrorists, however, are not the only The Squamish people who are subjected to the examination of these filmmakers. At one point in the film, a Five group of feminists discuss ways to curb pornography in Vancouver and decide to step n the spring of 1981 , a Vancouver punk up their direct action campaign by bombing named Julie Belmas met Brent Taylor and several ou tlets of the Red Hot video chain . In the Ann Hansen, hvo left-wing activists who filmmakers' view of things, the most important had become increasingly convinced that thing about this meeting of radical dykes (the Ionly direct action could help realize their film' s emphasis, not mine) is that their talk of political goals. The most prominent of these militant feminist analysis and tactics of actions took place more than a year later on Oct. resistance are so far removed from the middle of 14,1982 when the three activists detonated a the road that the women are nothing but the bomb outside the Litton Systems plant in subject of derision . It might almost be funnyif it Rexdale, Ontario. The three later rejoined Gerry weren' t for the distinct possibility tha t this Hannah and Doug Stewart on the west coast four-minute scene represents about all the time where all five were subsequently arrested and that CBC drama is likely to devo te to non­ brought to trial to face a variety of charges. mainstream feminism and feminist issues This, in its simplest form, is the story of the during the current season. Squamish Five, the subject of a new CBC movie At the film's premiere screening during written by Ken Gass and Terence McKenna and Toronto's Festival of Festivals, an angry directed by Paul Donovan. protester stormed out saying" the left deserves What is most surprising about The Squamish Robyn Stevan as Julie Belmas, one of the Squamish Five better than this. " The sad fact of the matter is Five is that it avoids the two types of characteriza­ that the Canadian television audience, for which tion one would have expected from this sort of The world of the terrorist may be hermetically When Julie Belmas (Robyn Stevan), the this film is ultimately destined, deserves far film. The Five are portrayed neither as martyrs sealed, as the makers of The Sqllamish Five seem innocent, though disillusioned teenager more . Whether or not one agrees with the of the radical left nor as a threat to decency and to insist, but it is a world which is somehow through whose eyes the story is seen (and, actions of the Squamish Five and their democracy that more right-wing elements fueled and formed by the events and the politics incidentally, the onlymember of the Five to have subsequent treatment at the hands of the court would have us to believe. Instead, the film opts of everyday life. Terrorism, like all political acts, spoken to the producers) is first introduced to (an aspect of the whole affair which is not dealt for a third kind of stereotype by using the Five as exists in some sort of context. As far as this film the others, all the characters are presented as with at aU by the film), an attempt should have the basis for a comedy of (mostly bad) manners is concerned, the only context for the acts of the cardboard cut-outs: Brent Taylor is the fed-up been made, at the very least, to show what in which our bumbling terrorists become some fi ve terrorists are to be found in their isolated radical with delusions of grandeur; Gerry motivated the Five toact the way theydid. Todo sort of anarchist reincarnation of the Keystone and paranoid delusions. Hannah is the wound-up rocker who seems any less, as this film does, only angers any Cops. The results, predictably, are not very The biggest problem with the film , however, more interested in exotic weapons than in the possible sympathizers while at the same time funny, nor are they terribly insightful. is that because it is a docu-drama, the producers causes that he's fighting for ; Doug Stewart is the lulling the rest of us into bored complacency. Amuch more successful example of this sort must have, on some level, felt obliged to portray vegetarian and militant conservationist who Greg Clarke , of black comedy was made by Rainer Werner events as they actually happened. Yet the only believes that acts of terrorismrepre sent the only Fassbinder in 1979 under the title of The Third scenes that seem to ring true are the ones which means to save the environment; and Ann Generation. Fassbinders dark and satiric look at have since become part of the public record: the Hansen is Brent's butch girldfriend who is THE SQUAMISH FIVE I" Bernard Zukennand. Paul bourgeois terrorists in post Baader-Meinhoff Litton bombing itself, the acts of vandalism equally committed to the causes of anarchism Donovannss()(. p. Gail Carr co-I' . HarrisVergesc. KenGass. Germany was everything that The Squamish Five directed at a Vancouver porn video chain, and and feminism. For the rest of the movie, these Terence McKenna .1.0. p. Richard Leitennan, CSC ,d. Gordon McOelian orig. mils. Marty Simon en51 . d. Doug is not. Fassbinder's view of things was at once the Five's subsequent arrest. The remainder of windup dolls (one hesitates to call them Barnes,rl d. Marion Wihakcost. des . Pam Woodward 5.1 . cd. wickedly funny and morbidly chilling. More the movie, the dramatic scenes which link these characters) stay in a holding pattern, acting and Ke\~n Townshend n. d. Phil Mead 5.1 . rcc. Gerry King importantly, his film proved to be extremely pivotal events, is far too wooden to be believed. reacting exactly as one would have expected lighlillg d. Erik Kristensen pllb. D,,~d McCaughna 1.1'. Robyn Stevan, Michael McManus, ~ickv Guadagni. D,,~d insightful by being both a comment on and a The film as a whole is unconvincing as both them to at the beginning of the film . Terrorists McLeod , Albert Schultz, Kim Rend ers, Tnsha Lamie, product of the political climate in West Germany drama and a document of what these people could be, and indeed have been, portrayed in a Patrusha Sarakula. Eileen Ford. rat Hamilton . Frank durin~ the mid and late 1970s. must really have been like. variety of ways over the years, but the comatose Adamson, Peter Krantz , Robert Morelli. AC BCproducti on. IANUAilY 1 ••• CINIMA CANADA .A•••• .