THE BARBARIAN INVASIONS (2003) (****)
15 07 2004 |
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This film won the Oscar for best foreign language film last year. This is actually a sequel to director Denys Arcand’s 1986 film THE DECLINE OF THE AMERICAN EMPIRE, which I have not seen. However, one doesn’t have to have seen the first film to enjoy the second. This film only catches up with the characters when they are older.
Remy (Remy Girard, LES BOYS) is dying. The former playboy was working as a university professor before he got sick. His ex-wife Louise (Dorothee Berryman, THE RED VIOLIN) calls their son Sebastien (Stephane Rousseau, LES DANGEREUX) to come to be with his father. He leaves his high-paying oil trading job in London to come to Quebec with his fiancée Gaelle (Marina Hands, FIDELITY). He’s angry with his father for being who he is – a womanizer and a liberal. Sebastien has become a good capitalist, which is probably the exact opposite of his father. But isn’t that how it always is. Louise encourages Sebastien to round up Remy’s old friends so they can be with him in his last days.
The film is a joyous, but sad, reflection on life and living. Remy’s death is the kind we all wish we could have. Friends surrounding us and making us feel as comfortable as possible. Remy is in so much pain that a doctor recommends for Sebastian to find heroin. The young conservative doesn’t know where to get heroin so he goes and asks the only people he knows that would know – the cops. It’s a classic scene that isn’t as dumb as it may sound. Because he doesn’t know how to do heroin, Sebastian enlists a drug addict and daughter of Remy’s former lover Nathalie (Marie-Josee Croze, BATTLEFIELD EARTH) to help out. Her character is one of the best in the film and learns valuable lessons from Remy.
The film also works as an indictment of the Canadian health care system, which is over-crowded and weighed down by bureaucracy. Sebastien uses money and influence to get his father a private room in a wing of the hospital that’s being renovated. Other patients sleep on cots in the hall, waiting for a bed to open. Anyone who wants to argue against national heathcare may use this film as a strong point maker.
My description of this film is really not doing it justice. It’s smart and funny and naturally moving. The film welcomes us into the lives of these characters in a difficult time and allows us to share their thoughts and feelings. What’s more beautiful than that? This is the kind of film that makes you smile with joy as tears stream down your face. This is truly one of the best films of 2003.
NOTE: I ate lunch with the director and producers of this film a few days before they won their Oscars and I can say they are much like the characters in this film. Arcand has a cameo in the film as the man who gives Sebastien his computer back.
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Perhaps a strong point-maker against underfunded national healthcare. If we had the Canadian system here, but with our current per-capita level of expenditure, then it is debatable that it would be underfunded much, or at all.
Some quick notes from a University of Maine study (1998-99 figures, but still useful for comparison):
Health Spending/capita/U$ Infant mortality % satisfied w/system
United States 4,178 7.2 40
Canada 2,312 5.2 46
Italy 1,783 6.1 20
UK 1,461 5.9 57
I’m not even sure if I know what any of it REALLY means, after all, data can be spun in many different ways. Still, something radical needs to be done, and soon. And it’s probably less WHAT you spend than HOW you spend it. “It” being money and national energies, I guess. There’s a pretty good opinion blog post on the subject that is worth reading, I think:
http://www.hotmediaus.com/WordPress/?p=35
In it, I found a quote which pretty much sums up the issues for me:
“…the problem is not specifically single-payer universal health care itself but the milieu in which such a system exists. It’s an attempt to operate such a system in an international environment where greed and self interest more than compassion and public health rule the day.”
Also worth taking a look at:
http://pnhp.org/
A key thing to remember is that Canada has only a little more than a tenth of the population of the U.S.
Anyway, just thought I’d bring this up, as you know it’s one of my standard “hot button” issues. Regardless, it’s a good review, like pretty much all of yours tend to be (very frustrating for those of us who typically have little else to say beyond “it was really good” after enjoying a movie).
Thanks for the added information. I believe the quoted text that you provided above sums up my views on the matter as well.
PS… thanks for reading and I’m glad that you enjoy the reviews.
Cool. Cool.
And for the record, I usually don’t say, “it was really good” after a bad movie. Instead, I usually weep silently for the $9-14 that I will never see again…
I figured that would be the case. I can’t remember the last really bad movie that I saw in the theaters. Disappointing ones for sure. One thing however that makes watching a bad film worth it is how they remind us what we like in other films.