Action: The October Crisis of 1970

Just want to start off that this movie is a documentary but spoken by a very boring sounding narrator. Also, it seemed that the narrator had a very strange accent that made it hard for the average American to understand. To help understand the video if you payed close attention to the events you could usually figure out what the narrator is talking about. If you can get past that the documentary was very informative and showed a different side of Canada. This filmed showed the events that the Canadian terrorist group in Quebec did. From what I gathered there was a lot of tension that Quebec would loss its French culture to the British. So the French-Canadians showed their emotions by kidnapping Politian's, and blowing up buildings, starting riots, pretty much anything that made a huge impact the French-Canadians did. This was a very big issue for Canada but in the movie the narrators voice hardly changed so, me the viewer, did not get the intense feeling that I should have got. Even in the News interview they seemed calm but knew that this was a very big issue that they needed to overcome. I get that the French-Canadians of Quebec were angry and wanted to keep their French heritage in there Providence but they went about this the wrong way. This video would be a great way to show of what not to do when you want something a curtain way. I now understand why this was not a huge part in my History of Canada course because it was a bad/ almost embarrassing time for Canada. Overall, I would give this documentary a 5 out of 10 because it did have some very interesting events and had actual footage of the events, but the way the video was constructed was terrible and made it hard to watch.

The beginning is very confusing. The first, about, 15 minutes was a lot of riot footage from different riots, and it was rather difficult to follow the transitions as the whole timeline was laid out with the necessary background information on the actual event. It was about a half hour into the movie that I finally understood what the Crisis in question was, although I question it being called the October crisis as the one kidnapping victim was missing for about 2 months and the other acts of terrorism went on for months before that. So perhaps I still missed that detail. For the most part the video made sense and could be followed, but there were some transitions - especially at the beginning - that I had to stop and go back and was maybe still a little confused about the timeline. Overall, I gathered that this video was covering a very messy time in Quebec and Canadian history, so it is not surprising that there was a lot to cover and not a great way to go about it. I get also get the sense that it would be more impactful if you could at least read, if not speak, French as well as English. That is likely true for most stories or anything with Quebec though. This video is entirely worth watching if you have any interest in Quebec or all of Canadian History. I have said a couple times that it was a little hard to follow, but I am confident I understood the majority of it, and the main points are shocking to someone with, mostly, only a stereotype understanding of Canada. It is saddening, but also humbling in a way. In a way I feel that it offered an unfortunately relatable view of Canadian politics. Like the idea that Canada could have such acts of pure terrorism inflicted on them by their own citizens makes it seem like Canada has more in common with the rest of the world. Which is unfortunate since in some ways I viewed them as a better than that before, but a country is made up of individuals who always come in a spectrum.

Okay so this was a very informative movie/documentary. It had a very old feeling to it, but it is a little older so that's to be expected. I'm in this history of Canada course and going with stereotypical Canadian beliefs; I assumed Canadians were always just calm and collected but this proved me 100% wrong! Quebec was not only like the major role player but it (depending on how you look at it) was also the only problem. Those in Quebec wanted to just save their tradition of having French apart of their daily lives but the English was slowly taking over and with my mindset I thought those who were opposed would be peaceful. Ummm no, those separatists were blowing stuff up, angry because of change and when the queen shows up, game over. The thing that caught me off guard was how a politician can just up and say, "Canada is going through a major crisis!" How can you just know that? I mean sure there's a REALLY big issue going on and he was right, but to call it that early? I'm a bit suspicious. Regardless of that, if Trudeau was being labeled as a traitor for wanting new and bringing in English ways why not take a more..political approach and not a toddler approach? Kidnapping people? Starting riots? Killing police officers? I was appalled at how the police were beating the opposers like it's the 50's in America. This was a very opinion-changing event for me, seeing the ACTUAL footage of this happening. I understand the Queboicois wanting to withstand by their views but going to the extremes that they did was uncalled for. With that said I would recommend this for anyone wanting to get some deep insight into the rather history of Canada we don't really see, nor does Canada really broadcast. I now know that Canada is just as American as I assumed, they were, things don't go your way? Push forward and ask questions later.

This is an interesting video about the FLQ Crisis in Quebec. I liked the depth of the whole video, starting from the real beginning of the crisis, because it really set the stage for what the Crisis was about. In some ways, I think what happened in Quebec was inevitable, since the loss of the region by the French to the British. The first British rulers of the region tried to accommodate the French with laws such as the Quebec Act, but in the end, the French-Canadiens would never truly belong to the expanding British Empire. This would result in under-representation in the government, which in turn would reduce awareness for the complaints that the French in Quebec would raise against the government in the 1960s. The FLQ was a militant offshoot of these protesters with reasonable demands or representation and equality. I liked how the video included the full reading of the FLQ manifesto on Canadian news, because it helped really show what the views of the organization were. I found it interesting how the video mentions that after the manifesto was read on the news, many people sympathized with the goal of the FLQ, even though they didn't necessarily agree with their methods.

My biggest complaint about the video is the narrator. I don't know if he was talking that way to increase suspense, or if that was just how he did the narration, but it was extremely dry and boring. I'm not sure if it was just the audio quality from footage that was recorded over 50 years ago, but there some parts where the sound design seems fake. There are a few parts where it seems like someone in a sound studio dubbed over the video from the time-period with sound effects like whistles or car crashes.

Overall I would rate this video a 6.5/10 (7/10 if the sound design isn't faked in some places).

The October Crisis of 1970 I would rate this film a 6 out of 10 stars. I would give it less, however I tried to consider that the film was produced in 1974 and thus had it's limitations. The October crisis of 1970 is a documentary that tries to tell the story of the FLQ, a Canadian terrorist group in Quebec. It follows the group from it's early forming through the kidnapping of two prominent politicians. It tells of a time when the charter of rights in Canada was suspended citing the need for security around the nation. The Documentary was overall hard to follow. It took quite a bit of rewinding to get exactly what was being said. This could be because the event in history was confusing and scary for the people experiencing it, but I personally would not have taken a creative move like that. The narration didn't help matters much. It was very lack luster. Everything was said with the same tone and speed. It would have been much better if the narration had shown some of the emotion that was running through the film. There were no clear section breaks or transitions to help the viewer comprehend what they were watching. The speed of the film was a bit shaky, starting of slow and then gaining speed like a snowball as it got farther along. Slowing down the film, adding more subtitles, and section breaks would make the film a bit easier to understand. The film did have a few good notes. It offered perspective from multiple different views of the incident. It also makes good use of the existing video and audio of the event. The series of events that make the October crisis were important events that needed to be written about. If the video were updated and remade today, I think that it would be more effective as a teaching tool.