This film, if taken standing alone, that is, without the horrifying context in which it was born but as just another plot in a million plots, is really a mediocre "B" movie potboiler. It's focus is Carolyn McCarthy, the wife of a man slain in a brutal random shooting incident on a Long Island Railroad commuter train. Her son was with the father and was also shot, but recovered from his wounds. Mrs. McCarthy went on to win a seat in Congress with a one plank platform on gun control.
Here is my problem with this film. This is a story that took place on Long Island. Six New Yorkers were killed on this black day. Many more were injured. This case shook the local population to its core. It could have happened in any suburban bedroom community in America, but it didn't. It happened here.
It most certainly was not a Canadian story. Canada has very little gun violence. It's black population did not originate as Canadian slaves. "Black Rage" as a legal defense is never employed as it was by the counsel for the shooter in this case. This was decidedly an American story, tied to the urban and suburban population of Americas most vital city.
The people of Long Island have a big stake in the movie industry. Many of us work in it. Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, who was employed as a paid advisor on the film, and whose constituency could have used the work, travelled to Canada all star struck that Hollywood was paying attention to her instead of making some deals that would have put the interiors into Kaufman Astoria or Silvercup Studios and the exteriors right onto the tracks of the actual railroad where it all occurred. All of this was possible, and she had the clout to do it.
When you watch this movie and you see the train go by, note that "VIA" on the sides of the cars stands for VIA Rail Canada. That train was one of the first vehicles to take our production jobs out of our homeland in search of Canadian government subsidized labor.
Since then, hundreds of films have followed the tracks across the border. New York ex-Mayor Rudy Giuliani did not lift a finger to keep the making of "Rudy!" in New York. So scenes of one of America's most fateful days, 9/11/01, were shot in Canada. Oh, Canada! Oh well.
Me, I'm working on a new production about fur trappers in a battle with the mounties far up in the Canadian wilderness. I'm planning to shoot in Brooklyn. Why not? It's got trees!
Chris Zizzo// Christopher G. Zizzo Film & Videotape
