Action: The October Crisis of 1970

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.

Rating 9/10 The October Crisis tells the tale of a tumultuous time in the history of Canada, a populist uprising in Montreal, tensions worn thin against a new radical but legitimate political party that threatens to secede and a small but dangerous group of young "visionaries" take the stage in what is a well crafted and thoughtful retelling of the events that took place in the days of October of 1970. The impressive collection of first hand footage, and detailed analysis of the events as they happened,along with commentary from survivors and involved persons exemplifies great journalism and is complimented by an equal class of cinematography. The little known tale of Canada's experience with terrorism and civil strife. The impressive design of the film is the expanding view of events, starting with the tensions and political happenings then expanding to the reactions of Canadians, and French Canadians. The story is balanced giving both sides a reasonable explanation. It is historically accurate and does not serve as a dramatization or inflation of any events, it tells and shows with footage where available all of the events, their locations and aftermath. The story is told such that it attracts and holds onto one attention and keeps it for most of the film. I do find it shocking at the end, the kidnappers are allowed easy passage to Cuba in only short negotiations and there has been no attempt to pursue them, at least in the time scale of the films production. The interviews and recordings from interviewed Politicians, police and other involved in the crisis added a human element to the story and further improved its marks. Some issues with the film were the dry voice overs were somewhat hard to listen to after a time. They discussion was valuable but eh audio quality was lacking in some parts.

After watching this film, I would rate it a five out of ten. It was rather drawn out in my opinion and the film itself was very hard to watch in my opinion. While this is an informative film and discussed a very important topic in Canadian history that is not very well known, it could have been produced in a better way that is easier to watch. The narrator of the film had a very boring voice which made it hard to pay attention to the movie. There are clips of interviews that are included in the movie that are very informative and necessary in relation to the events and history covered, however they seemed a bit long to me. Before watching this movie, I was not aware of this event in Canadian history and had the impression most people have of Canada which is that they are a peaceful country that is not very violent. This film changed my opinion on Canada just being a peaceful country due to the violence that happened during this time. The film is about the events that took place in Quebec during 1970. During this time the English were slowly taking over and the people of Quebec, who are mainly French, did not like this and wanted to continue to keep French culture a part of their lives. Instead of going about this peacefully, the separatists and terrorist group, FLQ, rioted, blew things up, kidnapped, and killed police officers. The film includes actual footage of the riots which was a nice addition because it adds some perspective on how angry the people really were. With all this being said, this is a very informative film but is just hard to pay attention to in my opinion. I would recommend this to anyone who has a serious interest in Canadian history since this is not something that I would choose to just sit down and watch.

This film provided a wealth of interesting footage from the historical events leading up to and during the October crisis. It was really neat to be able to see the strike breakers come to blows with strikers. I was also surprised to see just how much footage there was of police officers exhibiting some questionable treatment towards the Quebecois protestors. The film also provided a great deal of speeches from the crisis including those of Trudeau, Bourassa and the full broadcast of the FLQ manifesto. I found the footage of the manifesto to be the most interesting part of the film and the October crisis in general. The idea of reading a terror group's work on national television is an event that would signal the end of days to many if it happened in the United States and yet is it presented here as a simply fact, and a relatively small one compared to the other events going on at the time. René Lévesque's comments on Laporte's death were also quite interesting, it was strange to see the contrast of how he acted before and during his press interview, he really exhibited a side of politicians rarely seen. I did feel that the film had a tendency to let a few scenes run unnecessarily long and that the narration could have been greatly improved. The music used had little impact, especially compared to the primary audio of speeches and protests. The editing also seems like it could be improved as there were a few transitions that were so abrupt I though I accidently skipped ahead. I liked that the film went into some of the details of the opposition to the War Measures Act, I felt like this was not discussed enough in the text. Overall the film provided an interesting look at the October crisis filled with great historical footage. Some of the technical aspects could be improved and some scenes could be cut down. I'd give this film a 6/10.

Action: The October Crisis of 1970 succeeded in some things, but failed in others. Overall, the film was incredibly informative and well written. The overall structure of the documentary suited the topic. When discussing the historical events surrounding the terror attacks in 1970, they carefully explain the details leading up to the government cracking down on radical groups. While this is tedious at times, it gets most of the ideas across regarding the severity of the terror attacks and the political upheaval happening in Canada in 1970. While the documentary does an incredible job at relaying the details of these historical events, most of the time is spent with a monotone, drawl narration. This narration, while informative, is incredibly hard to listen to. If the narration had been slightly more enthusiastic or engaged, the information would be much easier to process. The closest thing the narration could be related to is a college lecture of 300 students with a bland professor; while the content might be interesting, a wide audience will not be intrigued by what is being presented. Overall, when looking at this documentary for information, it should receive a 10 out of 10. When factoring in the narration and droning nature that it has, the documentary should get a 6 out of 10. Yes, the documentary is good, but it becomes incredibly boring after the first 10 minutes simply because of the narration.