Louis Cyr

"Louis Cyr" is entirely hagiographic but we're allowed - every nation is allowed that of their heroes. If anything, that's probably something we should doing more of: Exalting our heroes, mythologizing our exploits as a nation, and totally embracing our underdog nature, only to punch - or lift - above our weight class. For a nation composed of not that many people, to have quite a number of individuals to emerge from here as 'world class' is quite something. More so when you're talking about the 19th century.

However, a caution: Most films that flag-wave too much end up devolving into nationalistic kitsch.

Fortunately, "Louis Cyr" is a film that constantly has its titular character's humble roots in the background, yet never fully drops the weight of what all that entails on your plate. Unlike so many other smaller film cultures' epic treatments of its heroes, Cyr the character's French-Canadianness, and "Louis Cyr" the film itself, only deals in Canadiana when it purposefully serves the story.

He is at first a French-Canadian in Massachusetts, out of place around Irish immigrants. His provincial roots are at the forefront when a theatre manager expresses concern whether he could fill a large Montreal auditorium. His being a (secretly illiterate) simpleton from the colonies is an issue when he goes to London - after all, Eugen Sandow has beautiful muscles and writes books!

Never does the film really truly jab you in the ribs as a reminder, "Look! Look how Canadian he is!" If anything, he lived at a time when being Canadian was a disadvantage. Without saying it outright, "Louis Cyr" the film makes the case that Louis Cyr - the person - made being Canadian as something to be proud of.

It is this kind of rationing nationalism that other Canadian filmmakers can't always get a hold of (Paul Gross comes to mind, who always seems to call in an artillery barrage of Canadiana).

What "Louis Cyr" does is to simply tell the story of a man endowed with natural gifts overcoming his humble beginnings in order to cement his name into immortality, all whilst trying to be as good a father as he only knows how.

In that, I think it succeeds.

This fairly straightforward biopic works well because of its honesty and humbleness- it succeeds without essentially having a single traditional villain. It's well-shot and well-acted, the cast brings warmth and life to the characters even before the bigger, more dramatic moments kick in. While the narrative does lose steam around the 80-minute mark, it quickly regains its footing within 10 minutes or so, delivering an emotional punch that keeps you invested through to the end.

Like all biopics, it's not entirely faithful, but it's almost pointless to mention it at this point in movies. A few truly powerful scenes, such as the pulling hoses, and the last scene. Like most biopics, it's not entirely faithful to the real story, but at this point, that feels like a given in movies. Although the movie is relatively quiet and understated, it delivers a few truly powerful moments, like the pulling horses scene and the very last scene, which made me cry (I won't say why, don't worry).

I'm not sure why this movie is so obscure, it could be a family favorite.

Great mix or drama, humor in this mostly true biopic. The end was touching and some of the stunts horrific. The acting was suburb for all the main characters, Antoine Bertrand did a great job as Louis Cyr as did his wife Rose-Maïté Erkoreka. A clean, for the family movie, no sex, drugs or extreme violence in a Quebec movie. 33 days, 8 million dollars can still make a great film. As a Quebecois, I am proud of this heritage. Several of his records still stand and he never even trained. Still the strongest man in the world. Amazing man, amazing movie. If you liked "The Rocket" you will like this. Should be noted that the movie is 1/3 English, 2/3 French.

A wonderful tale , I would so highly recommend this, everything was spot on, the characters were rich and beautiful and enriched by the times and the backdrops, every single scene with its gorgeous transitions were an ample canvas for idyllic situations to learn about our deep and multi-layered characters in whose eyes we could see so many things for the script as the prolific brilliant dialogue is carefully bandied about only serves as the icing on the cake of this resplendent tale which unfolds like a rose blooming on the finest day of spring, just a masterpiece!