Day 11: 49th Parallel (1941)

This is a criterion DVD I picked up a while ago. The main reason I picked it up was because it was a WW2 propaganda film ABOUT CANADA. I'm a sucker for Canadian films, and even a bigger sucker for films about Canada. Whenever a TV show or a film even mentions Canada, I get giddy. I'm lamely nationalistic like that. So, how could I pass up on this? Sunday night, I was out of town in a hotel with my dad the night before my graduation, and I wanted to watch that we'd both like. At first he complained that this film "wasn't a real film" which he uses to mean that it has subtitles. My dad refuses to read subtitles and considers any movie that uses them not worth watching. Thankfully despite being about Nazis, no subtitles were used. While I would have preferred to watch Nazis speaking German for authenticity (or even used a German accent), I guess that their speaking perfect British English allowed my dad to enjoy it with me.

I'm probably not the best person to critique this film. I'm a huge fan of history-related films, of war films, of propaganda films, and of films about Canada. This film could have been someone reading the phone book standing in front of a map of Canada and I probably would have enjoyed it. Thankfully it was a lot more enjoyable than a reading from the phone book. The plot centers around the sinking of a u-boat in Hudson's Bay, and 6 Nazi soldiers who managed to survive. These 6 Nazis try and find some way out of Canada and back to Germany. As they flee, they cross much of Canada, allowing Europe to get a glimpse into the Canadian landscape. The film served a couple purposes. It was a way to thank Canada for their involvement in the war, and it was intended to show Americans how real the threat of Nazi Germany was, and how close the war could possibly come to them. Canada is used throughout the film as a foil to which Nazi Germany is compared - Canada is the epitome of Nazi Germany apparently.

The film plays around with one's understanding of Canada's geography. The Nazis start in Hudson's Bay, from there they travel to Churchill, to Winnipeg, then by foot to Banff, and there by foot over the Rockies to Vancouver, where they then fly to Edmonton/Calgary, then fly to Toronto, then train it to Niagara falls. All within a week or so, in 1941. If you manage to avoid the obvious impossibility of this, it does provide a glimpse into many different parts of Canada's landscape. From the north to the prairies to cities to the Rockies to Niagara falls. The film clearly wanted to share as much of Canada as possible, and was willing to bend the plot to fit it. Not only that, but the Nazis never come anywhere near the 49th parallel border between Canada and the US. The depiction of Canadians is just as bad, filling the film with stereotypes.; yet, considering the film is a propaganda war film, I wasn't overly offended. Despite the freedoms they took with both the country and the people of Canada, it was fun to see Canada depicted at the time, and the story was fun enough to keep the audience's attention.