A Trio of Docs: Being Canadian (2015), Eat That Question: Frank Zappa in His Own Words (2016), and A Faster Horse (2015)
For a change of pace, I’ve posted a trio of documentary reviews, each completely unrelated to the other, but in significant ways tied to aspects of pop culture.
Being Canadian (2015), on DVD from Passion River, was directed by Robert Cohen, an ex-pat who continues to enjoy a successful career writing and producing hit comedy TV series (The Big Bang Theory), and has friendships with some premiere U.S. and Canadian comedic stars.
It’s no surprise the doc ultimately gels into a celebration of our peculiar sense of humour, one of our better-known cultural exports that’s given the world major talents in film and TV, and boosted our profile as being a bit less boring that common stereotypes seem to suggest.
Cohen touches upon a number of aspects that make up our DNA, and while a lighthearted examination of our cultural quirks, it certainly won’t be the first, last, or most definitive word on our national identity – but it’s one of the funniest, largely due to his snappy sense of timing.
A Faster Horse (2015) from FilmRise / MVD Visual is a very glossy chronicle of the Ford Motor Company’s decision to redesign the Mustang for its 50th anniversary. Debuting in 1965, the iconic sports car was meant to be affordable, yet by the end of the decade it evolved with high performance offshoots, several of which made their way into Hollywood productions.
In Bullitt (1968), Steve McQueen’s San Francisco and highway chases in a suped-up model forever branded the car as the ultimate super-cool muscle machine that didn’t swagger or bully to get attention; it simply looked, sounded, and moved like a beautiful creature, and one of my earliest car memories was riding the back of a powder blue convertible, which a family friend drove because he worked for Ford Canada in Windsor.
When the family needed a bigger car, he (foolishly) upgraded to a Grand Torino (yeah, the Clint Eastwood model, not the better Starsky & Hutch muscle car), after which came the mercury Marquis. My memories of that Mustang are severely limited, but at least I can say I was driven in one, since the odds of owning, let alone driving one of that vintage, is impossible (unless I win a lottery).
Other cherished car memory: sitting in the passenger seat of a silver Volkswagen Porsche, an odd ‘co-production’ between the two automotive giants that resulted in a very small two-seater that I remember being bumpy, loud, and rode very low.
From Sony on DVD comes Eat That Question (2016), in which the words, music, and images of Frank Zappa are culled from a variety of rare sources (including CityTV’s late great The NewMusic show) for a narrative that spans his post-MGM career to his final year when prostrate cancer robbed the world of a eccentric, creative dynamo.
My familiarity with Zappa is as a political figure among musicians and composers who tried to fight the PMRC (Parents Music Resource Center) on talk shows, presenting the artists’ stance on what they branded as a dumb form of censorship.
The PMRC charged themselves with labeling music for its content, and in the end they won, although in retrospect some of the verbal salvos between panel members and Zappa are hysterical. There’s the reasoned concern that mature subject matter might not be right for young kids, but there’s bullshit mental leaps where an album cover for Def Leppard’s Pyromania LP might inspire youths to incinerate homes and buildings.
Zappa seemed to task himself to appear wherever the PMRC’s high profile members (including Tipper Gore, wife of Al Gore) popped up, ensuring their voices faced some needed contrast. His arguments were always articulate, sometimes dryly amusing, and clearly coming from a very astute mind. I can’t get into Zappa’s music, but I respect his integrity, his commitment to art, creative risk-taking, and social & political satire. One wonders how he’d channel outrage today as the U.S. Presidential Election is slowly approaching the home stretch.
Mark R. Hasan, Editor
KQEK.com
Category: EDITOR'S BLOG
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