Frankly, I want more films on our history

There are two movies about Romeo Dallaire and a made-for-tv about the Avro Arrow, but movies about most of the Prime Ministers or Gordon Lightfoot would barely attract anyone.

2 of the 3 scripts I am working on have to do with our history.

Unlike 'Passchendale" however,the most commercial of the 2 will appeal to a broader audience than Passchendale.

I was thinking of trying to avoid the same pitfalls Paul Gross encountered by not limiting the commercial one to a specific battle,regiment or even country.But a Canadian audience will definitely make the connection.

IF it gets made, the second one will have more Can-Con but still be a universal story ( Think "The Searchers" )with plenty of Canadian historical references.
This push for CanCon may be great for a tax credit,but if American audiences don't want to see it or distribution is limited to Canada,you better make sure the budget is less than the projected Gross Box office or you may not get another chance.

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Kiss her you Blockhead .
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I would like to see an HBO style series on Arthur Currie's men, Vimy Ridge included.. A Canadian movie about the Italian campaign, especially the Gothic Line and Ortona; it would be cool to see the use of "mouse holing" in a movie. Finally, perhaps most importantly, I would like to see a movie done on the Dieppe raid. True sacrifice was done there and not a lot of people remember it as a significant WW2 operation, victory or defeat.

"I am quite sure that the battle of Normandy was won on the beaches of Dieppe"

Dude, there are already tons of movies on those people which have all been shown on CBC. Try looking for them instead of whining.

I would also like to see more dramatic film (not documentaries) involving Canadian historical events, as long as they remain true to the history of the events. Passchendaele proves that you can make a good film with a story involving Canadian history. I haven't read complaints about it's accuracy, so I'm assuming that the portrayal of the war and the times was accurate.

I agree that war of 1812 would be interesting. The Battle of York followed by the Burning of Washington would make a stirring film. Hull's invasion of Upper Canada and subsequent Surrender of Detroit would also make a good story.

I look forward to more films dealing with our past. We do have one, and it's worth telling. We don't even know what we're missing. I'm sure the list above, while more than I could come up with myself, is probably a drop in the bucket.

We don't necessarily need more films about Canadian history as much as we need better films about Canadian history. Somebody on this thread lamented that most Canadians will pay to see American movies before they pay to see a Canadian movie (I'm paraphrasing). That's absolutely true. It's a little something called "supply and demand." If you build a better mousetrap, people will buy it.

I went to the multiplex today - a Canadian multiplex, in Kitchener, Ontario - that was showing ALL Hollywood movies. I saw a pretty damn mediocre one called The Men Who Stare at Goats. As lame as it was, it was at least sort of entertaining. I really do believe that Canadian movies and TV shows could learn a thing or two from Hollywood about how to entertain audiences. My problem with Passchendaele is that it seemed like a two-hour (well, almost two hour - really, 114 minutes) "Heritage Minutes." It did have amazing battle scenes, but that screenplay seriously could've used a decent script doctor. And there were so many scenes where Paul Gross stuck in explanatory dialogue (i.e., dialogue where people are explaining history and events to each other) that just sounded so damn artificial. Hollywood sometimes makes the same mistake, but it can afford to make those mistakes occasionally because its output is so much greater. But when Hollywood gets it right, it knocks people's socks off - even here in Canada.

I would've liked Passchendaele much better without the tedious historical references woven into the dialogue. Just tell a damn good story about young men going off to war, the women who love them, and the pathos and tragedy of it all, without all the "Heritage Minutes" stuff. Then you'll start to see more Canadians paying to see Canadian films at the multiplexes, instead of plunking down all their hard-earned money to support Hollywood.

Agreed. Here's some I'd like to see:

1. The War of 1812.
2. Vimey Ridge.
3. Rebellions of 1837 and Robert Baldwin and Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine fight for responsible government. This is probably the most underrated story in Canadian history.
4. John A. Macdonald. Very interesting character.
5. Louis Riel.