Riel

I enjoyed this movie when it first came out in 1979. Currently, I am waiting to rent it from the library. I am in the process of researching and writing about Louis Riel as a personal writing project. The life story of this man has always interested me. I grew up in St. Boniface, Manitoba, where Riel was born and raised. I remember visiting his grave in the grounds of St. Boniface Basilica as a small girl.

The makers of this movie take certain poetic license in the making of the movie. However, this does not in any way detract from the overall sweep of events in examining and analyzing the life of Louis Riel. It is a good two hours of engrossing entertainment in depicting an important period of Canadian history.

Like one of the other posters, I feel they could have found an actor who looked more like the real Louis Riel. At the very least, Raymond Cloutier should have had a moustache and beard like the real Louis had.

Apart from that, though, I really enjoyed this movie and am looking forward to seeing it again.

One thing that is impressive about the movie "RIEL" is its all-star, all Canadian cast, many of whom will be familiar to all movie goers. There's Christopher Plummer, Lloyd Bochner, Maury Chaykin, Don Francks, Arthur Hill, Leslie Nielsen, William Shatner, August Schellenberg,Dave Thomas and Kenneth Welsh, all well known actors outside of Canada. However, this is more than a spot-the-cameo epic wanna-be. Devoid of its stellar cast, the film would still be a classic docu-drama about a true Canadian cultural hero. The acting, action and production are all excellent and will keep you entertained and educated for over two hours.

OK this might be entertaining but it is not a very accurate portrayal of the life of Riel at all There is no evidence that Riel went to Ottawa, let alone signed in at the parliament buildings. Riel hardly knew Gabriel Dumont during the time of the first Rebellion, they are only known to have met once before the second rebellion. The film omits any mention of Riel's treachery such as when he convinced a number of illiterate settlers to follow him by "predicting" a solar eclipse. The reason that he knew there would be an eclipse is he read it in the paper! As has been mentioned before Riel's appearance is not very accurate. This was an ambitious effort by the CBC to create an epic Canadian mini series similar to the US series "Centennial". It succeeds in my opinion in being entertaining with pretty good production values and aside from Riel's life itself is quite good at portraying the history and the characters in it. However as Riel is the main character and is portrayed so inaccurately I can't give it more than a 5.

Edit to add new information:

Well you live and learn. I have since discovered that Riel did sign into parliament after all. I still cannot upgrade my rating for this series because the overall portrayal of Riel is still very inaccurate.

When I saw this adaptation, I thought it had too many flaws for it come across as anything serious. Christopher Plummer was good as John A. MacDonald, but the corny concepts and atrocious historical inaccuracies make for hard viewing.

As Canadian fare goes, this is very good. The original historical story is already very dramatic, so little was added for the screenplay. Also, the fictional parts were usually plausible enough. The film's strongest feature was Plummer's performance as John A.

My biggest complaint was the makeup on Raymond Cloutier (Riel). He should have had a moustache, and perhaps a beard at some times. The physical appearance of the historical Riel is very familiar, and I found it annoying that the film did not respect it.

It is unfortunate that there isn't the money to make a really top-notch production based on the Riel story. I found myself thinking of the excellent visual images in films like Dances with Wolves and Last of the Mohicans. Perhaps this story will find its way into the cinema again in the future.