Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion

I really liked Vincent Walsh as the lead. He was very convincing in both the family-oriented scenes and the action stuff. The impending tragedy and the mundane actions that led to it were well-played and very gripping. It was nice to see a number of veteran Canadian actors like Lynne Griffin and Graham Green in large and small roles. I also thought the subplot about German saboteurs was both nicely diverting and added to the suspense. While Canadian productions can never hope to compete with Hollywood for budget and special effects, they can provide a Canadian "feel" to a project and "Shattered City" does that very well.

I have to thank CBC, actually, for making this movie. Before a visit to Halifax on the QE2, I had never heard of the Explosion (typical American - although, in fact, I'm Canadian-born). But even seeing the great memorial didn't really register the extent of the disaster until I saw the movie. Yes, characters were combined or fictionalized in some cases, but that is absolutely secondary to the portrayal of that horrific episode in Canadian history. The effects of the blast were particularly well done. I hope it plays again, as indeed it should every couple of years or so, to remind us all of both the losses and the bravery incurred that day.

Granted it would seem that much of Shattered City is fictional, it is only BASED on fact as most films are. Nonetheless this is a great triumph for Canadian History to introduce everyone to a devastating event that still is one of the largest of it's kind in World History. Even still the film is only in small part about the actual explosion that rocked Halifax by a French ship carrying an unprecedented amount of munitions. The rest of the film is a story about a family dealing with the harsh realities of World War 1 and a Captain returned if only briefly to them with horrible memories of the deaths of his fallen friends.

Vincent Walsh leads the cast as this Captain. He's young and a great presence on screen, without a doubt one of the great Canadian Actors I've ever seen. He is intense and emotional as Charlie Collins and a stand out performance. I have to say that with the exception of a few minor performances the rest of the cast are very much supportive to Walsh. Their roles are small and there are a lot of characters in the film...too many to have any major stand out performances. They all do well...some worth mentioning are the younger members of the cast...Clare Stone, and Max Morrow, as well as Tamara Hope, and Lynne Griffin as the mother of the Collin's family. Everyone plays a role and they do it quite well. Nobody drags down the story which eventually builds up to the horrifying explosion which is done in a brilliant and terrifying fashion. Director and Canadian Bruce Pittman does exactly what is needed to give the film the Canadian Uniqueness and importance while still making it mainstream and watchable for anyone.

The Film captures the essence of the time, and war, and the people that founded this country. They also show a time when Canadians pulled together to help each other and save lives. The film is very long, an epic length for sure and although sometimes it drags a little I believe the importance of the film and the quality of it outweighs it's slightly overdone length. It now sits on my table in the same group as Anne Of Green Gables which is a high order in my books. For those who are complaining about it's fictional content just remember that 99% of American made films about history are wrought with added dramatics and to finally have a Canadian Epic of this caliber at all is enough to accept the dramatic content. The only other critical point I can make is that the sub story about the German spies preparing to bomb the fleet never is dealt with or much mentioned after the explosion, I think it was perhaps avoidable and could have edited out but nonetheless every Canadian should see this film and history buffs will love it!! 7/10

My commentary: First and foremost, while the emphasis was on human error in the movie, the fact is war is a very fertile breeding ground for accidents on top of the deliberate carnage. "Saving Private Ryan" noted this with the mention of the glider that was fitted with armor plating - but no one thought to tell the pilot. So it crashes and six soldiers are killed needlessly. Accounts of war proliferate in tragic incidents such as that one. The Halifax Explosion must be the biggest war-related accident in history.

The Great War featured incomprehensibly vast usage of artillery shells, and artillery shells need TNT and other explosives. A lot of this had to be imported from the U.S., and by ships. Ships had to be gathered in ports. Ports will then see a lot of ships coming and going, and harbor masters are going to be pressed to keep all this traffic moving. The odds were considerable something like the incident of Dec. 6th, 1917 would happen someplace in Allied ports sooner or later.

Captain Le Medec probably wasn't the greatest or bravest mariner of all time. But how many ship captains who have seniority or pull are going to agree to captain a massive floating bomb at the height of the U-boat menace? Second, did anyone notice that the movie exonerates harbor pilot Mackie while making Le Medec and the Belgian captain look like total dolts at the helm; and has Mackie trying to avert disaster while the Frenchman funks off with his crew? Considering it is a Canadian and not a French production, what a surprise.

Then there is the almost defeatist speech Capt. Collins gives to the war rally in the church. Excuse me, an *officer* in HM forces blurting out like that? It simply wouldn't have happened at the time. Contrary to what he later tells Barbara, Germans weren't close to suing for peace at the time, and the war wasn't kept going only because the Allies wanted another year of war profits. Indeed, with the Western Front stalemated and Russia close to surrender, Ludendorff et al were convinced victory for Germany was just around the corner. And a lot of people on the Allied side feared the same thing.

On the plus side, I was impressed by what the production did with a limited CBC budget.

While this movie, and The Perfect Storm, and many others about war, ships and whatever else may be BASED on true stories and events...they are NOT true stories.

As there was NOT always somebody in every location at every second to document the event and the speeches and actions that people did, much of this story is fiction.

I found the movie interesting, that's for sure.

I found it a good insight to the event with a basic understanding to the incident...but it is still partially fiction.

What did impress me very much was that a film of this magnitude, a huge cast, a huge set, special effects and locations can be filmed for only 10 million dollars while a movie which takes place in very few locations with very few actors, few effects, few sets and much less than this film had will be shot for three or 4 times the budget.

Whoever worked the finances on this movie should be in public office to deal with the finances the Canadian and Provincial Governments budget problems.

They obviously know how to control the spending of money to the extreme.

Make-up, set design, acting and everything else was great too.

I am just overly impress with the people behind the cash flow...they really know how to spend the money, so that every cent is made to work.