Trudeau II: A Maverick in the Making

[kimmy]

Anybody else watch tonight's installment?

I thought the part where he kills the black bear with his bare hands was quite exciting. The part where he heals the lepers was quite touching as well.

I dunno. I'd been told we were going to see "a different side" of Trudeau. But it doesn't seem to be. We see Trudeau: smarter than everybody else. Trudeau: great thinker. Trudeau: champion of freedom and liberator of the oppressed. And of course, Trudeau: chick-magnet. None of this seems to break new ground, and nothing in Part 1 took a challenging approach to Trudeau's history. The opposite, if anything: for instance, can you look at Quebec opposition to conscription in World War 2 without looking at French-English relations in Canada? The movie tries to.

I did enjoy Jean Chretien's cameo as Maurice Duplessis, however.

-k

[PocketRocket]

Anybody else watch tonight's installment?

I wasn't even aware it was on.

I thought the part where he kills the black bear with his bare hands was quite exciting. ?

You were on the wrong channel, KIMMY. That was "The Daniel Boone Story".

The part where he heals the lepers was quite touching as well.

Quit changing channels all the time. You ended up watching Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

I dunno.

Me neither

I'd been told we were going to see "a different side" of Trudeau.  But it doesn't seem to be. We see  Trudeau: smarter than everybody else.

True.

Trudeau: great thinker.

True again.

Trudeau: champion of freedom and liberator of the oppressed.

True yet again. At least in Margaret's case. How liberated can you get???

Just ask Mick Jagger

And of course, Trudeau: chick-magnet.

All so true.

None of this seems to break new ground, and nothing in Part 1 took a challenging approach to Trudeau's history.

What's to challenge??? You painted the picture of perfection in your previous comments.

Are you bucking for a writer's job on part III????

-k

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

VOTE KIMMY!!!!!

[shoop]

Is there anyway the CBC will get the point and try and BUILD it's viewership?

Fluffy propaganda pieces mythologizing Trudeau are anaethema to many Canadians, i.e. anyone from a part of the country Trudeau never took the time for.

Just kinda irks me that tax money is going to support crappy 'broadcasting' like this.

[Bakunin]

Can we see him with his nazi clothing in the middle of the ww2 ? talk about a lack of judgment.. ...

[I Miss Trudeau]

Gee Kimmy, I didn't think you'd have such a problem with fact based media. Are you moving further to the right or something?

[Riverwind]

Can we see him with his nazi clothing in the middle of the ww2 ? talk about a lack of judgment.. ...

That was not Trudeau, that was Jean-Louis Roux Quebec's former lieutenant-governor. It is also a strange comment from someone who thinks snorting cocaine while a cabinet minister is a 'forgivable' error of youth.

[Bakunin]

Can we see him with his nazi clothing in the middle of the ww2 ? talk about a lack of judgment.. ...

That was not Trudeau, that was Jean-Louis Roux Quebec's former lieutenant-governor. It is also a strange comment from someone who thinks snorting cocaine while a cabinet minister is a 'forgivable' error of youth.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, both did, i think trudeau used to wear nazi stuff, a helmet or something on his bicycle during the WW2.

[I Miss Trudeau]

No, both did, i think trudeau used to wear nazi stuff, a helmet or something on his bicycle during the WW2.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I respectfully submit that if you're going to imply a nazi link or sympathy to someone, you'd better offer a little bit more than "I think...".

[Canuck E Stan]

CBC News Viewpoint | Feb 7, 2002 | Larry Zolf

All this defeat and shunning simply spurred on the Canadian jingo press and their Tory allies. They had a solution. Conscript every able-bodied man in the country and the Fuhrer would shake and quake in his boots.

Somehow the jingos missed Pierre Elliott Trudeau wearing a German helmet and riding around Montreal on a motorcycle. Nor did they know about the emotional rallies of la jeunesse canadienne-française led by Andre Laurendeau. Surprisingly, Laurendeau and Trudeau hated conscription more than they hated the fascism of Hitler.

[Bakunin]

touché

[Guest eureka]

Trudeau did ride around Montreal in a Nazi uniform once. It was a not very clever youthful prank and no political statement. His father, who was an "Anglophone, would have beaten him half to death had he meant it in any other way.

Trudeau's whole life has been spent in opposition to totalitarianism in any form.

And I say that who had no cause to love the man.

[Riverwind]

Somehow the jingos missed Pierre Elliott Trudeau wearing a German helmet and riding around Montreal on a motorcycle. Nor did they know about the emotional rallies of la jeunesse canadienne-française led by Andre Laurendeau. Surprisingly, Laurendeau and Trudeau hated conscription more than they hated the fascism of Hitler.

First: there is a difference between wearing a German helmet and wearing a swastika. I find it hard to believe that Trudeau would have enjoyed the support of the Jewish community in Montreal for all those years if he had done something like that. However, I believe Prince Harry did wear a swastika to a Halloween party recently which just goes to show that you cannot pass judgement on Trudeau unless you know the context.

Second, the author's attempt to paint opposition to conscription as support for Hitler is as illogical as Bush's attempt to paint opponents of the War in Iraq as terrorist sympathizers.

[Bakunin]

Trudeau's whole life has been spent in opposition to totalitarianism in any form.

What was his ideological friend again, the long beard one with a military suit he wear all day long. Fighting for libery i suppose...

Oh here it is what a nice family picture !

http://www.nscuba.org/Trudeau/bebe-2.jpg

[kimmy]

Gee Kimmy, I didn't think you'd have such a problem with fact based media. Are you moving further to the right or something?

What's that supposed to mean?

"Fact based media"? You're an educated guy, IMT. I'm sure you've come across plenty of editorials and documentaries and articles that were "fact based" that you found disagreeable or questionable or of dubious merit.

And you're aware that "Trudeau II" is not a documentary but a drama, right? I mean, it's "based on a true story," but the exact amount of merit that phrase has varies-- it can be said of "Mozart" and "Gandhi", but was also said of "The Mothman Prophecy," "The Last House on the Left," and "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre." In creating a drama based on actual events, the writers and directors edit and emphasize and create subtext. They are not merely recording events, they are interpretting them. It is a subjective exercise. I don't think one need be in the "far right" to recognize this.

Anybody else watch tonight's installment?

I wasn't even aware it was on.

Yup, that's the CBC we know and love.

The part where he heals the lepers was quite touching as well.

Quit changing channels all the time. You ended up watching Monty Python's Life Of Brian.

Well, I exaggerate, but only just barely. When young PET returns from his world tour, he tells his friend that while in Israel he'd been imprisoned in the same tower Jesus had once been held in. "You and Jesus, huh?" his friend says. "Me and Jesus," PET affirms. And you, the at home viewer, find yourself rolling your eyes and thinking oh man, I *hope* they're just being witty and poking fun at the man's later-day legendary ego. But they carry on with the analogy throughout Part 1. Pierre and his little band of apostles travel the Holy Land (or at least Quebec) spreading the Good News (his version, at least) and dealing with the Pharisees (or at least, the agents of the Duplessis government) while facing persecution from the Romans (or the Roman Catholic Church...) I had the feeling that the film-makers were deliberately trying to create this Christ-like paradigm.

I watched part 1 because I'd heard we were going to get something fresh and original. Instead, it seemed like just more of the same legend-building stuff we've always come to expect of any discussion of Trudeau. None of it particularly had much resonance to it, little of it "rang true" to me. It felt like more mythology. Perhaps Part 2 is better; I haven't watched it yet, though I have it on tape.

-k