Home Video Hovel: Sacrifice
In our quest to continue expanding our reach here at Battleship Pretension, we’re going to start reviewing home video releases. In the future, hopefully, these will include big releases from some of everyone’s favorite DVD and Bluray companies. But we have to learn to walk before we can crawl so we start with a smaller, direct-to-market title. So, without any further apologies, we humbly present to you the first installment of our Home Video Hovel.I’ve been listening to friend-of-the-show Stephen Tobolowsky’s podcast, The Tobolowsky Files, since its first episode. As a result, I’ve heard many stories about the cheap movies cranked out in Canada, where tax breaks apparently render profitable filmmaking a foregone conclusion. I’d never seen any of these movies, though. I’ll admit to having been, and mostly still being, the kind of film snob who dismisses direct-to-market films almost as a rule (my experiences working in a video store do give me the knowledge that “direct-to-market” is the correct term, at least).So it turns out that the kind of movies that come out of the b-movie factory that is our neighbor to the North are mindless genre exercises with a couple of recognizable faces to put on the cover and help move units. At least, if Damian Lee’s Sacrifice is any indication, that is certainly the case.Sacrifice features Cuba Gooding, Jr. as a Toronto detective named John whose most recent assignment was a deep cover mission that brought down a crime family but led to the murder of his wife and daughter. This is relayed to us via a sound montage of things John is remembering people say. You could be forgiven, at this point in the film, for assuming Canadians have no facility with the word “fuck” but it’s actually just the result of bad acting.This is representative of all the main problems with the film. Assuming, it seems, that its audience is only interested in the scenes of action or badassery, it cuts every corner it can. It’s never even clear what kind of a detective John is supposed to be. Narcotics? Murder? Apparently, his job consists of sitting around his house drinking and then getting a phone call when anything vaguely crime-y happens. Then he magically appears wherever the bad guys are, never having to actually track them down, and shoots as many of them as he can. I suppose the duty of paperwork falls to his partner because at this point, he usually goes home and starts drinking again.The plot concerns a young drug dealer attempting to steal some money from the gang he works for in order to leave the life of crime and take care of his little sister. It doesn’t take a film degree (which I do possess, by the way) to figure out that this kid’s desire to care for his family is supposed to reflect John’s inability to protect his own. There are zero surprises in the way the tale plays out. Lots and lots of people get killed (and the crime scenes left without a thought; maybe they don’t have CSI in Toronto yet). John finds a new reason to live. Oh and Christian Slater plays a priest because crime movies are more meaningful when you add Catholicism.Predictability alone wouldn’t be enough to sink a movie. Plenty of good movies are predictable. Sacrifice, however, is photographed and assembled as if it were all shot second unit and editing by a first year film student. It does seem like the filmmakers meant well. There is a bit of a public service message element about how America’s drug problem is supplied by neighboring countries. And Gooding, Jr. is respectably committed to his role. He has outgrown the boyishness that was a part of his fame and now has an interesting, worn face that suggests a life has been lived.Canada has many things to be proud of. Legal same-sex marriage, maple syrup, Wayne Fucking Gretzky. But movies like Sacrifice aren’t the kind of thing you can be known for. Don’t think for a second the country of origin can be forgotten, either. This movie contains a scene in which Cuba Gooding, Jr. dons a pair of skates and beats up a bad guy on a hockey rink.
This film is not representative of Canadian culture nor is it representative of Canadian cinema, as it only represents a tiny portion of the films that are made here. Well, maybe slightly larger than tiny but still, this type of film is also commonly made in certain states in the US as well.
Those tax breaks are ones that allowed for filmmakers like Cronenberg and Egoyan to make the great pictures that made them famous. You say you have not seen one of these films, yet it was Cronenberg’s masterpiece VIDEODROME that was financed in hopes of tricking audiences into thinking it was an American production.
Canadian cinema has many faults, in fact our industry is entirely broken outside of Quebec. However, do no think that these Direct-To-DVD films are representative of our cinema when Canadian filmmakers have created some of the worlds best films.
Daniel, I agree with you completely. My intention in the review was to point out that it’s a shame that Canada is becoming known for these kinds of movies. I guess I got a little carried away in mocking the fact that Cuba Gooding, Jr. actually puts on ice skates for the specific purpose of taking down a bad guy on a hockey rink. Damn, there I go again.
I’ve long adored the work of Egoyan and Cronenberg, as well as Guy Maddin and Denys Arcand. Canada also provided the main two reasons comedy nerds like me exist: SCTV and Kids in the Hall. Not to mention, I love hockey.
So I’m sorry for offending you and your countrymen. Even if the city of Vancouver is apparently filled with hooligans.