Customer Reviews

Riel

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This film is about an important figure in Canadian history, a biracial man named Louis Riel. Gregory Schofield, in his autobiography, wrote about how Riel's life helped him to come to terms with his ethnic identities. I was soooo hoping to like this film, but it didn't happen.

This is a work by Canadians, about Canadians (remember to pronounce "about" the way they do), and on Canadians. I couldn't relate to much of it. Further, in US productions that deal with racial conflict, visually the warring factions are clearly dissimilar to each other. In the US, we wouldn't say "Native American and biracial," but in Canada, I think 1st Nations members are often differentiated from biracial metis. So you don't see white and red fighting. The two groups pretty much look like each other. It's their accents and dress that is the divider. If you didn't hear the word "Metis" among the lines, you would think this was about English speakers fighting with Francophones only. Things just didn't "read" to my US eyes. See Vin Diesel's indie film on that topic, btw.)

The film is all old and grainy. The sound isn't that good. Maybe I just had a bad copy, but viewers spoiled by the crisp images we see nowadays will be frustrated here. Yes, William Shanter/Cpt. Kirk is here. However, he just drops by for a line or two. I think I did hear he was Canadian and maybe he was just fiendin' to be a part of this work. Still, I can only see hard hard hardcore Trekkies seeing this film just to see him.