Action: The October Crisis of 1970

The beginning is very confusing. The first, about, 15 minutes was a lot of riot footage from different riots, and it was rather difficult to follow the transitions as the whole timeline was laid out with the necessary background information on the actual event. It was about a half hour into the movie that I finally understood what the Crisis in question was, although I question it being called the October crisis as the one kidnapping victim was missing for about 2 months and the other acts of terrorism went on for months before that. So perhaps I still missed that detail. For the most part the video made sense and could be followed, but there were some transitions - especially at the beginning - that I had to stop and go back and was maybe still a little confused about the timeline. Overall, I gathered that this video was covering a very messy time in Quebec and Canadian history, so it is not surprising that there was a lot to cover and not a great way to go about it. I get also get the sense that it would be more impactful if you could at least read, if not speak, French as well as English. That is likely true for most stories or anything with Quebec though. This video is entirely worth watching if you have any interest in Quebec or all of Canadian History. I have said a couple times that it was a little hard to follow, but I am confident I understood the majority of it, and the main points are shocking to someone with, mostly, only a stereotype understanding of Canada. It is saddening, but also humbling in a way. In a way I feel that it offered an unfortunately relatable view of Canadian politics. Like the idea that Canada could have such acts of pure terrorism inflicted on them by their own citizens makes it seem like Canada has more in common with the rest of the world. Which is unfortunate since in some ways I viewed them as a better than that before, but a country is made up of individuals who always come in a spectrum.

After watching this film, I would rate it a five out of ten. It was rather drawn out in my opinion and the film itself was very hard to watch in my opinion. While this is an informative film and discussed a very important topic in Canadian history that is not very well known, it could have been produced in a better way that is easier to watch. The narrator of the film had a very boring voice which made it hard to pay attention to the movie. There are clips of interviews that are included in the movie that are very informative and necessary in relation to the events and history covered, however they seemed a bit long to me. Before watching this movie, I was not aware of this event in Canadian history and had the impression most people have of Canada which is that they are a peaceful country that is not very violent. This film changed my opinion on Canada just being a peaceful country due to the violence that happened during this time. The film is about the events that took place in Quebec during 1970. During this time the English were slowly taking over and the people of Quebec, who are mainly French, did not like this and wanted to continue to keep French culture a part of their lives. Instead of going about this peacefully, the separatists and terrorist group, FLQ, rioted, blew things up, kidnapped, and killed police officers. The film includes actual footage of the riots which was a nice addition because it adds some perspective on how angry the people really were. With all this being said, this is a very informative film but is just hard to pay attention to in my opinion. I would recommend this to anyone who has a serious interest in Canadian history since this is not something that I would choose to just sit down and watch.

Action: The October Crisis of 1970 succeeded in some things, but failed in others. Overall, the film was incredibly informative and well written. The overall structure of the documentary suited the topic. When discussing the historical events surrounding the terror attacks in 1970, they carefully explain the details leading up to the government cracking down on radical groups. While this is tedious at times, it gets most of the ideas across regarding the severity of the terror attacks and the political upheaval happening in Canada in 1970. While the documentary does an incredible job at relaying the details of these historical events, most of the time is spent with a monotone, drawl narration. This narration, while informative, is incredibly hard to listen to. If the narration had been slightly more enthusiastic or engaged, the information would be much easier to process. The closest thing the narration could be related to is a college lecture of 300 students with a bland professor; while the content might be interesting, a wide audience will not be intrigued by what is being presented. Overall, when looking at this documentary for information, it should receive a 10 out of 10. When factoring in the narration and droning nature that it has, the documentary should get a 6 out of 10. Yes, the documentary is good, but it becomes incredibly boring after the first 10 minutes simply because of the narration.

This is an interesting video about the FLQ Crisis in Quebec. I liked the depth of the whole video, starting from the real beginning of the crisis, because it really set the stage for what the Crisis was about. In some ways, I think what happened in Quebec was inevitable, since the loss of the region by the French to the British. The first British rulers of the region tried to accommodate the French with laws such as the Quebec Act, but in the end, the French-Canadiens would never truly belong to the expanding British Empire. This would result in under-representation in the government, which in turn would reduce awareness for the complaints that the French in Quebec would raise against the government in the 1960s. The FLQ was a militant offshoot of these protesters with reasonable demands or representation and equality. I liked how the video included the full reading of the FLQ manifesto on Canadian news, because it helped really show what the views of the organization were. I found it interesting how the video mentions that after the manifesto was read on the news, many people sympathized with the goal of the FLQ, even though they didn't necessarily agree with their methods.

My biggest complaint about the video is the narrator. I don't know if he was talking that way to increase suspense, or if that was just how he did the narration, but it was extremely dry and boring. I'm not sure if it was just the audio quality from footage that was recorded over 50 years ago, but there some parts where the sound design seems fake. There are a few parts where it seems like someone in a sound studio dubbed over the video from the time-period with sound effects like whistles or car crashes.

Overall I would rate this video a 6.5/10 (7/10 if the sound design isn't faked in some places).

This film provided a wealth of interesting footage from the historical events leading up to and during the October crisis. It was really neat to be able to see the strike breakers come to blows with strikers. I was also surprised to see just how much footage there was of police officers exhibiting some questionable treatment towards the Quebecois protestors. The film also provided a great deal of speeches from the crisis including those of Trudeau, Bourassa and the full broadcast of the FLQ manifesto. I found the footage of the manifesto to be the most interesting part of the film and the October crisis in general. The idea of reading a terror group's work on national television is an event that would signal the end of days to many if it happened in the United States and yet is it presented here as a simply fact, and a relatively small one compared to the other events going on at the time. René Lévesque's comments on Laporte's death were also quite interesting, it was strange to see the contrast of how he acted before and during his press interview, he really exhibited a side of politicians rarely seen. I did feel that the film had a tendency to let a few scenes run unnecessarily long and that the narration could have been greatly improved. The music used had little impact, especially compared to the primary audio of speeches and protests. The editing also seems like it could be improved as there were a few transitions that were so abrupt I though I accidently skipped ahead. I liked that the film went into some of the details of the opposition to the War Measures Act, I felt like this was not discussed enough in the text. Overall the film provided an interesting look at the October crisis filled with great historical footage. Some of the technical aspects could be improved and some scenes could be cut down. I'd give this film a 6/10.