User Reviews

This movie does a good job at analyzing a transitional time in Canadian politics where opinions differ across the nation. Before watching this, I had never heard of the October Crisis so I didn't know what to expect. My first impression was that the narrator was very plain. This movie is basically an audio book with moving images. Angry Separatists, consisting mostly of French Canadians had an issue with the Queen coming to Canada. They viewed this visit as a symbol of English dominance and didn't want to accept this. The documentary includes striking images of revolt in Canada which to an American, is something unheard of. The movie does a good job of displaying a time in Quebec where opinions of the people differ. During this time, Separatism is on the rise in Canada's government. Tensions between workers and capitalists lead to attacks by the FLQ. The French minority was seeking to preserve a strong French Canada while facing impending threats to the French language from immigrants who would rather be able to choose which language they speak versus being forced to learn French. The October Crisis itself consists of the kidnapping of Mr. Cross, a representative. At the same time a manifesto was released by the FLQ with a description regarding their position and why they have done what they have. . For being made in 1970, this movie does a good job at explaining a wild story in Canadian politics. A combination of news releases and press conferences are used to display this story. The Parti Quebecois took extreme measures in response to the Liberal victory in Canadian Government. The manifesto reaches to Canadians to rise up and fight against capitalists they mark as corrupt. Again, this movie speaks on a topic I had no prior knowledge on and did a good job at enlightening me on such a wild time in Canada.

Action: The October Crisis starts by quickly painting a picture that Quebec sees itself as more forming alongside and within Canada rather than as a part of Canada. That one day this will lead to controversy. The change from color picture to black and white dates the film to be at a time when color film was already popular quickly before changing to a past time period in which the black and white picture comes in symbolizing past and present. The narrator starts out dull and sounds tired or something, this is not due to accent. Also, it makes me start to feel tired around 4 minutes in. Not saying I would do any better, probably worse. This is quickly turned around by way of shouting rioters. The narrators voice begins to have more passion it seems, definitely more emotion. This is hard not to do as now he is talking about the violence and bombings in connection with the people of Quebec being discriminated against and separatism being born. The use of real clips throughout is a nice touch and makes you feel a bit like you are living the events in rapid time travel. At the political level most believe Quebec should remain part of Canada, the workers and people of Quebec just want to be treated fairly. The FLQ are a major theme standing against the Canadian system and for the separation of Quebec from Canada, which inspired a declaration of war against them. For some time the narrators voice has been dull and tiring again. This is offset by the clips of various political leaders taking over the audio and waking the senses. The change to color tells us we are now in the late 60s early 70s more than likely. The documentary continues talking and showing clips about the acts and beliefs of and against the FLQ with news clips of peoples beliefs. Overall this was a great documentary and great video quality for 1974. The narration was what you would expect for a wildlife documentary of the time though. But very interesting content.

I give this film an 8 out of 10. The film FLQ October Crisis 1970 is a film that talks about the terrorist attacks that by the FLQ who have killed a lot of people for the sake of revolution. The FLQ manage to kidnap James Cross and they also managed to kill Pierre Laporte which was all over the news of his body being found in a car. These actions were the start of their downfall because they really got the government to take the issue more serious than they already were. The death of Laporte happened right before he became the minister of Quebec the film captures the sad moment of the funeral of Laporte and the people that were there to see his funeral. The action that the FLQ committed against the county is something that will be written in history as one of the most horrific moments in Canada and it had a negative impact and brought the people together to stop the FLQ.

The film was good at delivering the information about the event that occurred in 1970 by the FLQ and the impact those actions had on the country. I was able to learn about the event of the kidnapping of James Cross and Pierre Laporte and how the body of Laporte was found in abandoned care that was used in his kidnapping. The film does a great job of showing all of the issues that the attacks are done by the FLQ brought in which the people of Canada were divided into two sides. The smaller groups did not agree on the bill that the government was going to pass, and the rest of the nation was behind the Prime minister and the actions that he was going to take against the FLQ. The film also does a good job of capturing the emotions of the people they were at the funeral of Laporte and the emotions of the politicians that were saddened of the news of the events that occurred. This is why I gave this film an 8 out of 10 rating.

The movie starts out establishing what Quebec was against what the British was imposing during Trudeau's time as Prime Minster. During this time, as shown in the film, the streets and cities in Montreal and other cities in Quebec were not shy to riots and eventually bombing towards British rule. The idea of Quebec leaving British rule and Canada was lead by Separatists. As stated 80% of the country still spoke French as their main language and were not fond of learning English or conforming to British rule. Separatism leads to the creation of the Parti Quebecois which goes on the be the main party wanting Quebec to have sovereignty. As tensions lead on, an English politician James Cross was kidnapped by people of Quebec and held ransom. From here the show does a great job managing the story of both sides action by action through out the film. Much of the film carries a lot of tension and questions on and off what could have happened if other events occurred. I believe that the topic is an important one in Canadian history and has in recent decades extreme importance to current affairs in Canada. Much of the film was live footage of the time, and shows the raw emotion the Quebec protesters had to fight back, combined with the strict and strong ideals of Trudeau to force Quebec to submit. Also much of the story is told through radio messages that were played at the time to the respective peoples of either French or British. The tone of the show is always rather serious, which helps keep your interest of the story real, even though its old history that we now how it ended. Overall, I enjoyed the way in which the both sides were presented and covered as unbiased as possible, I learned a whole lot and can relate what I learned to many situations today

In the 1970s, there was a lot of contention over the continuance of the English influence in Quebec. It started with basic protest and anger, but progressed to terrorist acts and bombings by the FLQ. There were protests from the separatists when the Queen came to visit, quashed in dubious fashion by the police. Separatists leaders were later arrested, but with a visit from a French General, the separatists gain new hope. René Lévesque, a major player in the Liberal party, left the liberal party for a new separatist party. PM Trudeau, a Quebec native, is labeled a traitor and attacked when he visits. Two major separatist leaders create the Parti Quebques, a credible Quebecois party with national influence. Many workers go on strike because of their pay difference between them and their English counterparts. When the police go on strike, Quebec goes into chaos, and many buildings are destroyed, people are killed, and there are major riots. The largest demand was for the equality of rights for the French minority. The English in Quebec had many rights, but the French elsewhere dealt with many problems.Later, the FLQ took a British citizen Mr. Cross hostage, and make many separatist demands. They had to publish a FLQ manifesto, which demanded independence and success of the Quebec, free from English influence. Another Quebec representative Pierre Laporte is taken hostage, and Ottawa implements a War Measures act calling in the Canadian army, and many FLQ members and supporters are imprisoned. Quebec basically shuts down while people protest. After the bodies of the kidnapped Laporte was found, Lévesque denounces the kidnappers telling them that they have put a blot on Quebec they had to fix. The Unions of Quebec and people want the War Measures Act to end before an upcoming election, but the government will not give in to the demands of "terrorists." Eventually, Quebec is sick of the War Measures act, but Cross is found which allows for the rights to be given back.This is a very interesting story, but there are moments that drag on for a long time. 9/10.

When you think of Canada you think of its vast wildlife, free healthcare, and maple syrup. What you don.t think of is the conflicts that had happened in the Provence of Quebec where the french in Quebec did not feel that they were being treated equal and had equal rights. From class I knew that the french in Quebec were not happy with the Canadian government due to unequal rights but i never knew they would take it as far as they did. What started out as marches and riots which is not a very extreme reaction but then soon escalated to hundreds of bombings all across Quebec killing multiple innocent people. The next step was the real October crisis of 1970, where members of the FLQ kidnapped Pierre Laporte and James Cross and sent a set of demands to the Canadian government which they did not give to them. The Canadian Prime Minister at the time was Pierre Trudeau who activated the War Measures Act which essentially allowed police and Canadian army troops to search any property without warrant and put people in jail for 90 days for no reason. After this Pierre Laporte was found dead and then 2 days later the kidnappers and James Cross were found where the kidnappers were allowed to take a flight to Cuba for exchange with James Cross which essentially ended the main conflict. Throughout the video they also cover other various events that relate to the reactions of the french and the FLQ.This is a very eye opening video that shows the extremism of the french Canadians in Quebec and their struggles while trying to obtain equal rights/independence. I would recommend this video to anyone who is learning about Canadian politics or Canadian history.

This film proved to me several points and gave me some different views about Canada, but the one thing that sticks out the most is: Do not anger the French Canadians. There was so much rioting and pain in this film. The people of Quebec were tired of the government and wanted to stand on their own feet. Extreme measures were taken. Bombs, kidnapping, riots, gunshots, and murder, the streets of Quebec were not safe. The 1960s and 1970s were stressed in Canada as the people of Quebec were becoming more agitated with English Canadians. A group known as the FLQ kidnapped some political leaders in the hopes to stir some chaos so that the government could be exposed. The exposure was to be used to exploit the governments flaws. The actions taken during that time were so insane. People broke into buildings and the police would fight back. The government arrested many people in hopes to calm the streets. The FLQ and the extremists pulled some stunts that I honestly thought were only exaggerations in movies, but some were able to pull off a full kidnapping, ransom, and escape to Cuba. As ethically wrong as that is, I am impressed that they pulled it off. I thought for sure they would have been caught. The movie was put together well and held plenty of information. I thought it was interesting how the church was referenced throughout the movie, and I thought that it was cool to see a Notre Dame moment, especially since the building recently burned down. Overall, I would give this movie an 8 out of 10 stars. It was intriguing, but I wanted more information and subtitles. I would recommend this to a friend if they wanted to hear anything interesting about Canada. I very much enjoyed it.

Overall I rate this movie a 7/10, and I feel that might be a bit generous. First, I'll start with the positives of the documentary. The information given in the movie is well laid out and given in a logical, sequential order. There are a lot of videos of events at the time such as interviews and protests. These videos make the documentary very interesting, unlike other documentaries that like to paste still images on the screen and hold them there for five minutes at a time. Seeing the action and strife that struck Canada throughout this crisis was very engaging and made the documentary worthwhile to watch. However, this was offset by the issues of this documentary. I have had to watch several documentaries throughout my education, but this one takes the cake on having the most monotone narrator I have heard so far. This narration had the emotional range of Kristen Stewart at best. There could be people dying and the narrator would have no inflection in his voice whatsoever. One could see this as being completely unbiased to the events of history and reading the facts as is, but I see this as an effective method of putting people to sleep. I have never heard a more boring way of talking about terrorism in Canada. How do you make something like this boring? I had no idea that such crazy events took place in Canada! Terrorism, kidnappings, murder, protesting, and so much tension in such a short span of time! It baffles me why they had such a dull narration for something that deserved more energy. The documentary was incredibly informative but fell short of greatness due to a monotone narrator who was either phoning it in, or was too busy to do more than one take.

I believe the documentary on the October Crisis of 1970 by the National Film Board of Canada is an 8 out of 10. It is very informative and filled with interesting facts but a little slow. I found the documentary tends to drag when talking about the FLQ and their role in the Quebec separatist movement. To me it seems to overemphasize their importance. I had always known that people living in Quebec have held on to their French identity and are not a fan of the English-speaking tourists but did not know they felt the same about fellow Canadians. It was a shock to learn that some of the Quebecois that joined the separatist movement turned to violence. This reminds me of the civil rights movement in the United States with the violence that was happening and the time frame of events. The documentary starts with explaining why the separatist movement gained momentum in Quebec and that's due to the English getting preferential treatment in things like jobs, government positions and controlling the money. The queens name being put on a government hotel and the English control of the communications networks were also reason to why the Quebec citizens felt they were under represented and not equally represented in Canada. The lack of government involvement in listening to the separatists surprised me, there were many indications they could be a problem as when the miners were on strike, but the government ignored them making it worse. This led to the FLQ which became violent extremists who bombed many government and buildings throughout Quebec causing six people to die over seven years. When Charles de Gaulle visited was very surprising because after two world wars I thought France and Canada/Britain were allies but he riled the Quebecois into higher aggression. The FLQ even went so far to kidnap two government officials so their views could be seen and accepted. This led to one of them dying and the government finally taking action. Finally, at the end I was confused because the film did not explain why the extremists were deported to Cuba when caught.

Overall, I would give this film a rating of 6 out of 10. When taken into account that this was produced in 1974, the film is overall very well made. There were smooth transitions between all of the topics and there was a chronological timeline for everything which was very helpful for a full understanding of what was actually happening. It was also helpful for how everything over time was connected. This film depicts a significant amount of conflict in Quebec that was caused by the English impact. This tension lead to a lot of retaliations such as bombings and kidnappings throughout Quebec. These attacks were executed by the FLQ. This film is demonstrating the impacts that the FLQ had in Quebec. The FLQ was a terrorist group that was targeting the province of Quebec. This film accurately explains the significance of these attacks of the FLQ and how these events impacted the future of Canada and influenced the amount of English influence in Quebec. The attacks from the FLQ caused internal wars between Quebec and Ottawa with the intentions of maintaining control over the terrorism. There were many moments in this film where there were scenes of interviews of government members speaking about the events that were occurring that were much too long. As important as these scenes were, being that they contained very important information regarding the events, it was difficult to maintain focus on the film as a viewer being that there was such a large amount of information being shared. Overall, this film was difficult to follow, despite the fact that all of the needed information was given. It was convenient that all of the information was shared over a chronological style, however, there was a lot of information that was not connected until later in the film which made it difficult to remember the needed information to make connections. As a whole, the film was well made for the given time with only minor flaws such as containing too much information at improper times of the film and lacking true demonstration of how truly dire this situation was for Quebec.

Prior to watching this film I only had a small amount of knowledge on the drama that took place in Canada between Quebec and the rest of Canada. I had always known that Quebec had a desire to be its own country with a unique culture and language, but I did not know the lengths that some of the Quebec separatists went to to achieve this goal. This film overall I would get a 7.2/10. This documentary has great clips of key people from the time, such as Laporte, Trudeau, and Cross. However, some of the clips shown are brought in with little context to what they are discussing or public speaking about and make the clip slightly confusing. On the other hand, this film provides lots of insight onto how Canada handled the beginning of Quebec nationalist movement. Coming out of WW2 rural Quebec began to rapidly industrialize which led to growing pains in Quebec. Eventually the FLQ is formed and they begin bombing the province of Quebec. A terrorist organization, the FLQ had a manifesto that believed in and acted on. This led to the kidnappings of Laporte and Cross. These kidnappings were used as blackmail against the Canadian government which the Canadian government did not obliged too. The Canadian government made it very clear that emotions would be kept separate from business during these times. At the same time, the Canadian government enacted the war measures act was in play even though Canada was at peace time. This allowed the government and police to arrest anyone they believe to be tied to the FLQ and be held for 90 days no bail. This is one of the reasons the FLQ kidnapped Cross and Laporte, because when Laportes kidnappers were caught they asked for everyone held under the war measures act to be released on bail. Overall I found to film to be very slow, yet extremely informative. This film explains how Quebec developed into what it is today and explains how some Quebec citizens feel today as I have seen FLQ graffiti in Quebec.

All in all, considering when it was made, I don't think this is a particularly bad film. The film is a documentary that details its namesake, the 1970 October Crisis, and the events leading up to it. Namely, the October Crisis involved a group of French-Canadian terrorists, the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ), kidnapping a British diplomat and the provincial Deputy Premier of Quebec, later assassinating the latter. In response to the kidnappings, the War Measures Act was invoked during peacetime for the first time in Canadian history. The documentary covers this topic very thoroughly and is very informative. It utilizes a lot of footage from the time which, for the most part, is pretty effective. The footage is relatively good quality (given it was filmed in the '60s and '70s) and clips are appropriately synchronized with the narration. The narrator is a bit difficult to understand at times, but he maintains a very serious tone throughout the film. While this does come off as a bit monotonous, I feel it fits the rather grim subject of the film. The monotony of it does take away from the suspense of the events at some points, but I don't think that is necessarily a bad thing for a documentary. It is supposed to be informative, moreso than emotional. Over all, the film is relatively easy to follow. It does drag on at some points, especially during the first half or so, but it picks up after that. However, despite my praises, I do have a few gripes with the film. First and foremost, the use of interview footage. The film utilizes a lot of clips from interviews, mainly with politicians. These clips are certainly relevant and they offer some key insights into the different viewpoints, but I feel that the film relies too heavily on them. There are sections of the film where you are subjected to just a barrage of these interviews back-to-back and it starts to get super repetitive and boring. In addition, many of these clips are pretty lengthy, and feel like they go on for a bit too long. During some of the clips I found myself thinking something along the lines of 'alright, alright, we get the point'. Again, these clips are relevant and informative, but I think the film would be better off if some of them were cut out, or at the very least, shortened. All in all, I don't think this is a bad film, especially considering it was created in the 1970s. That being said, it definitely has its shortcomings and I wouldn't go so far as to call it 'great'.

Overall, on a scale from 1 to 10, I would rate "Action: The October Crisis of 1970" a 6.5. Perhaps one of the greatest limiting factors in this film is the monotone nature of the narrator which lacks enthusiasm; giving the audience less of a reason to continue following along. While the narration is crucial to this historically charged film, and many different translation voices necessary, it could be improved by having a different perspective in this regard. One of the draws to this production is the amount of footage and actual historical figures captured live (in news reports and interviews); aiding in the realism to modern viewers, giving a sense of "this really happened not too long ago and still exists to some extent today". Personally, I was not aware of all the riots, beatings, bombings, and killings that occurred because of the tension between the Canadian government and the people of Quebec. These events were rather eyeopening, especially with the rather well-known stereotype of Canadians (the northern neighbors to the United States) being more of a peace-keeping group than a violent one. Knowing only some of the basic events and background on Quebec/Canada, the beginning helped to paint a picture of how Quebec wants to be more alongside Canada than combined with Canada due to a number of factors (including various rights, language, education, religion, and politics). Among the tension between the Canadian government and Quebec, the FLQ (the separatist group responsible for a number of attacks) kidnapped (and later killed) the Minister of Labor, Pierre Laporte, (and James Cross before Laporte) and kept prior demands for the government to uphold in exchange. Prime Minister Trudeau's response to the kidnapping was to not give in to demands, but rather order all FLQ associated people to jail (War Measures Act) with the possibility (probability) of staying there for 90 days without bail or trial (with the potential for 5 years in prison if found guilty). The situation got to the point of the Canadian government called for army troops from Ottawa to enforce safety and help the local police forces search for other members. Overall, this film does an adequate job conveying the historical information by using a plethora of film from the events, but could use a refresh with new narration and voiceovers for translations.

The film 'FLQ Crisis of 1970' was produced by the Canadian National Film Board. The film highlights the long standing riff in social dynamics of Quebec. Following a chronological series of events, the film tells the story of the buildup and conclusion to the FLQ kidnapping of James Cross, and Pierre LaPorte. It is demonstrated that there has been a long history of dispute between Anglophones and Francophones in Canada. As Quebec had an influx of liberal policies and leaders, traditional Francophones began to express discontent. After police clash with Quebec revolutionaries, there begins to be a formal disagreement between liberal leaders and those who support Quebec liberation. As Quebec cession becomes a widespread idea, the clashes begin to intensify. Parties leading the charge for the liberation of Quebec include Union Nationale and later the Front de Liberation du Quebec (FLQ). It was the later FLQ that eventually kidnapped James Cross, and then Pierre LaPorte. FLQ chose these two individuals as they were instrumental proponents of liberal policies. While the FLQ held these two hostages, they used their publicity to display their ideals. These ideals include strong 'nationalism' for the French state of Quebec and demolition of an English identity. Rooted at the heart of their arguments, the FLQ preached many socialists idealized that revolved around the revolt against their English leaders. After the kidnappings, the Canadian government used harsh tactics to seek out the hostages. Evoking war time laws, the Canadian government searched the homes of thousands of French-Canadians. They also imprisoned many that had potential relations to the FLQ. These actions drew civil liberty questions, further splitting the divide between French and English Canada. After the FLQ killed Pierre LaPorte, authorities were able to narrow their search for the FLQ kidnappers. New knowledge lead to the eventual finding of the kidnappers and James Cross. Negotiating with the police, the kidnappers were able to settle for lives in Cuba in return for a healthy Cross. This film gives a details description of all these events, and highlights the emotions of all those who are involved. Despite not being Canadian, I found this film particularly interesting given the current American political climate. Though not this volatile I could foresee

I give this movie a 5.5/10. As it was very informative with information about the October crisis and the struggles that had happened, it was very boring to watch. The narrator was very monotone throughout the whole entire movie and it was hard to keep interested in it. The movie needs better dialogue and a way to brighten the whole thing up to engage viewers more in it. I thought that the movie was specifically on the October Crisis but it gave a lot of information before actually getting into what had happened. Like how the separatists movement gained popularity with the Federal governments spending of Quebec tax, the imposition of the Queens name on a government hotel in Montreal, and the federal presence in Quebec communications. They mentioned how French is language of 80% of Quebec population, and how they were looking for Quebec to become independent French nation. I believe these are all key points, I just don't see what it has to do with the crisis. I think the movie gets important when in 1963 the extremists turned to violence and that is when the FLQ formed. Since the October crisis involved the FLQ, that should be the most focused point in the movie. The FLQ had kidnapped James Cross and threatened to kill him unless the government released 23 prison inmates and wanted their manifesto to be read on national television. At this part in the movie is where it got super boring since it was someone reading basically an essay to people which isn't the most exciting to watch. They then went on to kidnap Pierre Laporte and assassinated him, and essentially that's when activities of the FLQ started to fade out. Cross was released and the FLQ ceased activities in 1971. As I mentioned before, the movie was informative on the crisis because it was an important chunk to Canada's history with dealing with radicals, terrorist attacks, bombings and kidnappings. I feel like it isn't the most interesting movie to watch though.

Action: The October Crisis is a decent documentary. It provides good information and video footage from the whole ordeal, and does a good job explaining how the October crisis started. I was not aware that there was so much violence and protesting in the beginning of the crisis, so the footage and information regarding that was very valuable to me. Personally, I think that the separatists went a little far when protesting against the English-Canadians. The FLQ was a toxic organization, and definitely went too far when it came to protesting, especially with the bombings. Conduction bombings turned the FLQ from protestors to extremists. In my eyes, the FLQ was right to protest, as they were definitely not treated fairly within Canada. Unfortunately, they turned to violence to try and solve their problems, which hurt their cause more than it helped it. Another unfortunate part of the documentary is the overall quality of the film. The only footage shown is choppy and scratchy video. The narrator was also awful. He had a monotone voice that droned on and on, with no emotion or interest at all. Overall, the film had good content that helped explain the reasoning behind the October Crisis, but the presentation of this material was lackluster.