4 — Wednesday, December 19, 1990 - North Shore News

anadians

should

be

proud of
Bethune flick

I'VE JUST seen Bethune:
The Making of a Hero. I
happen to think it is one of
the best Canadian flicks
ever.

In this opinion, I am at odds
with virtually ever reviewer in the
country, especially the chap who
ripped the movie to shreds for
The Globe & Mail. He called it
*“tumbering and constipated."”

I happen to have some
background familiarity with
Bethune, the movie, having spent
a certain amount of time in
Hollywood and Montreal, work-
ing ona script about a completely
different subject for Fiimline
Productions, the outfit that pro-
duced Bethune.

They didn’t produce my own
film, partially because the ongoing
drama of the production of
Bethune eventually consumed their
time and energy entirely. To say I
was ticked off at.this development
is to say the least.

At acost of $18 million,
Bethune ranks as the all-time most
expensive Canadian film — al-
though ‘“‘Canadian’’ is really too
strong a word, since it was a co-
production, involving funding
from France and China as well.

So, by rights, for personal
reasons, I should have loathed
Bethune, its production having
shoved mine aside, consigning it
to the vast wastepaper basket
where 98 per cen: of Hollywood
scripts end up anyway.

I went to the movik with a
totally negative mindset, not just
because | had hard feelings about
how it had jaterfered with my

win filmwriting career, but also
on the basis of af! the gossip I'd
heard and the reviews I’d seen.

The gossip and reviews both
agreed that the poor director was
so outraged with the editing that
he almost demand: d that his name
be removed fron: the credits. ‘8
the crunch, he did :10 such thing,
but he was apparently driven
nearly crazy by the behind-the-
scenes battles between superstar
Donald Sutherland and screen-
writer Ted Allan.

Having briefly worked with
Allan, and having met Sutherland,
I can imagine that the clash of
these two titanic Canadian wills
would have been awesome to
behold.

The movie has apparently
‘“bombed.”” By that, I mean it
was anything but a box office
success, It has been distributed so
far only in Canada, where, as I
say, the reviews were almost uni-
versally negative. Sutherland got
points for acting, but everything
else about the movie was savaged
by the paid hacks who do this sort
of dirty work for newspapers and
magazines.

The question of whether Dr.
Norman Bethune was a pigheaded
meddler or some sort of flawed
saint is, in a sense, beside the

STRICTLY PERSONAL

point. As Canadians abroad go,
he is undoubtably a bigger deal —
at least to the Chinese (of whom
there are a billion) — than anyone
else you can name, outside of the
entertainment business.

Historically, Bethune is our
Lawrence of Arabia. To knock
him because he backed a political
figure, Mao Tse-Tung, who turn-
ed out to be one of the worst
mass-murderers of all time, is to
indulge in the luxury of hindsight.

There is no doubt in my mind
that had he survived, Bethune
would have come to loathe
Chinese Communism

In his day, however, he was
fighting for an ideal, and like
most idealists, he was utterly blind
to the fact that he was helping to
pave the road to totalitarian hell.

But this much is certain: what
happened in Tiananmen Square
would have driven him mad with
fury. It was exactly the kind of
thing he was opposed to.

He was a Quixotic figure,
seriously flawed by alcoholism,
egotism and often uncontrolled
lust. .

Although | am certain that the
parts of the movie which point
out these less-charming aspects of
his personality will die on the cut-
ting room floor before the flick is
released in China, the fact that
they were included in the original
version is to the credit of pro-
ducers, director, writer and star.

Bethune moved me deeply. It
was a powerful, magnificent por-
trayal of a man — and a Cana-
dian, of all things! — struggling
to bring some harmony and love
into a chaotic, brutal world.

You know what I think killed
Bethune at the box office in
Canada? It was the Canadian
Syndrome. Namely, if something
is made in Canada, about a Ca-
nadian, it must be bad. We Ca-
nadians have a fetish about pull-
ing ourselves down.

To that extent, we ure neurotic
and stupid. Or at least our
reviewers are. Bethune: The Mak--
ing of a Hero is a tremendous
movie, and everyone involved in
making it is a hero too.

City Council salaries approved

NORTH VANCOUVER City
Council approved a bylaw Dec. 10
to raise the annual salaries of the
city’s mayor and six aldermen by
3.7 per cent for 1991.

City Mayor Jack Loucks will be
paid $41,605 next) year. with
$13,868 allowed for expenses in-
curred while performing his
duties. The city mayor's current

annual salary is $40,143.

Each of the city’s six aldermen,
meanwhile, will receive $12,482
for their work in the new year,
with an expense budget of $4,416
The current annual salary for city
aldermen is $12,034.

The total cost of the council
raise to city taxpayers will be ap-
proximately $155,331.

Local man credited with
saving WV woman’s life

NEWS photo Mike Wakelleld

LIFE SAVER Jason Black (left) recently received an award from
8.C, Ambulance paramedic Darrell Mussatto. Black has been
credited with saving the life of a West Vancouver woman who
suffered a heart attack.

‘he spirit | fo
anta...

A NORTH Shore man has
been credited with saving
the life of a West Van-
couver woman.

By Michael Becker

News Reporter

Jason Black, 20, took a St.
John Ambulance first-aid CPR
course in Jubs after the company
he works for offered the uaining
opportunity.

Black works for the men’s wear
department at Eaton's Park
Royal, His interest in mastering
CPR skills was a practical: con-
sideration.

“ft was put in the situation be-
fo.e without training, and I
thought that | didn’t want ta go
through that again: | didsi’t just
want to stand by. Someone had a
heart attack down in the mall
here, and | basically watched and
didn’t participate at all. 1 couldn't
even think about helping because |
didn’t know what to do,’’ Black
said.

He completed the training
course at the end of July. On
Sept. 14 his new-found knowledge
was called upon.

This time he knew what to do.

A 64-year-old West Vancouver
woman collapsed at Park Royal
after having a muffin and coffee.
A call for first-aid went out over
the Eaton’s public address system
and Black responded. The woman
had suffered a heart attack.

“Everything happens so quick,
it really does. You don’t have a
second. My mind was like just in
a state of confusion. It’s hard to
explain. You see this lady lying on

See CPR page §

COME IN AND SEE
OUR NEW
HOME DECOR CENTRE
FOR UNIQUE GIFTS

© Christmas arrangments

@ Poinsettias
Christmas Planters

© Live Trees
¢ Wreaths
* Ribbons & Bows

‘Caulfeild Village °

988-5959

FAX 988-6741

Do A Number On Your Garbage.

For infosmation on how, what and where to recycle
Or call toll free

1-800-667-4321

dn Greate Nancower call

RECYCLE

(732-9233)

925-4141

“FAX 925-0422

‘J

we Ragitas Sing?

British Columbia
Handlewith care

AMinniry af Fart teuneent
Hun John Revnanlds,