Although most great directors concentrate on the visual aspect of motion film and use music as background noise, if used at all, there is much more to film than the visual aspect. The visual textures do make up most of the film, whether it be camera angles, colors, etc. But since the early 1900's film has been made with sound, so there is that angle as well.
In this movie, Donald Shebib plays with all sorts of textures: the color, the visual, the audio, etc. The music is used in the foreground in places while the movie shows the story instead of constantly dragging it on and telling it. I also find that the soundtrack in a movie can sometimes ruin it by interrupting what the director sets up, but in this film it belongs.
Of course, this just happens in some points of the movie, which is what makes it unique for the time. The rest of the movie involves a great story superbly acted out. My main point is the irony of this movie as the "great Canadian Classic" in that Donald Shebib included the music score purposely to link the parts of the movie. I am reminded that in the sixties and up to the point of this movie, Canada had a poor music industry. Besides a few bands such as the Guess Who and Bruce Cochburn, radio stations would say they were "reaching into the beaver bin for some droppings" whenever they were forced to play a song from a Canadian band by Ottawa to promote the industry. Our film industry was just as poor. However, because of Ottawa pushing to promote our music industry we now have great bands like The Tragically Hip, The Headstones, Great Big Sea, so on and so forth, and the world recognizes them. However, look at our film industry: does the world recognize Guy Maddin? Does the whole country anticipate a new movie from Cronenberg or Egoyen? Does Bruce MacDonald get much recognition south of the border? And this is the Great Canadian Classic, how many people do you know that has seen it? This is a movie worth seeing by people of any country. But if only our film industry was supported like the music industry was, we could make movies even better than this.
In this movie, Donald Shebib plays with all sorts of textures: the color, the visual, the audio, etc. The music is used in the foreground in places while the movie shows the story instead of constantly dragging it on and telling it. I also find that the soundtrack in a movie can sometimes ruin it by interrupting what the director sets up, but in this film it belongs.
Of course, this just happens in some points of the movie, which is what makes it unique for the time. The rest of the movie involves a great story superbly acted out. My main point is the irony of this movie as the "great Canadian Classic" in that Donald Shebib included the music score purposely to link the parts of the movie. I am reminded that in the sixties and up to the point of this movie, Canada had a poor music industry. Besides a few bands such as the Guess Who and Bruce Cochburn, radio stations would say they were "reaching into the beaver bin for some droppings" whenever they were forced to play a song from a Canadian band by Ottawa to promote the industry. Our film industry was just as poor. However, because of Ottawa pushing to promote our music industry we now have great bands like The Tragically Hip, The Headstones, Great Big Sea, so on and so forth, and the world recognizes them. However, look at our film industry: does the world recognize Guy Maddin? Does the whole country anticipate a new movie from Cronenberg or Egoyen? Does Bruce MacDonald get much recognition south of the border? And this is the Great Canadian Classic, how many people do you know that has seen it? This is a movie worth seeing by people of any country. But if only our film industry was supported like the music industry was, we could make movies even better than this.