Change Your Image
electriclynn
Reviews
The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar (1969)
Best Summary of "The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar"
The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar is a realistic account of itinerant bush worker Emery Prometer (Chris Wiggins). Emery lives in the rural area of the Ottawa Valley and can't make enough money to feed his large family, but nevertheless rejects government handouts. His tough self-reliance and hard-drinking lifestyle are viewed with compassion as his family ekes out an existence in a life of isolation and deprivation. His oldest daughter Rosie (Kidder) decides she must break the cycle of poverty by leaving home and getting an education and a job.
One of the best NFB films of the sixties, this sensitive docudrama uses professional actors and a dramatic script, yet captures astonishingly well the atmosphere of the Ottawa Valley and the dignity of one man and his family in the face of economic deprivation.
The film, which marked Kidder's first screen appearance, was produced for CBC-TV as a pilot project in the (then-unnamed) Challenge for Change program. As Gerald Pratley has stated in A Century of Canadian Cinema, the film "is infused with a love of life, of children and of freedom within society, no matter how unfavorable the socio-economic terms.... A brilliant example of what our filmmakers could do if they had the opportunities and the material to replace the run-of-the-mill American films that dominate our theaters and television the kind of inexpensive creativity private broadcasters continue to say they cannot afford." The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar won eight Canadian Film Awards, including Best Picture (John Kemeny, Barrie Howells), Director (Peter Pearson), Cinematography (Tony Ianzelo), Screenplay (Joan Finnegan) and Lead Actor (Chris Wiggins).
From www.filmreferencelibrary.ca (Much better description of what this film is about. I still can not believe how they take a daughter to save the family from poverty. In American Cinema in 1968 they would have used a son.)
Desperate Housewives (2004)
Desperately Warned - Totally Soap Opera
Funny, Mysterious. But warning, not family programming. Make sure your elementary students are fed and tucked in bed by 9pm. I would rate it PG-13 with some sexual situations, mild-violence and murder scenes, but humorous.
This series was created to keep it on the upside and keep you coming back for more. It also seems to be created for the DVD series collectors. If you miss a show, you may not have missed much, but you definitely missed some clues. So you will do anything to find out what happened.
Each episode builds on the other just a little bit. Plus the writers have protected NONE of the characters. Just when you start to think you like one character because they are good and make all the right decisions, the writers send her tumbling down the "Jill" hill... with pail and all. But rest assured they will probably pick on someone else in the next show. Leaving the viewers dying to see more of what happens....
If you like soap operas or dramas, you will probably like this show. The writers have created a great soap by picking on the soap qualities.
7th Heaven (1996)
Family Programming with Religious Overtones
I respect all the negative comments regarding this family programming. Americans that are as wholesome as the Cosby Show, All in the Family, Full House, Partridge Family, Leave it To Beaver, the Waltons, Little House on the Prarie, and my fav - Home Improvement... etc. should not be watching a show like this because it is a waste of precious time. May I advise Buffy the Vampire Slayer by creator Josh Wheaton or the like. Even a few of the Vampires have a little conservative ethics.
However, if you miss the family kind of spoofs from the 80s where kids were kids and parents were caring and all family problems no matter how big were solved in 30 minutes, then this may be a show for you. It is a great topic starter with your children to help you pass on your family ethics during the dinner hour - that is if you do dinner and a movie like our family does. This show was meant to compete with Disney's current monopoly on family shows. And I would give it a fair rating - not the best and not the worst.
Probably the only thing that leaves me a bit amiss is that it focuses only on American Christianity. I have been going to my 4 children's public school functions for nearly 16 years now and I can tell you that America is much more blended in different cultures than has ever been displayed in any American family programming. When is someone going to marry the children off to an African American? When is one of the boys going to be best friends with someone from a completely different culture. Maybe someday family programming will pick up the world outside our US soil to include in our shows. And then again, maybe not.
Just remember people, it is the audience that drives television viewing demand. So be careful you "7th Heaven negativists". This show lasted as long as it did because the audience demanded it - otherwise another moneymaker would have been filled in to help sell products and turn the station dollar. That audience is probably your neighbor :O)