Canada portrayed negatively in games?

[Hypersmurf]

Please keep the 'no politics' rule in mind, gentlemen.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

 

[Jack of Shadows]

Please keep the 'no politics' rule in mind, gentlemen.

-Hyp.
(Moderator)

Nuts,

And I had such a good reply to that deleted comment too. <pout>

Jack.

 

[Wik]

I don't know about RPGs, but one thing that always bothers me is in movies. Because we're so close to the states, a lot of "canadian" subjects get ruled over by Hollywood, and the BBC recognizes Canada even less (the only thing I can think of is the Monty Python Lumberjack song).

If you see movies, for example, The Great Escape (based off a true story) - the Canadians that were ACTUALLY THERE were replaced by Australians or Brits. Now, the movie was written by a Canuck, and I buy his reasoning - that too many nationalities would dilute the actual story - but this sort of thing happens to us far too often.

I think we were simply "Brits" in Band of Brothers (I forget the actual scene, so I could be wrong on that one; the movie is usually pretty accurate about the facts). And everyone's made movies about D-Day - how many times have the Canadians been mentioned on Juno Beach?

And has there ever been a movie about Dieppe?

But I gripe, and since this isn't really the point of the OP...

Canada being portrayed as an "Iceland" is something that really bothers me, especially since I live in Victoria, which *may* see a few inches of snow for a week or so each year. We're a warmer version of Seattle, pretty much. And my memories of Ontario (even Northern Ontario) are centred more around insanely hot and muggy summers over the six feet of snow we occasionally got.

Anyways, don't know I started typing. I guess it just bugs me how things that are "canadian" often get overruled by Hollywood, who feels they have to cater to their american audience. Hollywood can make British Movies, Russian Movies, or whatever else, but the second they want to tell a Canadian story, it has to be transplanted somehow into an American setting.

I guess you see something similar in RPGs, although not to the same degree at all.

 

[wingsandsword]

Anyways, don't know I started typing. I guess it just bugs me how things that are "canadian" often get overruled by Hollywood, who feels they have to cater to their american audience. Hollywood can make British Movies, Russian Movies, or whatever else, but the second they want to tell a Canadian story, it has to be transplanted somehow into an American setting.

It probably reflects the standard American stereotype of Canada:

Just like America, but with socialized medicine, the metric system, mounties, less guns, more polite people, cleaner cities, and lots and lots of snow.

With British Movies, or Russian Movies or whatever, you have your stock Hollywood characters (the snobby nobleman as an example for England, the rotund old authoritarian for Russia) you have visuals that people associate with those countries such as Big Ben for England and the Kremlin for Russia. For Canada. . .we don't have many of those images in our culture of people and places that are distinctly Canadian, just the image that it's just like the US, but just different enough for us to know we aren't at home.

 

[Rabelais]

Honestly, I've never had a single negative thought about our neighbors to the north. Without them we wouldn't be working for the weekend.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

You think Canada gets a poor or inaccurate portrayal? Try being from the American South.

I'm guessing all the "Deliverance" jokes get old after awhile.

 

[Shortman McLeod]

Of course, if an American company published it they'd probably call it Ice Hockey Rinks and Hosers.

Now that would offend Canadians.

I still remember seeing the Stanley Cup banners in Pittsburgh that read, "World Hockey Champions" as opposed to, you know, "Stanley Cup Champions".

 

[Particle_Man]

Two competing portrayals of Canada appear in "Canadian Bacon" and "South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut".

 

[Roudi]

For Canada. . .we don't have many of those images in our culture of people and places that are distinctly Canadian,

I agree. If you watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse, you clearly get to see both the CN Tower (one of our national landmarks) and Toronto City Hall (an incredibly distinct building, if not a landmark in it's own right). And yet the movie can get away with placing itself somewhere in the United States (the fictional "Racoon City") despite very obviously being Toronto.

It would be like having a superspy scaling Big Ben and then claiming he was on a mission in Seattle.

On the plus side, Toronto got nuked in that movie, and it made me happy.

I guess the point is that we have the landmarks, they just aren't recognized as Canadian symbols outside of Canada.

 

[Michael Dean]

I agree. If you watch Resident Evil: Apocalypse, you clearly get to see both the CN Tower (one of our national landmarks) and Toronto City Hall (an incredibly distinct building, if not a landmark in it's own right). And yet the movie can get away with placing itself somewhere in the United States (the fictional "Racoon City") despite very obviously being Toronto.

I guess the point is that we have the landmarks, they just aren't recognized as Canadian symbols outside of Canada.

Well, to be honest, that's one of my gripes being from Detroit. Many Hollywood films set in "Detroit" invariably get filmed primarily in Toronto, because it's cheaper to film there. So we get a few token exterior shots while the rest of the movie is obviously not Detroit. Of course, if you're not from Detroit, you never notice.