Canadian Bacon (film)
Encyclopedia
Canadian Bacon is a 1995 comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...

 which satirizes Canada – United States relations along the Canada – United States border written, directed and produced by Michael Moore
Michael Moore
Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...

, his only non-documentary feature. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard
Un Certain Regard is a section of the Cannes Film Festival's Official Selection. It is run at the Salle Debussy, parallel to the competition for the Palme d'Or.This section was introduced in 1978 by Gilles Jacob...

 section at the 1995 Cannes Film Festival
1995 Cannes Film Festival
-Jury:*Jeanne Moreau *Gianni Amelio *Jean-Claude Brialy *Nadine Gordimer *Gaston Kabore *Michele-Ray Gavras *Emilio Garcia Riera *Philippe Rousselot *John Waters...

, and has the distinction of being the final completed film to star John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

 (despite having been filmed before Wagons East!).

Premise

The President of the United States
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 (Alan Alda
Alan Alda
Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...

) has not led his country into war, and his approval rating falls. His National Security Advisor Stuart Smiley (Kevin Pollak
Kevin Pollak
Kevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, impressionist, game show host, and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of 10 and touring professionally at the age of 20...

) suggests Canada as a new enemy based on a news segment about a brawl between Canadians and Americans over national beer preference. A local American sheriff Bud Boomer (John Candy
John Candy
John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

), who was responsible for the brawl, is caught up in the idea of invading Canada and leads fellow Americans to the country to commit the "most serious of all" Canadian crimes, littering. The so-called invasion is foiled, but because of Boomer's actions, the fabricated war turns into a real one.

Cast

  • John Candy
    John Candy
    John Franklin Candy was a Canadian actor and comedian. He rose to fame as a member of the Toronto branch of The Second City and its related Second City Television series, and through his appearances in comedy films such as Stripes, Splash, Cool Runnings, The Great Outdoors, Spaceballs, and Uncle...

     as Sheriff Bud Boomer, Sheriff of Niagara County
  • Alan Alda
    Alan Alda
    Alphonso Joseph D'Abruzzo , better known as Alan Alda, is an American actor, director, screenwriter, and author. A six-time Emmy Award and Golden Globe Award winner, he is best known for his role as Hawkeye Pierce in the TV series M*A*S*H...

     as President of the United States
  • Bill Nunn
    Bill Nunn
    -Early life:Nunn was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the son of William G. Nunn, Jr., a well-known journalist and editor at the Pittsburgh Courier, as well as an NFL scout. Nunn's paternal grandfather was the first African American football player at George Westinghouse High School.Nunn was a...

     as Kabral, Deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department
  • Kevin J. O'Connor as Roy Boy, friend of Sheriff Bud Boomer
  • Rhea Perlman as Honey, Deputy sheriff of the Niagara County Sheriff Department
  • Kevin Pollak
    Kevin Pollak
    Kevin Elliot Pollak is an American actor, impressionist, game show host, and comedian. He started performing stand-up comedy at the age of 10 and touring professionally at the age of 20...

     as Stu Smiley, National Security Advisor
  • G. D. Spradlin
    G. D. Spradlin
    Gervase Duan "G.D." Spradlin was an American actor. He often played devious authority figures. He is credited in over 70 television and film productions, and performed alongside actors including Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, Johnny Depp, and George C. Scott.-Early life:Spradlin was born in Pauls...

     as R.J. Hacker, Owner of Hacker Dynamics
  • Rip Torn
    Rip Torn
    Elmore Rual "Rip" Torn, Jr. , is an American actor of stage, screen and television.Torn received an Academy Award nomination as Best Supporting Actor for his role in the 1983 film Cross Creek. His work includes the role of Artie, the producer, on The Larry Sanders Show, for which he was nominated...

     as General Dick Panzer, U.S. Army Chief of Staff
  • Steven Wright
    Steven Wright
    Steven Alexander Wright is an American comedian, actor and writer. He is known for his distinctly lethargic voice and slow, deadpan delivery of ironic, philosophical and sometimes nonsensical jokes and one-liners with contrived situations.-Early life and career:Wright was born in Mount Auburn...

     as Niagara Mountie
  • Jim Belushi
    James Belushi
    James Adam "Jim" Belushi is an American actor, comedian, and musician. He is the younger brother of comic actor John Belushi.-Early life:Belushi was born in Chicago...

     as Charles Jackal, news reporter for NBS News
  • Richard E. Council
    Richard E. Council
    Richard E. Council is an American film, television and stage actor.He was born 1 October 1947 in Tampa,Florida....

     as Russian President Vladimir Kruschkin
  • Brad Sullivan
    Brad Sullivan
    Brad Sullivan was an American actor known for character roles in television and on film and stage.-Early life and career:...

     as Gus
  • Stanley Anderson
    Stanley Anderson
    Stanley Anderson is an American actor.-Biography:Anderson was born in Billings, Montana. A Theatre Masters Degree graduate of San Jose State University in the sixties, he began his professional acting career in 1967...

     as Edwin S. Simon, news anchor for NBS News
  • Wallace Shawn
    Wallace Shawn
    Wallace Michael Shawn , sometimes credited as Wally Shawn, is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, author, voice artist, and intellectual. His best-known film roles include Wally Shawn in My Dinner with Andre , Vizzini in The Princess Bride , and debate teacher Mr...

     as Canadian Prime Minister
    Prime minister
    A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

  • Michael Moore
    Michael Moore
    Michael Francis Moore is an American filmmaker, author, social critic and activist. He is the director and producer of Fahrenheit 9/11, which is the highest-grossing documentary of all time. His films Bowling for Columbine and Sicko also place in the top ten highest-grossing documentaries...

     as Redneck guy
  • Dan Aykroyd
    Dan Aykroyd
    Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...

     (uncredited) as Ontario Provincial Police
    Ontario Provincial Police
    The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...

     officer
  • Ed Sahely
    Ed Sahely
    Ed Sahely is a Canadian actor who is best remembered for his role as Possum Lake business entrepreneur Murray Woolworth on the second season of The Red Green Show.-Career:...

     (uncredited) as Mountie

Production

The film was shot in late 1993, in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...

, Hamilton
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

, and Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls, Ontario
Niagara Falls is a Canadian city on the Niagara River in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario. The municipality was incorporated on June 12, 1903...

; and Buffalo
Buffalo, New York
Buffalo is the second most populous city in the state of New York, after New York City. Located in Western New York on the eastern shores of Lake Erie and at the head of the Niagara River across from Fort Erie, Ontario, Buffalo is the seat of Erie County and the principal city of the...

 and Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls, New York
Niagara Falls is a city in Niagara County, New York, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city had a total population of 50,193, down from the 55,593 recorded in the 2000 census. It is across the Niagara River from Niagara Falls, Ontario , both named after the famed Niagara Falls which they...

. Scenes depicting the rapids of the Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...

 were actually filmed at Twelve Mile Creek
Twelve Mile Creek (Ontario)
Twelve Mile Creek is a waterway located in the Niagara Peninsula of Ontario, Canada. Its headwaters are located in the town of Pelham, Ontario, encompassing some of the most unspoiled and natural areas of Niagara area. Its lower reaches flow through urban areas of Thorold, Ontario and St...

 in St. Catharines
St. Catharines, Ontario
St. Catharines is the largest city in Canada's Niagara Region and the sixth largest urban area in Ontario, Canada, with 97.11 square kilometres of land...

. Parkwood Estate
Parkwood Estate
The Parkwood Estate, located in Oshawa, Ontario Canada was the home of Samuel McLaughlin and was home to the McLaughlins from 1917 until 1972. Construction began in 1916 by the Toronto architectural firm of Pearson and Darling...

 in Oshawa
Oshawa, Ontario
Oshawa is a city in Ontario, Canada, on the Lake Ontario shoreline. It lies in Southern Ontario approximately 60 kilometres east of downtown Toronto. It is commonly viewed as the eastern anchor of both the Greater Toronto Area and the Golden Horseshoe. It is now commonly referred to as the most...

 was the site for the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

, and Dofasco
Dofasco
Dofasco is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, which is also home to longtime Canadian rival Stelco. Dofasco is currently a standalone subsidiary of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steel producer. Previously ordered by the U.S...

 in Hamilton was the site for Hacker Dynamics. The scene where the American characters look longingly home at the US across the putative Niagara River
Niagara River
The Niagara River flows north from Lake Erie to Lake Ontario. It forms part of the border between the Province of Ontario in Canada and New York State in the United States. There are differing theories as to the origin of the name of the river...

 is, in fact, them looking across Burlington Bay
Burlington Bay
Burlington Bay, known more commonly as Hamilton Harbour, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach and Burlington Beach...

 at Stelco
Stelco
US Steel Canada is a steel company based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.-History:Several existing smaller steelworks combined and were incorporated as the Steel Company of Canada in 1910. Charles S...

 steelworks in Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton, Ontario
Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...

.

The hockey game and subsequent riot (due to insulting Canadian beer) was shot at the Niagara Falls Memorial Arena
Niagara Falls Memorial Arena
The Niagara Falls Memorial Arena is an arena located in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. It was built in 1950 and has a capacity of approximately 3,000. The arena was home to various ice hockey teams in the past, including the Niagara Falls Thunder and the Niagara Falls Flyers...

 in Niagara Falls, Ontario, and the actors portraying the police officers (who eventually join in the riot upon hearing that Canadian beer
Canadian beer
Beer in Canada was introduced by European settlers in the seventeenth century, and a number of commercial brewers thrived until Prohibition in Canada. Though short-lived, very few brewers survived, and it was only in the late twentieth century that new breweries opened up...

 "sucks") are wearing authentic Niagara Regional Police uniforms.

The film has a notably high number of cameos
Cameo appearance
A cameo role or cameo appearance is a brief appearance of a known person in a work of the performing arts, such as plays, films, video games and television...

 by Canadian actors. As an example, Dan Aykroyd
Dan Aykroyd
Daniel Edward "Dan" Aykroyd, CM is a Canadian comedian, actor, screenwriter, musician, winemaker and ufologist. He was an original cast member of Saturday Night Live, an originator of The Blues Brothers and Ghostbusters and has had a long career as a film actor and screenwriter.-Early...

, who is Canadian, appears in the movie uncredited as an Ontario Provincial Police
Ontario Provincial Police
The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...

 officer. He stops Sheriff Boomer's truck which has anti-Canadian graffiti painted on it in English and lets Boomer and his "heroes" go after the truck has been spraypainted with the graffiti translated into French. This scene was filmed along the Niagara Parkway
Niagara Parkway
The Niagara Parkway, formerly known as Niagara Boulevard and historically as the Niagara Road, is a scenic road in the province of Ontario that travels on the Canadian side of the Niagara River from the town of Fort Erie to Niagara-on-the-Lake...

 in Niagara-on-the-Lake
Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Niagara-on-the-Lake is a Canadian town located in Southern Ontario where the Niagara River meets Lake Ontario in the Niagara Region of the southern part of the province of Ontario. It is located across the Niagara river from Youngstown, New York, USA...

, north of Niagara Falls.
  • Oliver North
    Oliver North
    Oliver Laurence North is a retired U.S. Marine Corps officer, political commentator, host of War Stories with Oliver North on Fox News Channel, a military historian, and a New York Times best-selling author....

     appears at the end in a photograph with Stuart Smiley as the newly-elected president.
  • The sequences in the American President's war room are strongly influenced by Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

    's black comedy
    Black comedy
    A black comedy, or dark comedy, is a comic work that employs black humor or gallows humor. The definition of black humor is problematic; it has been argued that it corresponds to the earlier concept of gallows humor; and that, as humor has been defined since Freud as a comedic act that anesthetizes...

     Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.
  • Moore appears in a fake news broadcast as one of a group of redneck, gun-toting Americans ready to go to war against Canada. One of his lines is "It's time we put the 'America' back in 'North America
    North America
    North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

    '!". He also appears later in the movie driving a pickup truck.
  • The end credits state that no Canadians were harmed during the making of the movie, and thank Johnny La Rue for the opening helicopter shot of Horseshoe Falls
    Horseshoe Falls
    The Horseshoe Falls, also known as the Canadian Falls, is part of Niagara Falls, on the Niagara River. Approximately 90% of the Niagara River, after diversions for hydropower generation, flows over Horseshoe Falls. The remaining 10% flows over the American Falls...

    . This is a reference to a running gag on SCTV
    Second City Television
    Second City Television is a Canadian television sketch comedy show offshoot from Toronto's The Second City troupe that ran between 1976 and 1984.- Premise :...

     where LaRue (a character played by John Candy) famously went over budget for his talk show ("Street Beef") by insisting on ending the show with a long shot from a rented helicopter. The credits say: "To Johnny LaRue - thanks to you, we got our crane shot."
  • The Royal Canadian Mounted Police
    Royal Canadian Mounted Police
    The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

     (RCMP) are sometimes called the RMPC and the Royal Mounted Canadian Police (RMCP) in this movie.
  • One scene where anti-Canadian propaganda is shown on US TV has pictures of well-known Canadian celebrities in the US including William Shatner
    William Shatner
    William Alan Shatner is a Canadian actor, musician, recording artist, and author. He gained worldwide fame and became a cultural icon for his portrayal of James T...

    , Mike Myers
    Mike Myers (actor)
    Michael John "Mike" Myers is a Canadian actor, comedian, screenwriter, and film producer of British parentage...

    , Monty Hall
    Monty Hall
    Monte Halperin, OC, OM , better known by the stage name Monty Hall, is a Canadian-born MC, producer, actor, singer and sportscaster, best known as host of the television game show Let's Make a Deal.-Early life:...

    , Michael J. Fox
    Michael J. Fox
    Michael J. Fox, OC is a Canadian American actor, author, producer, activist and voice-over artist. With a film and television career spanning from the late 1970s, Fox's roles have included Marty McFly from the Back to the Future trilogy ; Alex P...

    , and Alex Trebek
    Alex Trebek
    George Alexander "Alex" Trebek is a Canadian American game show host who has been the host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, and prior to that, he hosted game shows such as Pitfall and High Rollers. He has appeared in numerous television series, usually as himself...

    .

See also

  • Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, a 1964 Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick
    Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...

     comedy about a fictional element of the cold war
  • The Mouse that Roared
    The Mouse That Roared
    The Mouse That Roared is a 1955 Cold War satirical novel by Irish-American writer Leonard Wibberley, which launched a series of satirical books about an imaginary country in Europe called the Duchy of Grand Fenwick...

  • The Canadian Conspiracy
    The Canadian Conspiracy
    The Canadian Conspiracy is a 1985 HBO/CBC mockumentary, co-written and directed by Robert Boyd, about the way the Canadian government is subverting the United States by taking over its entertainment industry...

    , a 1986 fictional documentary
    Mockumentary
    A mockumentary , is a type of film or television show in which fictitious events are presented in documentary format. These productions are often used to analyze or comment on current events and issues by using a fictitious setting, or to parody the documentary form itself...

     about how Canadian entertainers are conquering TV and movies in the United States.
  • Wag the Dog
    Wag the Dog
    Wag the Dog is a 1997 black comedy film starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert De Niro, co-starring Anne Heche, Denis Leary and William H. Macy about a Washington spin doctor who, merely days before a presidential election, distracts the electorate from a sex scandal by hiring a Hollywood film producer...

    , a 1997 film about a war devised for similar reasons
  • War Plan Red
    War Plan Red
    Joint Army and Navy Basic War Plan Red, also known as the Atlantic Strategic War Plan, was a plan for the United States to make war with the British Empire . It was developed by the United States Army following the 1927 Geneva Naval Conference; and approved in May 1930 by the Secretary of War and...

    , also known as the Atlantic Strategic War Plan, was a plan for the United States to make war with Great Britain, by attacking Canada.
  • Canadian Idiot
    Canadian Idiot
    "Canadian Idiot" is a 2006 song and single by "Weird Al" Yankovic from his album Straight Outta Lynwood. It is a parody of Green Day's "American Idiot". The song is mostly a sarcastic parody of the stereotypical American view of the Canadian way of life...

    , a parody of Green Day
    Green Day
    Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...

    's "American Idiot", by "Weird Al" Yankovic
    "Weird Al" Yankovic
    Alfred Matthew "Weird Al" Yankovic is an American singer-songwriter, music producer, accordionist, actor, comedian, writer, satirist, and parodist. Yankovic is known for his humorous songs that make light of popular culture and that often parody specific songs by contemporary musical acts...

    , which explores similar themes, and actually mentions the idea of a "preemptive strike
    Preemptive war
    A preemptive war is a war that is commenced in an attempt to repel or defeat a perceived inevitable offensive or invasion, or to gain a strategic advantage in an impending war before that threat materializes. It is a war which preemptively 'breaks the peace'. The term: 'preemptive war' is...

    " against Canada.
  • "A Speculative Fiction
    Potemkin City Limits
    Potemkin City Limits is the fourth full length album by the Canadian band Propagandhi, released on October 18, 2005. It was released on the band's own G7 Welcoming Committee Records label in Canada, and Fat Wreck Chords elsewhere....

    ", a song by Canadian band Propagandhi
    Propagandhi
    Propagandhi is a Canadian punk band formed in Portage la Prairie, Manitoba in 1986 by Chris Hannah and Jord Samolesky. The band is currently located in Winnipeg, Manitoba....

     that explores a war between Canada and the U.S.
  • South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
    South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut is a 1999 animated musical comedy film based on the animated television series South Park, created by Matt Stone and Trey Parker. The film was directed by Parker, who also stars along with the rest of the regular voice cast from the series, including Stone, Mary...

    , the 1999 South Park
    South Park
    South Park is an American animated television series created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone for the Comedy Central television network. Intended for mature audiences, the show has become famous for its crude language, surreal, satirical, and dark humor that lampoons a wide range of topics...

    film about a similar war (though in this case the war's reason is a moral panic
    Moral panic
    A moral panic is the intensity of feeling expressed in a population about an issue that appears to threaten the social order. According to Stanley Cohen, author of Folk Devils and Moral Panics and credited creator of the term, a moral panic occurs when "[a] condition, episode, person or group of...

     rather than explicitly to boost a president's sagging poll numbers).
  • The real life War of 1812
    War of 1812
    The War of 1812 was a military conflict fought between the forces of the United States of America and those of the British Empire. The Americans declared war in 1812 for several reasons, including trade restrictions because of Britain's ongoing war with France, impressment of American merchant...

     between the United States and British North America
    British North America
    British North America is a historical term. It consisted of the colonies and territories of the British Empire in continental North America after the end of the American Revolutionary War and the recognition of American independence in 1783.At the start of the Revolutionary War in 1775 the British...

     (now Canada).
  • An episode of The West Wing.
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