6.2. Why was Canadian Bacon delayed from release for so long? Andhow come I didn't see it playing at my local theater?
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This article is from the Michael Moore FAQ, by Edward Champion edchamp@slip.net with numerous contributions by others.
6.2. Why was Canadian Bacon delayed from release for so long? Andhow come I didn't see it playing at my local theater?
A struggle between Moore and the original distributor,
Propaganda Pictures, forced the film to sit on the shelf for two
years.
In an interview with Denis Sequin, Moore elaborates:
Moore's script takes so many whacks at things American --
opportunistic politicians, compliant media, ignorant public -- you
wonder how this film got made in the first place. According to
Moore, it very nearly didn't, and took quite a fight to keep it as
tart as it is.
Although Candy was the prime factor in the studio's financing,
Moore suggested that the producers were rubbing their hands in
anticipation of their very own version of Uncle Buck, an execrable
but profitable Candy vehicle.
"John wanted to do more of what he used to do, sharp-edged
satire and not what Hollywood expected of him," says Moore. When
Candy died in March of '94, a little bit of the film died with him.
"John was my supporter and he was no longer there to back me and my
vision of the film so I lost fights with the studio about content."
If the studio did, as Moore suggests, get more politics than
they bargained for, you have to question what the producers were
doing bankrolling Moore in the first place.
"I told them [the studio] it could make money and be about
something, that it doesn't have to be a dumb comedy. It's not going
to make Dumb And Dumber money but they'll get their money back. But
we live in an economic system where there's no such thing as
'enough.' They're never satisfied because there's always more money
to make."
Having given his producers more politics than they bargained
for, Moore shouldn't have been surprised when they gave him more
flak than he expected. Now, with only movie-goers left to vindicate
him, Moore is undoubtedly hoping that they are more inclined to
voting with their entertainment dollar than their suffrage.
An interview with Bob Strauss in PULSE expands upon the conflict
Moore had with Propaganda:
Making "Canadian Bacon" was something of a war in itself.
Although the film lists as producers such respected names as David
Brown (_Jaws_, "The Sting_, "The Player_) and Ron Rotholz,
president of Madonna's Maverick Pictures, most of the financing
came from an outfit called Propaganda Films. Recently sold to the
giant PolyGram entertainment conglomerate, Propaganda was in dire
need of a hit after backing such tankers as "A Stranger Among Us_
and "Daddy's Dyin' ... Who's Got the Will?) and "SFW_. Moore still
isn't certain what Propaganda executives thought they'd be getting
from his determinedly radical satire. But from day one, it was
clearly not the movie Moore intended.
"They were very much in my face and tried to interfere in the
process from beginning to end," Moore says. "Y'know, these money
guys are around and they're extremely nervous. Here I was: I
finished this film on time, on budget, shot it in 38 days, and they
just couldn't leave it alone. In some ways, what's delayed the
release is my insistence that the film be the way it is, as opposed
to the way that they wanted it to be. They wanted more of "Uncle
Buck_. On the set, they'd be, 'Do you guys think you could write
some more lines for John? Have him do more goofy stuff?' I'm
going, 'Guys, it's not that film.' There's a good enough amount of
that in there already, because it's not an art film. But it's
not "Uncle Buck_."
During production, Candy was Moore's strongest ally. "John
really wanted to do this film because it was cutting edge and it
harkened back to where he came from, "SCTV_," Moore contends. "He
had allowed himself to be placed in a number of films that were not
up to the level he was capable of. He wanted to make a statement,
like he did in that small part in "JFK_, that he's a good actor and
not Uncle Buck.
"He was my backer. Whenever they'd come down on me when we
were shooting, he would just say, 'This is the way we're doin' it.
This is the script I signed up to shoot.' But when John died, I
lost my main support. And they came in like hawks."
Moore contends Propaganda executives wanted to tone down the
film's edgier politics: "Why would you go into business with
somebody who is like I am and then try to enforce your vision, if
I can use that word?" Moore wonders. (For their part, requests to
Propaganda spokespeople for comment were unanswered.)
After the film was cut, director and production company held
dueling test screenings, Moore with hip urban audiences who gave
the picture positive scores, Propaganda at suburban sites packed
with teens who didn't get it. Propaganda took the film away from
original distributor MGM, then refused to release a print to the
most recent Sundance Film Festival. When "Canadian Bacon" won a
berth at last spring's Cannes Film Festival, Moore finally
triumphed. Steve Golin, Propaganda's cofounder, took his name off
the film, and Moore's version (vision?) is being distributed by
a different, PolyGram-co-owned company, Gramercy Pictures.
With a few minor variations, producer Brown confirms Moore's
descriptions of the postproduction tug-of-war. Brown has no
comment on the nature of the creative differences that occurred
during shooting. But Brown does say of Golin, "We owe the
existence and the backing of the film to him. Steve Golin worked
earnestly on the film and was the reason the film was financed."
* * *
In addition, Canadian Bacon got a shoddy release from Gramercy
Pictures. It was released in only a couple of cities on September
22, 1995, which in Gramercy bureaucratese constitutes a "national
release" with a minimum of press and advertising. Needless to say,
Michael Moore has said that "he'll only do another Hollywood film
if they send him a blank check with no return address."
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