Escape to Canada (2005) Poster

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7/10
Good documentary, though too narrow a lens on Canada.
wisewebwoman10 March 2006
I wish it had been a great documentary. And it would have been if the viewpoint had not been so narrow. The main focus was on gay marriage and legalizing marijuana and Canada is so much more than that.

With credit to the director, however, he starts well, showing Canada and the post 9/11 Bush USA veering further and further away from each other politically and culturally. As the USA becomes more fundamentally Christian, Canada becomes more 'hedonistic', with freedoms that embrace all.

Many Iraqi soldier veterans are shown applying for landed immigrant status here,others joining them who are uncomfortable with the marijuana laws in the States.

However, and it is a huge however, this narrow spectrum does not encompass the many other freedoms here which are never shown. I wanted more on the consistently and comparatively low crime-rates, medical care, educational systems, our treatment of the aboriginal peoples, the tolerance for ethnic diversity, the safety of our cities, the high per capita percentage of artists and writers, etc., i.e what makes this great country work so well with so little crime.

The doc title was also different in the opening tonight, it was called 'Escape to Canada.' It was a fun opening, the packed audience truly showing the diversity of our citizenry, capped beautifully by a butt-naked male streaker running outside through traffic on a very busy Bloor Street after the show. 7 out of 10.
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8/10
A little too long for not that long ago...
JonathanWalford2 June 2007
I enjoyed this documentary but I was wanting to enjoy it more. In the end, it wasn't funny enough, short enough, or politically or historically focused enough. This film was essentially a recap of the summer of 2003 in Canadian history. The documentary trod back and forth between gay marriage and the legalization of marijuana without fully covering either story completely or in context of a broader historical perspective, Canadian/U.S. relations, or post 9/11 politics. What did I expect? I guess something that was perhaps more 'documentary' in style but considering the subject matter also had a good dose of tongue in cheek irony to keep the whole expose light hearted and moving along. Instead I found myself checking my watch and wondering when they would get on to the conclusion. Its good, but not great.
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8/10
Nice...
Blind-Joy31 May 2006
Warning: Spoilers
I'm not exactly sure what the hell you guys are talking about, you say it has a narrow view of Canada, but do you not realize that those were the two main focuses of the film/documentary, yes Canada has a lot more then shown in the movie, but that is not the focus, it was just to show what is GETTING legalized in Canada, and to point those things out and distribute them on a DVD that can be bought at stores, that's probably not excepted in the States lol, so I'm just saying you gotta understand what the point of the film was, so god bless Canada and I love you all, CHOW

Chris PS I put spoiler simply because thats the movie in a nutshell, so yeah ^_^
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10/10
News to me
news-16023 March 2006
The stuff in the film exposing what has happened in Canada and how the US has tried to stop it blew my mind. Quite shocking. The irony is here is that you have freedom movements being hindered by the so-called "Land of the Free." I loved it. Even though Escape to Canada is a doc, the experience was almost like seeing an action film. What you see in the Canadian context is that marijuana and same-sex marriage can be legalized and there is essentially no harm done. This is why the US has to make so much effort to reality here. The same way the US has to portray universal healthcase as a disaster. In fact, universal health care, like marijuana and same-sex marriage legalization work! Sorry about the rant.
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