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2.7 KiB
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**SOME SPOILERS**This 1974 north western stars Donald Sutherland in the title role as Dan Candy, a Royal Canadian<br /><br />Mounted Policeman on duty in the plains of Saskatchewan. He is a<br /><br />little immature, a little annoying, and perfectly balanced by his<br /><br />family man partner Kevin McCarthy. The duo arrests Gordon<br /><br />Tootoosis for stealing one of the government's cows out of<br /><br />desperate hunger. Chief Dan George is Tootoosis' father.<br /><br />Sutherland takes the whole thing as a big joke, until Tootoosis<br /><br />escapes from jail and kills McCarthy. Sutherland spends the rest<br /><br />of the film tracking down the now dangerous criminal, with little<br /><br />help from his fellow constables or the native people.<br /><br />At ninety minutes, the film is way too brief, and takes short cuts in<br /><br />its story to get to the action scenes. This means that Sutherland<br /><br />goes from party doofus to vengeful rogue cop in about twenty<br /><br />seconds. Tootoosis goes from hungry martyr-like indian to cold<br /><br />blooded killer in record time. McCarthy is in just three scenes.<br /><br />When the film tries to be an action film, it fails as well. Sutherland<br /><br />is usually screaming as his superior for the umpteenth time, then<br /><br />rides out into the woods and is shot at...again and again. The<br /><br />finale, when the criminal and friends are trapped in the woods, is<br /><br />equally puzzling. The RCMP higher ups do not seem to care about<br /><br />catching the killer of one of their own, but suddenly arrive with<br /><br />cannon to root out the villains. Even McCarthy's funeral scene is<br /><br />messed up, as Sutherland thinks about McCarthy's murder, even<br /><br />though he was not there.<br /><br />Sutherland, for being given such an impossible part to play, does<br /><br />a good job. One amazing scene has him trying to tell McCarthy's<br /><br />orphaned son a funny story about crows and an outhouse roof<br /><br />while he slowly breaks down in grief.<br /><br />Fournier catches some of the amazing vistas we are lucky to<br /><br />experience up here in the Great Plains, and his fog enshrouded<br /><br />opening credits are dazzling, but with the lousy editing and dull<br /><br />script, he is as creatively bound as Sutherland.<br /><br />"Dan Candy's Law" should have been a rumination on revenge,<br /><br />and a comment about how the United States does not have a<br /><br />monopoly on mistreating its native peoples, but instead this film<br /><br />went for the cheap action thrill without an action thrill to exploit. I<br /><br />cannot recommend it.<br /><br />This is rated (PG) and contains strong gun violence and strong<br /><br />profanity. |