Review/Canada

Good effects, but Munchausen story slim

THE ADVENTURES OF BARON
MUNCHAUSEN. With John Neville, Eric
Idle, Sarah Polly, Jonathan Pryce, Oliver
Reed. Directed by Terry Gilliam. At Cine-
plex Odeon theatres.

Good old Terry Gilliam. The U.S.-born
former animator for the defunct British
comedy team, Monty Python, and more
recently the director of such marvels as The
Time Bandits and Brazil, has done it again
in the special effects department. If only
he’d done as well in the screenplay depart-
ment.

And if only there had been more rich,
socially ironic commentary as in the opening
print-overs, which read, in succession: “The
18th Century. The Age of Reason. Wed-
nesday.”

The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
begins with the roar of cannons as an uni-
dentified European city is laid siege by Tur-
kish forces. Inside the battle-scarred walls
are scenes of suffering and demoralization.
A bronze statue in the middle of what was
the town square is headless. The head lies on
the rubble-strewn cobblestones a few feet
away, and inside it, a homeless family has
taken shelter.

But at the local theatre, life and art con-
tinue. A grimy audience watches asa travel-
ling theatre company stages scenes from the
tales of Baron Munchausen, a contempor-
ary character of legend whose Gulliver-like
adventures include outwitting the Turkish
Sultan and being swallowed by a giant fish.

(Fittingly, the company uses the special
effects of the day, employing techniques
reminiscent of the opera scenes in Ama-
deus. Gilliam, the modern master of show-
biz magic, pays his tribute to the
forerunners, even if it is a somewhat back-
handed compliment: the machinery that
moves the on-stage scenery is cumbersome,

and subject to human frailty.)

The play is bumping along gracelessly
when a voice from the back of the ruined
theatre demands a halt to the proceedings.

i

CANADIAN CONNECTION ... Sarah Polly, John Neville in Baron Munchausen.

An old man, his long lean frame attired in
the tatters of what was once a fine, red
military coat, a dusty three-cornered hat
adorning his pig-tailed, gray hair, mounts
the stage. He tells the crowd in no uncertain
terms that he is the real Baron Munchausen,
and the play in no way resembles his actual
adventures.

Only he, the alleged baron declares, can
save the city from the siege. So saying, the
old man embarks on an adventure of
unapologetic absurdity and delightful fan-
tasy. Accompanied by Sally, the young
daughter of the theatrical troupe’s lead

‘actor, he visits the moon, the bowels of

Mount Vesuvius, and the insides of a giant

fish before returning to save the city.
During his travels he hooks up with his

old crew: a man who can run faster than a

bullet; a bespectacled sharpshooter who can
hit targets thousands of miles away; a dwarf .
who can blow down buildings with his
breath; a man so strong he can swing gal-

leons over his head.

This kind of tale is grist for.director Gilli-
am’s mill, and visually, he makes the best of
it. There is something about this talented
artist’s special effects and props that make

him a leader in the field.

In his previous notable effort, Brazil, the
huge art deco buildings and Forties-
futuristic gizmos contained both menace
and farce. With Baron Munchausen, this
technique survives: Turkish cannons molded
in the shapes of ferocious beasts of mythol-
ogy spew deadly fire accompanied by a
deafening roar; a black-garbed skeletal grim

reaper is a caricature of standard death
symbols, but it still strikes a thrill of fear in
our hearts.

Baron Munchausen excels at capturing
the mood of the tale. Originated when the
world’s horizons were more confined, it
depicts a moon that is actually shaped like a
crescent, and ruled by a king (wonderfully
played by Robin Williams, in an uncredited
performance) and queen whose heads det-
ach from their bodies at will. This film looks
like an old story-book, and feels like the
children’s adventure movies of the Forties
and Fifties.

Gilliam’s penchant for pertinent social
commentary is also in evidence. In one
scene, the god of the forge, Vulcan (Oliver
Reed), shows the travellers a prototype for a
future weapon. It is a nuclear missile with
which, Vulcan notes with maniacal glee,
allows one to-kill one’s enemies without
actually watching them die. And in Baron
Munchausen, war, however fanciful, is still
hell, and the human suffering it brings is
real — even if it’s treated as a game by
cold-blooded leaders such as the town’s
sleazy official (Jonathan Pryce).

Too bad, then, that this visually entranc-
ing film does not have a script worthy of its
effects. The scenes that should advance
smoothly come across as disjointed vignettes.
Character development, important even in
a fantasy, is frequently lacking and for a
film from a proven master of comedy, it has
few good laughs.

As such, the movie’s appeal may be
limited to children, and many young view-
ers may also find themselves growing bored
with the special effects which, as the story
progresses, overwhelm rather than enhance
the slim story line.

Noteworthy for Canadians is the spar-
kling performance of John Neville, director
of Ontario’s Stratford Theatre, who brings
elegance and charm to the title role.
Toronto child actor Sarah Polly plays Sally,
his companion.

— Dan Keeton

The Chinese Canadian National Coun-
cil has issued an appeal for support in its
struggle to have the federal government
recognize historical injustices and com-
pensate the community for them.

The Chinese Head Tax and Exclusion
Act are among the most racist and painful

national railway, but by the time the last
spike was driven in 1885, Canada had
begun a series of restrictive laws which
would last for over 60 years, until 1947.

While European immigrants were being

lured to Canada with promises of free land

» and cash, the Chinese Immigration Act
was passed, imposing a $50 Head Tax
collected on the entry of every Chinese
immigrant. The tax increased to $100 in
1900 and $500 in 1903. The sum repres-
entéd two years wages’ for people earning
less than a $1 a day.

No other ethnic group was singled out
with such discriminatory policies at that
time.

The Canadian government collected
over $23 million from Chinese immigrants
between 1885 and 1923 when the head tax
ended, but that year an even more restric-
tive law was implemented, the Chinese
Exclusion Act. It required every person of
Chinese origin, including Canadian citi-
zens, to register with government.

Only diplomats, children born in Can-
ada to parents of Chinese descent, mer-
chants and students were allowed into the
country. In 24 years less than 50 Chinese
were admitted.

chapters of this country’s past. The Chi-:
nese were recruited to help build the trans-

Separated from their families, victim-
ized by overt racism, Chinese Canadians
were subjected to decades of loneliness
and hardship. It became a community of
bachelors, and more than a generation
was lost.

In 1984 an elderly Vancouver man con-
tacted MP Margaret Mitchell requesting
assistance in getting repayment for the tax
he paid. A month later the CCNC
embarked on what has become a frustrat-
ing campaign to pin down the government

on its promise to issue an apology and |

compensate survivors.

On the eve of the 1984 federal election,
the Progressive Conservative Party pledged
its support to the CCNC’s demands for an
all-party Parliamentary resolution which
would acknowledge the injustice and
racial discrimination inherent in the Head
Tax and Exclusion acts. It also promised
to address the issue of financial compensa-
tion.

The organization is asking for $23 mil-
lion as symbolic restitution. In today’s fig-
ures the amount would equal almost $1
billion.

Since then they’ve been on a roller-:

coaster ride of kind words, but no action,
through four different multi-cultural min-
isters in the Conservative’s last term. Recent
requests to the current member responsi-
ble, Gerry Weiner, have been brushed
aside by the minister’s “busy schedule.”
Only 1,000 of the 81,000 immigrants
who paid the tax are still alive and the
CCNC worries that at the present pace of
negotiations none may live to see justice

Chinese Canadians seeking restitution

served.

From the time Chinese-Canadians
came to Canada, their stories of are
touched with pain and bitterness. Like
many other newcomers to the west coast,
the Chinese followed. the gold rush from
California in 1858. When the veins ran
dry, they settled, working as labourers,
shopkeepers and farmers.

Fifteen years later they would be
removed from the voters list in British
Columbia. The Provincial Parliament
passed laws forbidding employment to
any Chinese on city public works.

Then, as the railways reached the trea-
cherous Rocky Mountains and others
refused the dangerous labour, experienced
Chinese railway workers were recruited
from the U.S. Conditions were both peri-
lous and inhumane; over 600 out of 15,000
were killed in this last push to bring the
railway to the Pacific.

With the job done, the Chinese were
dismissed and the Head Tax instituted. At
a public forum in Toronto last fall a few of
the survivors told their stories.

John Chow was 13 when he arrived in
Canada in 1922 to join his parents. He was
held in detention for two months before
his father was able to find $500 for the
head tax. He borrowed it from his
employer. Both father and son spent the
rest of their working lives paying back the
loan.

That scenario was common. Desperate
workers would approach employers for
loans to bring wives and children into
Canada, and would become indentured

servants struggling to pay back the money.

But not even the head tax guaranteed
the Chinese permanent residence in Can-
ada. Those who left the country for an
extended period were not permitted to
return. Edmund Lam, president of the
Ottawa Council of the CCNC, says his
grandfather arrived from China in 1923.
Because of the Exclusion Act he saw his
son for the first time on a visit to China
when the boy was six. He would not see
him again until he was 17 when the Chi-
nese Act was repealed and the family
immigrated to Canada.

It was the effect on family life which
most incenses the community. There was
not only the separation and loneliness, but -
also the enforced poverty as entire families
struggled to pay off loan sharks and
employers for the head tax. ;

For 96-year-old Woon Lam of Van-
couver, it was the humilation as much as
the debt.

“Tt is not the money but the way were
treated,” he says. ““We were poor, but we
were honest people and prepared to work
hard. But they do not treat us well.

“Money will not make us forget, but it
will show that people today don’t agree
with what was done.”

The Chinese Canadian National
Council is asking for letters of support for
its demands to be sent to Gerry Weiner,
Minister of State for Multiculturalism.
Copies should be sent to the organization
at 386 Bathurst Street, 2nd Floor,
Toronto, MST 2S6.

10 « Pacific Tribune, April 3, 1989