Invasions Barbares [Barbarian Invasions] (2003)

RATING:	80%
FORMAT:	DVD

(Image: http://bt.eutorrents.com/)

Very good movie about a West declining in terms of economics, religion, sexuality and culture. (Middle film in the trilogy comprising: The Decline of the American Empire and Days of Darkness.)

The superficiality and materialism of White culture is exposed through the ever-changing dependence on political fads and isms: Maoism, Marxism, Leninism, Marxist-Leninism, anti-imperialism, etc – none of which express core values rather than the absence of them. Moreover, the West can no longer defend its vanishing borders from the influx of both migrants and terrorists; rendering it vulnerable to the paranoid fear that such people are going to destroy a culture that exists largely in name only.

Specifically, here, the Canadian health system is in fiscal meltdown while, down south, a PET scan costs USD2,000 (for those who can afford them) - and there is no waiting list. Yet, a dying White Canadian prefers treatment in Canada for fear of Islamic extremists! His virtually Third World hospital is a metaphor for an ailing culture threatened by self-created Barbarians: Al Qaeda, trades union, socialism, neophobia, rising divorce rates, chemical dependency, etc. Only hardcore capitalists can fare at all well because they can buy their way out of quantitative problems but not the qualitative ones.

(Image: http://bt.eutorrents.com/)

The film reconsiders the central character’s reprobate life (his inoperable cancer analogous to the decline of his values) and finds his family Diaspora the result of their desire to get away from his innate selflessness. This is a tragicomic cross section of modern (2003) Canada, as a middle-aged man thinks back on the political changes he has seen that have gotten both him and his country effectively nowhere.

(Image: http://bt.eutorrents.com/)

Where this film fails is in not exploring – in detail - the reasons for the decline of the West; opting instead for satirical assaults on what the director Denys ARCAND sees as its quintessential “cretinism”.

Marie-Josée CROZE offers a winning performance as a heroin addict who is as wise as she is screwed up.

Copyright © 2013 Frank TALKER. Permission granted to reproduce and distribute it in any format; provided that mention of the author’s Weblog (http://franktalker5.blogspot.com/) is included: E-mail notification requested. All other rights reserved.