Name: In Bed with an Elephant
Genre: Documentary
Released: 1987-11-16
Duration: 1 h
Rating: 7.5
Cast: James Laxer

Informative, but not particularly engaging

"In Bed with an Elephant" is a documentary that looks back at Canada-US relations in the past 100 years or so. In looking at relations between Canada and the US, the film focuses on the relationships between prime ministers and presidents throughout the years. Some of these relationships are more positive, while others are more negative. Despite its relatively short running time of just under an hour, the film manages to cover a lot of topics, and is very informative. It does a good job of explaining how and why things happened and relationships formed throughout the US and Canada's shared history. While the film does have its strong points, I found that there were quite a few drawbacks to it. Firstly, while the film is very informative, I didn't find it to be very interesting or engaging. The voice of the narrator is clear and easy to understand, but it is rather monotonous. In addition, the use of visuals corresponds well with the narration, at least for the most part, but the film doesn't really do anything interesting with its visuals. To be blunt, in terms of the film's visuals, it feels rather sluggish and boring. Going off of that, most of the film utilizes historical footage, mainly of presidents and prime ministers. However, there are short segments throughout the film that utilize contemporary footage of the narrator or interviewees. I think these segments are a bit of a drawback to the film, as they don't really add anything to it. They just seem to be thrown in at random points of the film and are not any more or less interesting than the rest of it. I think the film would be a bit more interesting if more interviewees were used, or at least used more consistently. The final thing I want to touch on is the blatantly anti-American tone of the film. This is not necessarily a drawback of the film, but it did detract from my enjoyment of it. As I stated above, the film covers many different Canadian prime ministers and US presidents. Almost every president that is touched on is portrayed in a negative light, with Canada consistently being portrayed positively. Justified or not, the film only seems to look at things from one perspective and doesn't make much effort to see things from both sides. To be fair, this is not all that surprising, considering that the film was produced exclusively by Canadians. While I'm sure we Americans do the same sort of thing in our films, and I'm probably a bit biased, the film's anti-American tone was pretty off-putting. Ultimately, I don't think "In Bed with an Elephant" is bad film, despite my complaints. Rather, it is very clearly made to be a film by Canadians, for Canadians (which I am not). The film is very informative and manages to cover a lot of information in a relatively short amount of time. However, I do think it has some issues. Namely, it is not particularly interesting or engaging. This, along with its short running time, makes the whole film a bit difficult to follow.

The documentary is a form of non-fiction storytelling that aims to present factual information, insights, and perspectives on real-world subjects, events, issues, or people. Documentaries can cover a wide range of topics, including history, science, culture, social issues, nature, biographies, and more.

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In Bed with an Elephant

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