Watch Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion For Free

So much average

This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

While this was a good attempt to articulate the disaster from a cinematic point of view, it lacked in many areas. First off, the glaring historical errors were bothersome, including the fact the city was lit like a Christmas tree despite strict blackout restrictions. The soap opera like plot lines involving Trixie and the German spy seemed a bit much, aside from the fact she was portrayed so naively when it came to love despite her extensive political knowledge. I also felt the city came off as a backwards two-bit town rather than a metropolis caught in the midst of war. I suppose this is because it was shot in Lunenburg, which is much smaller than Halifax was at the time of the explosion. I also thought the Titanic ploy of linking the past with the old woman who remembers the past seemed a bit trite.However, the soldiers' plight was well-articulated. Truth is, the first half of the mini-series is quite good, along with the special effects, but the second half degenerates into some melodramatic soap.The story, however, would have been better had the producers stuck to reality. Truth is stranger than fiction, and what is strange, is the fact the script made up things when the city was abuzz with far more fascinating things.Before the CBC markets these things as historical series, they should check to make sure they're accurate.

My commentary: First and foremost, while the emphasis was on human error in the movie, the fact is war is a very fertile breeding ground for accidents on top of the deliberate carnage. "Saving Private Ryan" noted this with the mention of the glider that was fitted with armor plating - but no one thought to tell the pilot. So it crashes and six soldiers are killed needlessly. Accounts of war proliferate in tragic incidents such as that one. The Halifax Explosion must be the biggest war-related accident in history.The Great War featured incomprehensibly vast usage of artillery shells, and artillery shells need TNT and other explosives. A lot of this had to be imported from the U.S., and by ships. Ships had to be gathered in ports. Ports will then see a lot of ships coming and going, and harbor masters are going to be pressed to keep all this traffic moving. The odds were considerable something like the incident of Dec. 6th, 1917 would happen someplace in Allied ports sooner or later.Captain Le Medec probably wasn't the greatest or bravest mariner of all time. But how many ship captains who have seniority or pull are going to agree to captain a massive floating bomb at the height of the U-boat menace? Second, did anyone notice that the movie exonerates harbor pilot Mackie while making Le Medec and the Belgian captain look like total dolts at the helm; and has Mackie trying to avert disaster while the Frenchman funks off with his crew? Considering it is a Canadian and not a French production, what a surprise.Then there is the almost defeatist speech Capt. Collins gives to the war rally in the church. Excuse me, an *officer* in HM forces blurting out like that? It simply wouldn't have happened at the time. Contrary to what he later tells Barbara, Germans weren't close to suing for peace at the time, and the war wasn't kept going only because the Allies wanted another year of war profits. Indeed, with the Western Front stalemated and Russia close to surrender, Ludendorff et al were convinced victory for Germany was just around the corner. And a lot of people on the Allied side feared the same thing.On the plus side, I was impressed by what the production did with a limited CBC budget.

I had friends that were in this movie so you will have to excuse my bias. First off the writing was adequate. I enjoyed the addition of some intrigue before the explosion, I had heard the conspiracy theories about German saboteurs before and the writers did a good job of myth building without re-writing history. The acting was pretty much the CBC standard which is acceptable in a docu-drama… what really stood out about this film was the terrible directing and cinematography, there was even one of those classic pan reaction shots when the disfigured soldier killed himself… the only place you see those is in comedy shows these days! Looking at Pittman's filmography I understand now why so many Canadian television shows have a similar look… and I mean that in a bad way.I'm very happy a movie was made in Halifax about Halifax and I am sure it will be shown to delighted junior high students for decades to come.

I thought that this was a great movie. I just finished watching it and it was truly touching especially at the end. I saw many of the scenes being shot since I live in the city, but it was great to see it all together. A very well done movie!