Polytechnique is Denis Villeneuve' third feature film, for me this film does not compare to anything he has made since. It tells the story of the tragic ecole polytechnique massacre or the Montreal massacre, a mass shooting that took place at an engineering school affiliated with the university of montreal. The shooting was on the seventh of december 1989. 14 women were killed, 10 were injured and 4 men were also hurt. The killer, Marc Lepine had complained about women working non-traditional jobs for some time and claimed he was "fighting feminism" by murdering these young people. Lepine killed himself after killing as many women as he could. He wrote a suicide note that blamed feminists for ruining his life.
There are a lot of things I appreciate about this film. Having the film in black and white is a smart choice that worked well, the cinematography is also pretty great except, all the actors did a great job and the end to Jeff's story was tastefull and well executed.
Despite liking a lot of polytechnique I think it was overly preachy and conveyed the themes of feminism with little to no subtlety, for example the scene where Valerie is trying to get an internship. Conveying the themes and ideas is something Villeneuve has really improved on. I also feel like I should point out I am very pro-feminist and frankly I think it's disgusting that woman aren't treated the same as men.
The killers plan is stupid. I don't know how accurate the film is to the actual event, so I should rephrase. In the film the killers plan is stupid. If there was more than one guy (Jean) trying to help people who were injured the situation could have been better. Some students who were watching him reload his gun could have got up and tried to stop him then he would have no rounds in his gun, then it's one person against the entire university. The killer was also only one person, a group of people from behind could have knocked him down and taken his gun or beat him. All my criticisms here are about the film, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the horrific event.
Most of my complaints about polytechnique are pretty minor for most people but I find silly, careless mistakes hard to get over, especially when most of the film is presented carefully and pretty well. You should check this one out, it's not my thing but you might like it I don't know.
There are a lot of things I appreciate about this film. Having the film in black and white is a smart choice that worked well, the cinematography is also pretty great except, all the actors did a great job and the end to Jeff's story was tastefull and well executed.
Despite liking a lot of polytechnique I think it was overly preachy and conveyed the themes of feminism with little to no subtlety, for example the scene where Valerie is trying to get an internship. Conveying the themes and ideas is something Villeneuve has really improved on. I also feel like I should point out I am very pro-feminist and frankly I think it's disgusting that woman aren't treated the same as men.
The killers plan is stupid. I don't know how accurate the film is to the actual event, so I should rephrase. In the film the killers plan is stupid. If there was more than one guy (Jean) trying to help people who were injured the situation could have been better. Some students who were watching him reload his gun could have got up and tried to stop him then he would have no rounds in his gun, then it's one person against the entire university. The killer was also only one person, a group of people from behind could have knocked him down and taken his gun or beat him. All my criticisms here are about the film, I'm not trying to be disrespectful to the horrific event.
Most of my complaints about polytechnique are pretty minor for most people but I find silly, careless mistakes hard to get over, especially when most of the film is presented carefully and pretty well. You should check this one out, it's not my thing but you might like it I don't know.