Its a depressed town, featuring long faces, hit hard and often with many hard blows to its confidence. "Captain industry", crooked authorities, drug dealers and thugs rule the city. Alas, an honest hero, albeit with no superpowers other than integrity, battles the bad guys. This is the premise of the new Canadian movie I saw on my flight home last week, from my last contract aboard. The movie was Woody Harrelson's newest, and it is called "Defendor", now out on DVD.
Why would I make a post about this movie, on a marine related blog ? Well it is because the town it was filmed in, is none other than where my boat's been wintering, Hamilton, Ontario. Based on my first hand experience, the setting of the movie was probably without much debate, since it was pretty appropriate, sadly.
This industrial town has been very hard hit over the last years with this economic downturn. Even the Labbat's brewery is shuttering up, sending 143 to the unemployment lines. Siemens bought out the Westinghouse Electric factory in town, maker of many components on board many Canadian ships, such as switchboards and related components, now, they are pulling up stakes and moving to the US, sending 600 manufacturing jobs out on the street. Even our little tanker remains tied to the wall in Hamilton. Apparently gasoline is plentiful enough in the area, that the company has been forced to lay off the entire crew - yet somehow, the price at the pump is well past $1 a liter and climbing, strange, very strange.
I think the "Captains of Industry" are probably doing just fine - like always - but in Hamilton despite constant media prodding to "restart the party", the people there are reluctant to indulge with so much hurt on their doorstep. That why I felt compelled to mention this movie, and also because the ending, or denouement in the movie, occurs on the docks of the port, where the bad guys take delivery of a container full of bad stuff, drugs, a "few dead prostitutes" and such.
For those keen maritime eyes watching the show, you will notice a well known tug, from a local Hamilton operator, serving as the scene's background. Yet another appropriately placed prop for the movie. Regardless of the "deeper meaning" that I may breathe into this movie, its actually pretty entertaining and worth a watch. Read more about the movie here.Labels: business, Canada, Eastern Canada, in the media, Tug
