BON COP, BAD COP

'''Bon Cop, Bad Cop''' is a 2006 Canadian comedy-thriller buddy cop film about English Canadian and French Canadian police officers who reluctantly join forces. The dialogue is a mixture of English and French. The title is a translation word play on the phrase "Good cop/Bad cop", and the film's tagline is "Shoot First, Translate Later."

Contents

Synopsis

Plot

Bilingualism

Francophone humour

Anglophone humour

Actual facts

Exhibition and box office

Canada

International

Awards and recognition

References

External links

Synopsis

When a dead body is found hanging on top of the sign demarcating the Ontario-Quebec border, police officers from both Canadian provinces must join forces to solve the murder. David Bouchard (Patrick Huard) is a rule-bending, francophone detective for the Sûreté du Québec, while Martin Ward (Colm Feore) is a by-the-book anglophone Ontario Provincial Police detective. Although both detectives are bilingual, they must resolve their professional and cultural differences as well as their bigotry and prejudices.

Plot

The clues lead the pair to Luc Therrien (Sylvain Marcel). After a fight in a bar, they imprison him in the trunk of Bouchard's car. They then go to watch Bouchard's daughter in a ballet recital. When they emerge, a bomb destroys the car, apparently killing Therrien.
They discover another body, of a former owner of a hockey team, in a house where there is a marijuana grow-op in the basement. A booby trap sets the house on fire, destroying the house and causing the two cops to get high on the fumes. When they are disciplined by Bouchard's police chief shortly afterwards, he angrily removes them from the case after they start laughing hysterically because they're still high.
The next victim is discovered in Ward's jurisdiction. They realize that the killer has a pattern of tattooing his victims, with each tattoo providing a clue to the next murder victim. Each murder, in fact, is in some way connected to major league hockey. (The film uses thinly disguised parodies of National Hockey League teams, owners and players, however, rather than the real league.)
The pair anticipate the next victim, but he goes missing before they reach him. He was about to appear on a hockey talk show, and the two cops appear instead.
Ward is attacked in his home by a masked assailant whom he discovers is Therrien. Meanwhile, Bouchard makes love to Ward's sister.
The "Tattoo Killer" kidnaps Bouchard's daughter, leading to the final confrontation with the two policemen. It is ultimately revealed that the murders are being committed as revenge against the hockey league for desecrating the game by moving Canadian teams such as the "Quebec Fleur de Lys" to the United States.

Bilingualism

''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'' claimed to be Canada's first bilingual feature film, however that accomplishment belongs to ''Amanita Pestilens'' (1963). Since the film revolves around the concept of mixed cultures and languages, most scenes include a mixture of French and English dialogue, with characters switching language rapidly. The entire movie was filmed using both a French and an English script, and the language used at each moment was only finalized later during editing.^[1] The film was then released in two official versions, one for Anglophones and one for Francophones, which differ only in their subtitles and in a few spoken lines. The DVD also includes an option for bilingual viewers to switch off all subtitles.

Francophone humour

★ When Jeff is updating the cops on Rita's autopsy, he mentions that Rita spelled backwards is "atir." This sounds like "à tire", Québec slang for "elle tire", which means that she is promiscuous.

★ When Luc Therrien, played by Sylvain Marcel, puts on the mascot outfit in the washroom, he poses in front of a mirror and utters the line "Are you talkin' to me?", a parody of a similar scene in ''Taxi Driver''. However, he also says "Ah-ha!", a reference to Marcel's tagline in the popular commercials for the Familiprix chain of drugstores.

★ The line "Vive le Québec libre" uttered during the sex scene between David and Iris is an allusion to an encouragement to Quebec sovereigntists made by French President Charles De Gaulle in 1967.

★ The scenes introducing Ward play on French Canadian stereotypes of English Canadians (and Torontonians in particular) as boring or uncool. Examples include Ward ironing his pants in his kitchen while otherwise formally dressed for work, and his desire for a desk job.

Anglophone humour

★ Rick Mercer has a minor supporting role in the film as Tom Berry, a loudmouthed, racist television sportscaster, who is a parody of real-life Canadian hockey commentator Don Cherry.

★ Similarly, the character of Harry Buttman is a parody of NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, and hockey team owner Pickleton is a parody of Peter Pocklington.

★ Bouchard's erratic driving is a reference to long-standing Canadian jokes about the dangers of driving in Montreal, and of Quebec drivers in general.

★ When Ward and Bouchard arrive at the heliport, Ward's division of French-English language jurisdictions ("...with the possible exception of some areas in New Brunswick") and the formal language he uses in doing so are allusions to the Canadian Constitution and its official language provisions.

Actual facts

★ The film makes parodial references to certain major NHL events. The relocation of the Quebec Nordiques to Denver and the Colorado Avalanche's 1996 Stanley Cup championship the following season. Another reference is Eric Lindros as one of the key victims played a role in the trade. Peter Pocklington is also referenced for his role in trading Wayne Gretzky to the LA Kings.

Exhibition and box office

Canada

The film opened in Quebec on 4 August, 2006 (and Canada-wide on August 18) and, as of December 17, 2006, had grossed $12,665,721 USD (14,774,387 CAD), making it one of the highest-grossing Canadian films of all time domestically. While the film has only generated $1.3 million outside of Quebec,^[2] its success is significant given the difficulties that Canadian films normally face at the box office.
In October 2006, ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop's producers claimed that the film had become the highest-grossing Canadian film domestically, surpassing the $11.2 million teen comedy ''Porky's'' earned in Canada in 1981. The claim, however, does not take into consideration inflation: ''Porky's'' domestic gross in 2006 dollars is approximately $24.2 million, still far ahead of ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop''; the latter is thus likely the third highest-grossing Canadian film domestically after ''Porky's'' and 1970s ''Deux femmes en or''.
The film was released on DVD in Canada on December 19, 2006.

International

The film has not been released theatrically outside Canada, although it has been screened at film festivals in Australia and Estonia. In June 2007, it was shown on Cuban television - the Spanish subtitles struggled to convey the bilingualism.

Awards and recognition

The film won in two of its ten nominated categories for the 27th Genie Awards in 2007:

★ Best motion picture

★ Overall sound
Its other nominated categories were:

★ Best actor: Colm Feore

★ Best actor: Patrick Huard

★ Direction: Eric Canuel

★ Art Direction/Production Design: Jean Bécotte

★ Cinematography: Bruce Chun

★ Editing: Jean-François Bergeron

★ Sound editing

★ Original song:"Tattoo"

References

1. Famous Quebec, August/September 2006
2. Bon Cop, Bad Cop hits new high for Quebec box office

External links

★ Northern Stars: ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'', accessed 25 July 2006

★ cinoche.com: ''Bon cop, bad cop'', accessed 25 July 2006

★ PulpMovies: ''Bon Cop, Bad Cop'', accessed 25 July 2006

★ Co-writer Alex Epstein

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