Brief movie review: EARTH  (1998)

A film about the partition of India in 1947 into India and Pakistan, EARTH focusses on the story of a Parsees family.  The Parsees have as role models the Swiss, and were absolutely neutral during the division, and the attendant disputes and ultimately bloodbaths among Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus. 

I learned that more than 1 million people died when India became independent of the UK, and more than 12 million people were displaced from one part of the old country into another part of the old country, based on religion.  And I learned that religion-based hatred had a modern precedent I knew nothing about.

Besides being educational,  the film is beautiful, the acting strong, and the story line compelling.  That fact that it had to be made by a Canadian who had emigrated from India and based on a novel by an Parsees Indian who had emigrated to the United States tells us how divided India still is.

I thought, from my culturally skewed perch in Canada, that no-one could do pomp and ceremony like Americans: inaugurations, State of the Union speeches by the President in the Senate, the Oscars.  I mean, who could top that?

But, today I discovered I suffered from myopia.  I looked to the  American model because it was closest -- as close as  my television set in prime time.  But two miles away, at an obscure non-prime-time hour, televised only on public networks, the Speech from the Throne took place today.

I found when the in-laws were visiting that I was completely incapable of explaining the role of the Governor General to Americans.  I mean, I could say that the Governor General was Canada's offical head of state, representative of the Queen (of England and Canada) in Canada.  I could point out that heads of state visiting Canada on official visits stay with the Governor General at the Governor General's residence.  What I couldn't answer was whether the Governor General has any powers beyond the ceremonial.  I had to answer, somewhat sheepishly, that I thought she had some powers, but that they would never be exercised.  What an odd concept, especially to Americans!

Anyway, today was the first performance of the new Governor General, a competent professional journalist, who also happens to be the first immigrant to Canada to have been appointed to the role, and the first non-Caucasian, and a woman married to a highly regarded left-wing thinker and writer.  So, she is her own show, and as the person required to actually read the Speech from the Throne, though it's written by the Prime Minister's Office staff, she was on camera for all 47 minutes, switching flawlessly between  French and English, and not mumbling once.

But there were other first. The "gentleman" of the black staff (don't ask- I don't know) leaves the Senate chambers, where the Governor General is presiding, and walks to the House of Commons to request that the members of the Commons attend to the Governor  General in the Senate Chambers promptly.  For the first time, the "gentleman" was female, and this was one of her first tasks, too.  It may only be Canadian television, but to walk with dignity carrying a large stick (no, I'm not kidding!), and carry out this task, and then to soberly lead the members of the House of Commons back to the Senate must have seemed like being in the camera's eye for almost 47 minutes, although it was more like 15 minutes. I can't figure out whether the members of House of Commons' failure to heckle the "gentleman", as tradition requires, was due to maturity or some outdated notion of chivalry.

The whole thing was very regal.  Royal.  In a country that has the Queen on the back of its coins, but has no royalty.  Ceremonial.   Pomp. Circumstance.  Not too shoddy, I say, old chap!

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