MovieChat Forums > Wagons East! (1994) Discussion > Canadian Bacon was far worse

Canadian Bacon was far worse

posted 20 years ago by padams33
8 replies | jump to latest

I wouldn't say that Wagons East was John's worst film. It isn't his best but it holds together alot better than Michael Moore's travesty "Canadian Bacon" does.

And the fact that Candy died in the middle of the production and yet they were able to pull a passable film out of it at all is a real impressive statement I think.

A little of Richard Lewis goes a long way in my book and some of the scenes are pretty "out there" (like where he murders that Ferguson guy removing a bullet from him and that doesn't bother him at all. He is more impressed that he was able to do surgery again? Even if the patient dies? I know the Fergusons were supposed to be characters we were supposed to hate and they tried to set them up as despised murderers in their own rights and all but still Lewis's character seemed very callous and strange.).

I know they don't film movies in chronological order so I'd like to know what scenes John didn't get to finish? And if he had would it really have altered the finished film at all?

I wonder if they reshot any scenes with a stand-in for Candy?

The whole snowing in summer sequence seemed really far-fetched and trying to connect Harlow with the Donner party...since the wagon train was in Nebraska at the time it seems pretty ludicrous to imagine them worrying about starving to death in a blizzard. Freak storm indeed.

[–] bj_arni 18 years ago

If i remember correctly, there were some scenes that John was supose to be in but his character is not in them. This is because he died before filming was finished, but most of his bigger scenes were done.

He had shot Canadian Bacon some months before doing Wagons, but post-production on Bacon took so long that it wasn't finished until a year later. They re-edited Candy's end scene in the film (appearently, originally his character was supose to die in the end).

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[–] BramOh 18 years ago

I absolutely agree with the OP. Wagon's East is certainly far from Candy's best work but Canadian Bacon is likely his very worst (I'd have to look at his film bio to be certain). It's just unfortunate that these 2 films make up the last of his work before he died before his time.

[–] Kotter7579 18 years ago

I thought that Candy was hilarious in CB! Think of him in the following scenes: giving orders at the bar, his little speech with the old people at the power station, his bumbling ways in the beginning at the auction, his interaction with Dan Aykroyd (a little unofficial reunion as well!)...these were all great Candy scenes. Wagons was worse than CB, at least for Candy's parts and the story. A few mild laughs in Wagons but not nearly enough to say that CB was worse!

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[–] Sawyer1625 16 years ago

Canadian Bacon is one of the worst and unfunny movies of all time

Wagon's East wasn't that good but looks like a classic compared to CB

[–] fluffchop 10 years ago

Wagon's East is certainly far from Candy's best work

I completely disagree because this movie is typical of everything he ever did. It's neither better nor worse as far as his performance was concerned. One of the greatest problems with American comedy is thinking that Saturday Night Live is in any way funny. Taking comedic "actors"? from that show didn't really make for funny extended movie performances. They're all pretty hit and miss lowest common denominator type films like Chevy Chase films for example. There is no better or worse John Candy film in terms of his performance and there was nothing wrong with this film.

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[–] Candyhearts27 13 years ago

Harlow was written to die in the end? Where did you hear this?

[–] bj_arni 13 years ago

It might have been a 90's Moore interview or something. The last scene with him picking up Perlman on the boat was an outtake as they were supposedly filming a scene in the river where Candy's and Perlman's character drown. I might also have been something I read on IMDb Message boards, I don't remember.

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[–] Candyhearts27 13 years ago

That would be horrible. Comedies shouldn't end like that. I'm glad it didn't.