suggest
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (movie)
Now, put vTap to work for you!
Let us keep you up to date with new videos related to:
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (movie)
Go to Feed to see what's new!
+Feed
 
Wikipedia.org
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (Wikipedia.org)

Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion is a two-part miniseries produced in 2003 by CBC Television. It presents a fictionalized version of the Halifax Explosion, a 1917 catastrophe that destroyed much of the city of Halifax. It was drected by Bruce Pittman and written by Keith Ross Leckie. The Film Stars Vincent Walsh, Tamara Hope, Clare Stone, Zachary Bennett, Shauna MacDonald and Ted Dykstra.

The series was expensive by Canadian television standards with a budget of $10.4 million. It was heavily promoted by the CBC and paired with a number of non-fiction documentaries. The broadcast drew a sizable Canadian audience of 1.5 million viewers. It drew some praise for the adept use of special effects to show the destruction of the explosion. However the miniseries was poorly received critically. One critic at the Globe and Mail described it as "execrably written and acted" while another strained to find positive elements, "At times, there is a plodding workmanlike quality to Shattered City." The large scale of the production guaranteed a number of Canadian television Gemini Award nominations in 2004 and the miniseries won awards for photography, special effects, costume and sound but was passd over for any direction or writing awards and won only a single supporting acting award for Ted Dykstra.

Serious concerns were raised over the depiction of history in the miniseries. Descendants of explosion victims and professional historians objected to the historical distortions and numerous liberties with historical truth. Significant deviations include:

  • The addition of a major subplot featuring German spies in Halifax (the Germans conducted little significant espionage anywhere in North America and none in Halifax during the war).
  • The movie does not convey the tsunami which followed directly after the explosion.
  • A conspiracy that frees the captain of Mont Blanc and the naval commander Frederick Wyatt leaving Mont Blanc's pilot, Francis Mackey, as the fall guy for the explosion. In fact, Wyatt was the only person sent to trial for the explosion and was subsequently acquitted by a jury of Halifax citizens.
  • Commander Wyatt is depicted as a British officer (he was Canadian) and is shown pushing for relaxed regulation of ammunition handling (he actually argued for stricter regulation) and refusing to approach the burning Mont Blanc (he was in fact boarding a harbor tug to direct firefighting when the explosion occurred). Similarly, captain Le Medec is depicted as a coward who was first to abandon his ship when in fact he was the last to leave it.
  • In the aftermath of the explosion the film depicts only minimal emergency relief capability until American assistance arrives by train, when in fact there were ample Canadian resources available and the first American aid didn't arrive until two days afterward.

imdb.com
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (imdb.com)

Shattered City, an epic two-part mini-series, dramatizes a compelling piece of Canadian history. It is the story of how a tragic incident at the height of the First World War became a living metaphor for the worldwide conflict, and how Halifax arose from the ashes after severe destruction and devastation. In the early hours of December 6, 1917, the Mont Blanc, a French-owned freighter loaded to the gunnels with thousands of tons of TNT, collided with a Belgian relief ship and exploded in the Halifax Harbour. The explosion was so vast that it killed more than 2,000 people, injured 9,000 more and completely flattened two square kilometres of northern Halifax. Written by Anonymous

more...
Videos
Refine
Keep this video in the "Saved" list
Now, put vTap to work for you!
Let us keep you up to date with new videos related to:
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (movie)
123456712P (YouTube)
Go to Feed to see what's new!
share
my users
keep
 
 
7
paulgross
2h 57m 9s |
8 months ago
MEGAVIDEO
Keep this video in the "Saved" list
Now, put vTap to work for you!
Let us keep you up to date with new videos related to:
Halifax Explosion
Shattered City: The Halifax Explosion (movie)
Go to Feed to see what's new!
share
my users
keep
 
 
...author of Shattered City:...The Halifax Explosion and the Road to Recovery , are disappointed with the number of historical errors contained in the comic book. One error involves the real life ...
8m 14s |
12 years ago
CBC.ca
Keep this video in the "Saved" list
Now, put vTap to work for you!
Let us keep you up to date with new videos related to:
Halifax Explosion
Go to Feed to see what's new!
share
keep