Excerpts from the film “1837”

A montage of excerpts from the film 1837, which was made as part of the Fêtes du Vieux Saint-Eustache. It was produced in 1976 to introduce the public to the history of French Canadians in Québec and specifically the episode of the Lower Canada Rebellion. In the first scene, two characters, sons of farmers and loggers, talk about the realities facing French Canadians. The second scene illustrates a street battle that led to false accusations against the Patriots, while the third scene shows a barn burnt down by the British. The three scenes are transcribed below:

First scene:

[Scene shot in black and white. A young man wearing a patriot’s toque and a woollen coat is outside in the winter. We hear a few notes of a lament.]

Man 1 (M1): Don’t talk to me about the damned English! Have you seen what they do to us? Cram yourselves in here and deal with it! All the rest belongs to us, so you stay away. There are five boys in my family, three are loggers and the other two, we chop the wood.

[The camera moves to another young man leaning against a tree; he is wearing a coat, toque and scarf and looks straight ahead. Then the camera returns to the first man. It goes back and forth between the two for the rest of the scene.]

This summer, the two of us will go logging too! Then we’ll work on the river, on the log drive. There’s nothing else for us to do.

Man 2 (M2): What the English are afraid of is that we’ll get too strong. They can’t stand the idea.

M1: It would be no good for them alright.

M2: [he gestures a little while talking] That’s for damn sure. I was supposed to get married last summer. To Rose-Aimé’s daughter, but I couldn’t. We had to leave, go logging and then work on the log drive. All for those guys. Nothing to do here.

M1: [he gesticulates while he speaks] We have to keep going further and further away. The land’s reserved! Reserved for whom, we don’t know. But we have a pretty good idea!

M2: In any case, I can’t wait to see what happens to them. We’re strong men and they haven’t heard the last of us!

[A man carrying wood walks across a snow-covered field toward a small Canadian house.]

M1 [off-camera]: Eventually they’ll learn that this land is ours and they have no business here! We’ve already agreed to log for them, work on the log drive for them, in winter and summer. Half the year we spend working for them, but at least let us work our land.

Second scene:

[A patriot is walking down the street past a number of stone buildings. Men wearing capes and top hats attack him with sticks. A group of patriots run past the fight. We hear unsettling music.]

Narrator: On November 1, it was easy to come up with the plan. By provoking an encounter, an altercation in the street, some kind of fight, they would force the troops to come out.

[The music becomes very percussive and rhythmic.]

The Doric Club and the Sons of Liberty were just the ones for the job.

[Three patriots are running down the street, pursued by five men wearing capes and top hats, armed with sticks.]

They just needed to make it look as if the Patriots were the aggressors.

[Close-up of a young man carrying a stick; then the camera goes back to the chase, which becomes an attack.]

After that, it was easy to get statements against the Patriot leaders and warrants for their arrest. With one-sided justice, it would be easy to secure their conviction and the Patriots would lose their honour and influence.

[Close-up of one of the attackers looking straight ahead with a ruthless expression, and holding a stick.]

Third scene:

[A wooden house is burning on a winter night. Large flames leap from the roof of the building. We hear the crackling of the flames. We see the silhouettes of people fighting in front of the flames. One man seems to be killing another one. The camera then focuses on tall flames and smoke coming out of the house.]