“"The Barbarian Invasions" is one of the best father-son movies I’ve ever seen. The father is Rémy (Rémy Girard), a 53-year-old former history professor who describes himself as a "sensual socialist." The son is Sébastien (Stéphane Rousseau), described by his father as a "puritanical capitalist." Rémy is dying of cancer, but his passage is eased by Sébastien, who has become wealthy through wheeling and dealing in international finance.
I was shocked at the way the film depicts the Canadian health care system. Rémy is in an absurdly overcrowded Montréal hospital where the staff can’t keep track of him, and the nearest place he can get radiation therapy is in the United States! But due to the corruption of hospital administrators and union leaders, Sébastien is able to use his money to have a private room created for his father.
The terminally ill Rémy suffers extreme pain that can't be controlled by legal medications, and Sébastien is told by a physician that heroin is 800 percent more effective than morphine. That's where the Oscar-nominated screenplay cleverly mirrors the film’s father-son relationship with a mother-daughter subplot. The daughter is Nathalie (Marie-Josée Croze), a junkie whose knowledge of the heroin world is exploited to relieve Rémy’s suffering.
The description of the "The Barbarian Invasions" I’ve given so far makes it sound lugubrious, but actually it's filled with wit and humor, mostly supplied by Rémy and his pals from his university days. There's quite a bit of talk about their sex lives and their fascination with leftist politics. They enjoy toying with hypotheses such as: "Intelligence isn't an intellectual trait. It's collective, national, intermittent." Examples cited supporting this hypothesis are Athens in 416 BC, Florence in 1504, and Philadelphia during 1776 to 1787.
I should mention that "The Barbarian Invasions" is a sequel to Denys Arcand’s "The Decline of the American Empire" (1986), showing what became of Rémy and his old pals (played by the same actors) 17 years later. However, the 2003 movie stands on its own and doesn’t rely on the viewer having seen the earlier film.
The DVD for "The Barbarian Invasions" provides only one bonus material of any consequence, a 51-minute French-language television program titled "Inside 'The Barbarian Invasions'." The program consists of a dozen actors who appeared in the movie talking while sharing a meal. (Conspicuously absent at this event is writer-director Denys Arcand.) The actors' gabfest isn't so much about the film itself as it is an informal discussion of some of the issues raised by the movie: changing times, a vanishing heritage, bureaucracy, the power of money, drugs, family, friends, spirituality.
I found the TV program well worthwhile, and I think it sheds light on the film’s resonance. I believe that both the actors’ discussion and the movie itself reveal that Baby Boomers are struggling to come to terms with the early 21st century world and their own role in making it the way it is. Back in the flower-power era when their world-view was shaped, they never envisioned dysfunctional health care systems, globalization, the problems related to the huge demand for drugs, and international terrorism. Still, both the 50-something characters in the movie and the actors who portray them clearly retain their joie de vivre.
Although the narrative in "The Barbarian Invasions" is driven by the melancholy fact that Rémy is dying, the movie is far too cheerful and vibrant for that to be its dominant mood. In the end, I found this to be one of most life-affirming films I’ve seen. If I were forced to characterize the movie in a single word, I would say it is bittersweet.
I've listed all the special features on “The Barbarian Invasions” DVD on the next page.
