There are many theories as to why English-Canadian movies languish at the box office: cash-strapped or indifferent marketing, greedy exhibitors, and/or the insurmountable competition of Hollywood product. Some say you can’t compare the situation to that in Quebec, where the French language gives films a built-in audience.

But Gerald Pratley, Canada’s longest-serving film critic, lays the blame elsewhere. ‘Clearly, it’s in the films themselves,’ he says.

‘There are not enough films being made, especially in [English] Canada, that make the public feel, ‘I want to go and see that film’ and put down their $12,’ he adds.

Pratley has likely been following the Canadian film scene longer than anyone. A film commentator on CBC Radio from 1948 to 1976, he was a founding member and chair of the Toronto Film Society. He has written books on several filmmakers and overseen the Canadian entries in the International Film Guide. A former film history teacher at five Canadian universities and colleges, Pratley was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1984 and received a Special Award at the 2001 Genies.

At 80, Pratley is not a fan of much of what he sees at the cinema these days. He feels the majority of Hollywood filmmakers go overboard with sex, violence and profanity, but lest you dismiss him as an old crank, he says that he has enjoyed a couple of recent blockbusters, such as Road to Perdition and The Italian Job.

In the course of viewing 2,000-plus Canadian theatrical and TV movies from 1900 to the present for his new film guide, A Century of Canadian Cinema, the Sterling, ON-based writer became acutely aware of a particular trend.

‘I could see the Quebec filmmakers were really doing better than [English-Canadian directors],’ he says. ‘I mean, could anyone right now in English Canada make a Barbarian Invasions?’

Of Denys Arcand’s Oscar winner, Pratley writes, ‘If this is a sequel… then there has never been as brilliant [a] one like this before.’

One of the biggest problems with English-Canadian films, he says, is that in some misguided concession to global appeal, many are set in a generic North American locale, as opposed to an actual Canadian city or town.

This kind of complaint even extends to The Sweet Hereafter, Atom Egoyan’s 1997 feature that was nominated for two Oscars, took in $1.48 million at the Canadian box office, and was voted the best Canadian film of all time in a 2002 Playback readers poll. Pratley gripes that The Sweet Hereafter was ‘filmed against the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia but without any reference to B.C.’

‘Our producers like to say, ‘We can’t get our money back in the home market – we have to have [foreign] sales.’ And yet look at Quebec – most of the films that they make get their money back in Quebec. And why? Because they are so clearly about their own society and the people who are living there,’ he says.

Pratley frequently found it tricky to define a production as ‘Canadian’ in his book. Most films after 1974 that are included are CAVCO-certified. He also uses a couple of qualifiers, describing certain entries as ‘U.S.-Canada films’ – productions on which a U.S. company played a major role (such as the CBS/Alliance Atlantis miniseries Hitler: The Rise of Evil). There are also ‘Canadian-American’ movies, which are ‘passed off as being American, while calling themselves Canadian,’ including many made under the Capital Cost Allowance program (1974 to 1982).

Back in January, producer Robert Lantos called for a re-evaluation of that oft-maligned tax-shelter era at the CFTPA conference. He spoke favorably about the days of private film investors being allowed to deduct 100% of their investment, in comparison to the modern system of direct government funding. Despite some abuses, he said, there were many films produced that drew positive notices and cracked the $1-million domestic box-office threshold.

While Pratley has positive reviews for tax-shelter flicks The Changeling, Meatballs, Middle-Age Crazy and Atlantic City, he sees little more of value coming out of that time.

‘[Most of those films] are terrible, just terrible. It’s ridiculous… talking like that,’ Pratley says.

While no fan of tax shelters, the critic likewise sees Telefilm Canada as somewhat deluded in its mandate to make more ‘commercial’ films, which has resulted in high hopes for the likes of Decoys and Foolproof, celluloid bubble-gum that met with a cold shoulder from media and audiences alike.

”Commercial films’ – what does that mean? You make rubbish, in the hope that’s going to be commercial?’ he says. ‘You have to have genuine filmmakers with a genuine desire to do a certain subject that is close to them and which they want other people to be able to respond to.’

Pratley believes that even some of the films that have done well at the box office have missed an opportunity for greater success still. A prime example is the comedy Men with Brooms, produced by Lantos and starring, cowritten and directed by Paul Gross. Made on a $7.5-million budget, the film took in more than $4 million on domestic screens after an aggressive promotional campaign.

‘It could have been a marvelous film about a lot of very decent Canadians who enjoy this sport [of curling] which is a mystery to many,’ Pratley says. ‘And what is it? It’s just slimy and sex-driven. I’m amazed at Paul Gross having done it, really.’

Despite these criticisms, there have been a number of films that fill Pratley with hope for Canadian cinema. He lists among all-time favorites Claude Jutra’s Mon Oncle Antoine and Don Shebib’s Goin’ Down the Road, and more recently, Paul Donovan’s Paint Cans, Keith Behrman’s Flower & Garnet and Peter O’Brian’s Hollywood North, although the latter three hardly set the box office ablaze.

An aspiring director born in London, Pratley met pioneer filmmaker John Grierson at a U.K. screening near the end of World War II, and the National Film Board founder encouraged Pratley to check out opportunities at the NFB. So he did, but when Pratley arrived at NFB headquarters in Ottawa in 1946, he found pickings slim and Grierson gone to Paris to head up mass communications for UNESCO.

So he headed to Toronto and tried writing about movies for radio. CBC eventually gave him a 10-minute Sunday spot called This Week at the Movies, which led to The Movie Scene and Music from the Films.

Pratley had been compiling his thoughts on Canadian films for a decade, and decided about three years ago to seek a publisher for a Leonard Maltin-style Canuck movie guide. Getting a book on Canadian film off the ground proved about as Herculean a task as mounting a Canadian film production, but Pratley found a publisher in Toronto-based Lynx Images.

While Pratley welcomes the handle of ‘champion of Canadian film,’ he laments, ‘I only wish some of them could be better.’