Shame on you Ron Howard

Rating: Null/10 (5 June 2005)

When Americans are unemployed, they put even more out of work to make this movie. The highly publicized film "Cinderella Man" opened June 3. It is a classic American story in every way, with one exception: where it was made. It was filmed in Toronto instead of the United States, using labor heavily subsidized by the Canadian government. How ironic that this story of a man literally fighting to provide for his family at the height of the Depression should be filmed in a foreign country, costing America hundreds of middle-class jobs and contributing to the dangerous trade imbalance which now deeply concerns our economic experts.
James J. Braddock, the "Cinderella Man," was born in New York City to Irish immigrant parents. His is a real-life "Rocky" story. He was a poor local boxer struggling to support his family when, fighting as a ten-to-one underdog, he defeated Max Baer to become the heavyweight champion of the world in 1935. Seventy years later, the crowds cheering him on to victory in the film about his life are no longer Americans because the background artists portraying them are Canadians, as is the overwhelming majority of people employed in the making of this movie. Material that should be triumphantly American is counterfeit, a cheap and tawdry imitation of who we are.
In recent years millions of American jobs have been outsourced overseas to take advantage of lower labor rates. However, Canada and Australia, where "Superman" is now being filmed, are hardly third world nations. Unlike other industries, in the case of film and television production labor costs are made artificially lower in these and other countries by government subsidies which violate our trade agreements.
When 28 members of Congress sent a letter of protest over the choice to film James Braddock's story in Canada, the studios which produced "Cinderella Man" claimed they went to Toronto because it was the only place that had the right architecture. That's a lame excuse for a purely monetary decision. Plenty of cities in the United States still have buildings with the historically correct "look" for this picture. The studios went to Canada because one third of their labor costs were kicked back by the government, pure and simple.
The outsourcing of this and other productions in order to take advantage of illegal subsidies offered by foreign governments is more than just a moral and patriotic outrage. It doesn't only cost American jobs. It is also a very real threat to the economic stability of the United States. The filming of American movies and TV shows in foreign countries contributes to our ballooning trade deficit and the devaluation of our dollar against other currencies. As a result, outsourced production harms every single American citizen in a very real way.