- published: 16 Aug 2011
- views: 4061
Blue State is a Canadian / American romantic comedy film, released in 2007, starring Breckin Meyer and Anna Paquin. Meyer's character, a dedicated John Kerry campaigner, actually follows through on a drunken campaign promise to move to Canada if George W. Bush gets re-elected. Paquin additionally served as executive-producer of the film.
It was filmed on location in Winnipeg and Emerson, in the Canadian province of Manitoba. The film subsequently premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Blue State was released on DVD on 12 February 2008 in Region 1 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in a dual sided format with side A being a 1.33:1 pan and scan version and side B having the film in 1.78:1 widescreen. The DVD includes subtitles and an audio commentary by writer/director Marshall Lewy.Sony Pictures Home Entertainment released Blue State in Canada on 28 February 2008 on a single sided disc containing the film in 1.78:1 widescreen. It has the audio commentary but does not have subtitles.
On the eve of John Kerry's 2004 defeat, campaign volunteer John Logue, canvasing in Ohio, says he'll move to Canada if Bush wins. His pledge gets televised, so when John returns to San Francisco - where his old job and girl-friend evaporate - his friends expect him to deliver on the promise. He gets a call from marryacanadian.ca, accepts their invitation to come to Winnipeg, interviews traveling companions, picks Chloe (she with a nose ring), and sets out. Both John and Chloe have secrets, revealed one at a time, and Winnipeg in 2004, with men and women willing to help US ex-pats gain citizenship, may not be what either needs. Echoes of the Vietnam war help them decide.
Keywords: 2004-presidential-election, absent-without-leave, american-flag, answering-machine, archive-footage, arrest, awol, bar, beer, bench
[first lines]::Suburban Man: Can I help you?::John Logue: Hi, I'm John Logue with the Kerry campaign, and we just want to make sure we get all the voters out there. We have you listed as a strong-leaning Kerry household.::Suburban Man: I'm voting for Bush.::John Logue: You are? Sorry, no matter how many times people say that to me, I just can't get over it. It's like I don't have the enzymes to metabolize someone actually saying that to me.
John Logue: If George Dubya Bush gets elected President for another four years, I swear, I promise on my life, that I will move to Canada!
John Logue: Half the county is so stupid they voted for this evil, war-mongering, corrupt moron with Dick Cheney's hand up his ass. And the other half has this self-defeating inferiority complex that we nominated this wooden, unelectable opportunist.
John Logue: I was just so excited to see what would happen to that look on Bush's face when he realized he was finished. You know, he's got that look, that... That kind of... Curious George getting a bad hand job.
Hal: What about your promise?::John Logue: What promise?::Hal: Don't fucking play dumb.::John Logue: Oh, they knew I wasn't serious.::Hal: You swore on your life, John. You were on the news.::John Logue: It was local.::Hal: You swore on your life.::John Logue: I'm not fucking moving to Canada, Hal.
John Logue: My moving to Canada is a protest against the recently re-elected administration.::Chloe Hamon: Why? Are you somebody I should know or something?::John Logue: What do you mean?::Chloe Hamon: I mean, who's gonna care if you move to Canada?::John Logue: Well, you don't have to be a somebody to make a political statement. But, yeah, actually, the local news did a piece on me and I write a blog called the Donkey Revolution.
John Logue: I'm going up there to make a political statement.::Hal: Please. Did Gandhi go on a sex-fueled road trip with some little communist hottie to protest British occupation?::John Logue: No.::Hal: No. He fasted for weeks. Martin Luther King, did he desegregate the South by boning white women? I don't think so. He marched, he got spit on, he got attacked by dogs and honky policemen, and then he got shot. You're going on what I believe will be described by historians as a sex romp.
John Logue: Mom, look, I'm in Oregon. It's hard to predict exactly when I'm going to arrive in Eastern Washington State, eight hours away. I will call you when I'm closer, okay?::John Logue: Just me and a friend. And she has blue hair, and she might be a lesbian. I'm just gonna to tell you this now so you don't faint when you see her. Would you just tell Dad when you see her, so he doesn't...
Chloe Hamon: Stop the car!::John Logue: We're already here, okay? Relax, we'll talk about it when we get to the other side.::Chloe Hamon: No, I can't talk about when I get to the other side, because I can't go to the other side.::John Logue: Now, what is so godddam important? What?::Chloe Hamon: I'm in the Army.
John Logue: What about you and me?::Chloe Hamon: Seriously?::John Logue: Yeah.::Chloe Hamon: "Politics makes strange bedfellows." I read that on the DonkeyRevolution.com