Remember that scene in Children of Men where Clive Owen watches from the treeline as Michael Caine's character jokes with the gunman to pull his finger? And then the shooter blows his hand clean off? Yeah, Toronto -- you know which one I'm talking about, especially today as the city surveys the dystopian damage from the ongoing G20 Summit. Not surprisingly, it makes for riveting, ghastly online viewing as the user-generated videos mount; this is a location shoot no one would want a part of.
Take this insane showdown on Queen and Spadina streets. "This is from a movie, right, not from someone's window, right?" asked Ray Pride at Movie City Indie. "G20, it's something Belgian, right? Science fiction?" If only. Staggering.
Here are some folks attempting to reason with each other, if you can call shouting while vandals, anarchists and police come to blows around you "reasoning."
Here's a first-person glimpse of what it's like having Toronto's riot crew descend on you. A striking one-shot survey of the aftermath follows, complete with camera-strap obstruction -- which is a lot more unnerving than it sounds.
Here's another one-shot wonder of protesters just having a sit in Queen's Park until a wall of cops descends with bikes, batons and pepper spray. If there's anything that might be most compatible with an Alfonso Cuaron film, it's this.
And this is most compatible with a certain Stuart Townsend film you may have seen, but it's cinematic and shocking nonetheless. [via The Lost Boy]