The Canoes of the movie "Black Robe."

[Andy Hutyera]

Just watched the movie "Black Robe" from Netflix. There were plenty of beautiful shots of a small fleet of canoes being paddled down what was supposed to be the St. Lawrence River in the late 1600's. The canoes looked a lot like the big fiberglass birchbark replicas that Ralph Frese used to make. Does anyone know anything about the origin of the canoes used in the movie? Just curious. Too bad Ralph is gone. It would have been fun to call him and ask.

 

[bredlo]

I remember that movie - it was released when I was in high school, and wouldn't have interested me at that time. I'll have to give it a try now.

No mention of Ralph for these film boats, but he apparently built several for a mini-series called Centennial.

A nice list of historic canoes in movies is here:
http://www.canoerootsmag.com/features/features-canoes/1356-popcorn-please.html

 

[Kathryn Klos]

Great list, Brad-- thanks!

 

[pklonowski]

I just received a question about who made the canoes in this film. Having watched only the original trailer, I couldn't tell if they were actually bark canoes, or glass boats made to look like bark. Guess I'll watch the movie... but if anyone has insight into that question, I'd be glad to hear of it!

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

I can remember being in Ralph's shop when they were making the canoes for some Hollywood production (maybe Centennial, I think that was the Robert Conrad as a trapper one). They were bending thin cedar ribs and thin planks into the fiberglass shell, so it might be fairly hard to tell them from a real bark version. Ralph was joking about the fact that the actors were not particularly good paddlers, so there was a cable attachment on the bow stem below the waterline so that the boats could be towed and end up in the right place at the right time.

 

[Dan Miller]

For those who haven't seen it, here is a press photo:

and a link to the trailer:

 

[Benson Gray]

The pictures at https://mcmolo.blogspot.com/2017/03/from-novel-to-film-pt-32-black-robe.html lead me to believe that the canoes are fiberglass replicas. The ones at https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-jftvc_Vt...7JDKSIPwN5ScxfUgyNimNPcgpK6QCLcB/s1600/12.png and https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gs5EuLJJ...XE25YQwz7L1x0UIggkzD0GcUYxmgCLcB/s1600/24.png don't look like real bark to me.

Benson

 

[pklonowski]

I scrolled through the movie, looking at the canoe scenes. There's one scene in which some canoes are pulled up on shore, upside down, and there's a sameness across all the boats that sure looks like factory-made boats; the outer surfaces are too smooth to be bark... Question answered. Thank you!

 

[Todd Bradshaw]

Yep, I agree. My first reaction to all the photos was that somebody really gooped an incredible (and unusual) amount of pitch on all the stems. Also, and Ferdy would probably know for sure, but using five pieces of bark, cross-seamed together to make the bottom of what can't be more than a 20' canoe also seems really strange. Those seams on a real bark boat would be sewn overlaps, and they would probably form lumps which actually need quite a bit of pitch.

 

[pklonowski]

In the picture above, the canoe to the right has ribs in it... but Merrimac canoes have faux ribs, too. It's not a difficult addition.

Then there's the practical aspect... in some scenes, they're dragging the canoes onto or away from the shore. Might not want to do that with a real birchbark canoe. But then, it's hollywood, so authenticity is limited.

 

[Benson Gray]

in some scenes, they're dragging the canoes onto or away from the shore. Might not want to do that with a real birchbark canoe.

The picture at https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Jd6gO-yL...6HAPEEJziMShCux4WSaJDdAdzNXACLcB/s1600/36.png indicates that there is some significant canoe dragging during the movie.

Benson