''The Defender'' is a 54-minute Canadian

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

, made in 1988 by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

(NFB) and directed by Stephen Low. The film depicts the building of a

strike fighter In current military parlance, a strike fighter is a multirole combat aircraft designed to operate both as an attack aircraft and as an air superiority fighter. As a category, it is distinct from fighter-bombers. It is closely related to the c ...

aircraft by Bob Diemert, an eccentric Canadian aviation engineer. His dream of building the next Canadian fighter aircraft to challenge the might of the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

was dependent on selling a restored

warbird A warbird is any vintage military aircraft now operated by civilian organizations and individuals, or in some instances, by historic arms of military forces, such as the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, the RAAF Museum Historic Flight, or the ...

Synopsis

At Friendship Field, Carman, Manitoba, aircraft restorer and self-taught engineer Bob Diemert and his friend Chris Ball are working on an unusual project which had its origins in the late 1970s. Taking shape in one of the airfield hangars is a new type of

close air support In military tactics, close air support (CAS) is defined as air action such as air strikes by fixed or rotary-winged aircraft against hostile targets near friendly forces and require detailed integration of each air mission with fire and moveme ...

COIN A coin is a small, flat (usually depending on the country or value), round piece of metal or plastic used primarily as a medium of exchange or legal tender. They are standardized in weight, and produced in large quantities at a mint in order t ...

aircraft designed to take on Soviet Union tanks. Christened the "Defender", the unusual design is a throwback to the heavily armoured Junkers Ju 87 ''Stuka'' and Ilyushin Il-2 ''Sturmovik'' close air support aircraft of the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In order to raise the funds for the Defender, Diemert began to restore one of the rare Japanese aircraft he retrieved from Balalae, Solomon Islands, a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter, one of very few of the type still in existence. In the past, he had made his mark in the ranks of aircraft restoration when he rebuilt a

Hawker Hurricane The Hawker Hurricane is a British single-seat fighter aircraft of the 1930s–40s which was designed and predominantly built by Hawker Aircraft Ltd. for service with the Royal Air Force (RAF). It was overshadowed in the public consciousness by ...

XII and flew it in the 1969 ''

Battle of Britain The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defende ...

'' film. The sale of the Zero to the Confederate Air Force in Texas has to await the painstaking restoration of the Japanese fighter aircraft. As it is readied for a test flight, Diemert runs afoul of Canadian aviation authorities, who refuse to allow him to fly the aircraft. Trucking the restored aircraft to

Midland, Texas Midland is a city in and the county seat of Midland County, Texas, United States. A small part of Midland is in Martin County. At the 2020 census, Midland's population was 132,524. It is the principal city of the Midland, Texas metropolitan ...

is the solution and after successful test flights, the Zero is passed over to its new American owners. Completing the Defender becomes the sole preoccupation of Diemert and his friend. Trying to ensure that the aerodynamics are properly established leads to a curious use of a bathroom scale mounted on the back of a pickup truck, an example of the unorthodox engineering that is employed in the project. Another example of Diemert's out-of-the-box thinking comes when his children ask him to build a swimming pool. His wife comes back from work to find a swimming pool in the living room, complete with wall-to-wall carpeting. When the Defender finally emerges from its hangar, Diemert prepares for the all-important

maiden flight The maiden flight, also known as first flight, of an aircraft is the first occasion on which it leaves the ground under its own power. The same term is also used for the first launch of rockets. The maiden flight of a new aircraft type is alwa ...

, but things do not go as planned.

Production

Director Stephen Low committed himself to the film project from 1982, following the story of the Diemert projects as they continually changed. The result was a six-year-long period of acquiring footage, along with producer/cameraman Charles Kenowal, at a variety of locations including Diemert's home base of Carman, Winnipeg's

Transport Canada Transport Canada (french: Transports Canada) is the department within the Government of Canada responsible for developing regulations, policies and services of road, rail, marine and air transportation in Canada. It is part of the Transportati ...

offices and Texas. During the production, Low had the full cooperation of Diemert, his friends and his family.Ohayon, Albert
"How to build a fighter airplane for $25,000 or is this guy crazy?"
''National Film Board'', July 27, 2009. Retrieved: September 30, 2014.

Reception

''The Defender'' was received "charitably" by audiences and critics alike. After a number of premieres and repeated broadcast showings beginning on March 22, 1990, the film became a cult hit for aviation enthusiasts. Montreal-based writer and photographer and NFB writer Carolyne Weldon characterized ''The Defender'' as "this doc is part of our deliciously nutty Outside the Box film channel, whose enticing tagline reads 'Experimental films, humorous films and films that make you go "Wha…?"'" ''The Defender'' has won awards at numerous festivals. At the 1989

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

, the film won " Best Production", "Superchannel Award" and the Golden Sheaf "Best Director" Award for Stephen Low. The film was also nominated for two

Genie Awards The Genie Awards were given out annually by the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television to recognize the best of Canadian cinema from 1980–2012. They succeeded the Canadian Film Awards (1949–1978; also known as the "Etrog Awards," for scu ...

in 1990 (Best Direction, Documentary and Best Writing, Documentary categories).Low, Stephen
"The Defender: About the film."
''The Stephen Low Company'', 2007. Retrieved: September 30, 2014.

References

Notes

Citations

Bibliography

* Gunston, Bill. ''Aircraft of World War 2''. London: Octopus Books Limited, 1980. . * Mackenzie, S. P. ''The Battle of Britain on Screen: 'The Few' in British Film and Television Drama''. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2007. .

External links

* *
Watch ''The Defender'' at NFB.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Defender, The 1988 films Canadian aviation films Canadian documentary films Documentary films about aviation English-language Canadian films National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1989 documentary films 1989 films Films directed by Stephen Low Films shot in Manitoba Aviation in Manitoba 1980s English-language films 1980s Canadian films