In Hollywood’s Canada, Pierre Berton explores how American films have portrayed Canada as a land of Mounties, wilderness, and snowbound adventure, often ignoring the country’s complexity and diversity. He argues that Hollywood’s depictions created a mythic Canada for global audiences, while simultaneously influencing Canadians’ own sense of national identity.
The book surveys films from the 1920s onward, analyzing recurring tropes—heroic Mounties, rugged trappers, and exoticized landscapes—and contrasts them with Canada’s lived reality. Berton’s sharp commentary reveals how cinema became a powerful tool in shaping perceptions of Canada, and how Canadians struggled to reclaim their own image in the absence of a strong domestic film industry.