Bethune : The Making of a Hero
Synopsis
Canadian surgeon Dr. Norman Bethune (Donald Sutherland) journeys 1,500 miles into China to reach Mao Zedong's eighth route Army in the Wu Tai mountains where he will build hospitals, provide care, and train medics. Flashbacks narrate the earlier events of his life: a bout with tuberculosis at the Trudeau sanatorium; the self-administration of an experimental pneumothorax; the invention of operative instruments; his fascination with Socialism; a journey into medical Russia; and the founding of a mobile plasma-transfusion unit in war-torn Spain. Bethune twice married and twice divorced his wife Frances (Dame Helen Mirren), who chooses abortion over child-rearing in her unstable marriage. By 1939, Bethune had been dismissed from his Montreal Hospital for taking unconventional risks, and from his volunteer position in Spain for his chronic problems of drinking and womanizing. As his friend states: "China was all that was left." Even there, Bethune confidently ignores the advice of Chinese officials until heavy casualties make him realize his mistake and lead him to a spectacular apology.
Credits
Production and distribution (4)
- Co-productions : Belstar Productions, FR3 (France Régions 3)
- Foreign production company : Parmentier Productions
- Film exports/foreign sales : Tamasa Distribution
- French distribution : Columbia France
Full credits (6)
- Screenwriter : Ted Allan
- Directors of Photography : Mike Molloy, Raoul Coutard
- Music Composer : Alan Reeves
- Editors : Yves Langlois, Angelo Corrao
- Foreign Producer : Peter Kroonenburg
- Co-producer : Robert Dorfmann
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Technical details
- Type : Feature film
- Genres : Fiction
- Sub-genre : Drama, Portrait
- Themes : Medicine
- Production language : English
- Coproducer countries : Canada, France, China
- Original French-language productions : Unspecified
- Production year : 1988
- French release : 08/01/1991
- Runtime : 1 h 55 min
- Current status : Released
- Visa number : 63164
- Visa issue date : 18/10/1991
- Approval : Unknown
- Color type : Color
Box-office & releases
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