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Halifax film tells of Joe Howe's legendary pistol duel in Point Pleasant Park
DEAN LISK
The Daily News
Usually a footnote in Halifax's history, the gentlemanly duel between Joseph Howe and John Haliburton is about to be shown on the big screen.
"It says a lot about that time," said local filmmaker Michael Fox, whose A Lesser Sort of War is one of three shorts being screened at Empire Park Lane tomorrow.
"It happened at the end of an age when problems were solved in this kind of manner - two men resolving their differences by fighting, instead of taking a diplomatic approach."
Shot last fall, the film is based on the events of March 14, 1840, when Haliburton and Howe faced each other near Martello Tower in Point Pleasant Park.
"Haliburton challenged him because Howe had written an article suggesting the young gentlemen who worked in his print shop were just as intelligent and as capable as the upper class," Fox said.
"Haliburton took great offence to that."
Valiant ending
During the duel, Haliburton - son of Nova Scotia's chief justice - fired his pistol first, but missed.
Howe had a clear shot, but decided to fire his pistol into the air, rather than kill his opponent.
Part of the movie was shot on the actual duel location beside the tower, with other scenes filmed inside the Halifax Citadel. Fox considered using the actual pistols fired during the challenge - which are in the Citadel's museum - put decided against it.
"They looked a bit too old - because the movie takes place in 1840, the pistols should look new."
The script was written by Halifax author Hal Thompson, who worked with Fox as an interpreter at the Citadel.
Cast in the role of Joseph Howe is John Johnson, who is also lead singer of the band Flagship Sinker.
The movie was shot on 35-milimetre film, with a budget of about $1,000.
Local viewings
Fox, who also made the independent films Entherance Online and Film Amateura, usually tries to screen his movies in local theatres.
Since this is a short film, he is screening it with a gaseous short by Jay Dahl, called Time Farter, and the Gaelic-language The Wake of Calum MacLeod.
Fox is also showing the film as part of a larger plan he and Thompson have of making two more historical movies focusing on Halifax's past, and a TV movie about Howe.
They are inviting producers, along with representatives from TeleFilm Canada and the Nova Scotia Film Development Corporation, to the screening, in hopes of gaining backing for the other projects.