Passchendaele (2008) Reviews

• Excellent film

  laurasfraser2008-11-06

  Paul Gross' Passchendaele provides a unique perspective of the Canadian effort during the First World War. Those who are expecting just battle scenes will likely be disappointed. For those looking for character development, some romance, an interesting perspective on recruitment pressure, and yes -- AMAZING battle scenes -- then yes, this movie is for you. As a Military History student, I had no issues with the historical accuracy of the movie. Paul Gross based the first 5 minutes on his grandfather's story, and the rest is historical fiction. In general, it is an excellent representation of the period, and certainly provides a much more realistic version of the soldiers' perspective on war in 1917 than many other war films out there. I highly recommend this film.

• Below average. Expected much better.

  tblackwo2009-02-26

  I wanted to like Passchendaele so much!! I was so excited when I finally rented it and I don't think I've ever been so disappointed in a movie in a long time. 3/4 of the movie is a really forced, non-believable, way too over the top love story, with just terrible characters. (The officer who runs the recruitment station tops that list) Its the type of thing I expect from Canadian day time TV.. not the type of thing I was expecting from a supposed critically acclaimed movie. I wasn't going into this expecting a non-stop action war film, I was just expecting a great movie based on the war! And I really didn't feel like it was. Other than the name of the film and the brilliant (albeit way too short) battle at the end I just don't see this as the tribute Canada's bravest deserve. I think for a Canadian movie, technically it was superb from an effects standpoint. I think this film gets more credit than it deserves simply because of that... when the battle is on the screen, it looks, and sounds amazing, which is something you really don't expect from a Canadian film. But it has so many moments where you just completely face-palm and say.. oh come on... (the sister/nurse just happens to be stationed at the exact same place as her brother and lover are deployed... he charges straight at the enemy trench, and Schwarzenegger style he arrives completely untouched, only to be blown crucifix style onto the wood... the gross' enemy the officer from the recruitment station travels ALL THE WAY TO France, practically into the battle, just to bring him up on some petty charges) Come on boys, I really thought we had something here that would put Canada on the map. Just a complete disappointment. It takes more than just mentioning Canada to be a tribute to its soldiers. They deserved so much more than this. I really cant put into words the disappointment Im feeling after watching this film.

• Beneath the surface

  doug-6972008-09-05

  Passchendaele is part unabashed romance and part horrific and quite graphic war story. In film World War One has been a neglected war compared to the more morally unambiguous Second World War and the more recent Vietnam War. And films that aren't about American participation are just as neglected. Passchendaele fills that void. The movie moves quickly and switches between home life and battlefield with surprising ease and effect. I was not bored for a moment of this movie. The movie will make you care about these people when they are at home living their lives and then fear for them at war. While the battle scenes are quite brutal, they are not sensational or exploitive, since to have made them sensational or exploitive would defeat the great effort this movie takes in showing how men had to cope with life after the war and the memories of what they lived through. Undoubtedly there will be cynics who will decry some moments as contrived or melodramatic, but these are the small-minded who have missed the real emotion of this film. The movie is great entertainment, but there is something going on beneath the surface. This is the first time I can recall a film where the main character is someone who has been both emotionally damaged by the war, but does not succumb to it. I suspect there must be many men coming out of the war who were damaged, but quietly lived with that damage their entire lives. For that depiction alone, this is a great movie. The movie is not without humour and it has one of the funniest seduction lines I've ever heard uttered by a woman in a movie. The movie is entertaining, but there's a lot going on and much I haven't mentioned as I don't want to click the spoiler warning. There are scenes I'm still thinking about, which doesn't happen with every movie I see.

• The definitive Canadian war movie has yet to be made.

  daveolie2008-10-24

  I really wanted to like this movie. From the buzz I'd heard, I thought this could be a great one. Sorry to say, it wasn't. On the positive side, the battle scenes were extraordinarily well done. Granted, they were filmed in the grainy, slightly-speeded-up style of "Saving Private Ryan" or "Band of Brothers", but this is an effective style and what today's audiences have come to expect in depicting combat. I've studied a lot of military history, extensively on WWI, and the film is technically accurate to a very fine degree. The Canadian uniforms are the correct colour, the Germans are accurately shown in a variety of clothing, the weapons are spot on. There are even things that I never thought I'd see in a movie, like accurate repros of German trench mortars. Somebody put a lot of time, effort, and money into getting these things right. Which is great for the 20 minutes or so of the actual war movie scenes of this "war movie". And the film "goes there" in ways that most war movies don't. The hero is suffering from neurasthenia, what we now call PTSD. The leading lady is addicted to morphine. These aspects of the story are realistic and commendable. Sadly, the story sucks. Why do writers feel that war movies (like SPR) have to be written as family dramas? Real war doesn't work that way. All of the Mann's neighbours would have known they were German long before 1917 when their house gets trashed. In spite of getting a doctor's certificate, there's no way David Mann could have got through training and into the front line with his asthma. There's no way young men would attend a recruiting meeting if they had no intention of signing up. Absurdity piles upon absurdity. The leading lady, Caroline Dhavernas, is lovely to look at, but why on earth am I looking at the leading lady for over an hour in a "war movie"? And she barely cracks a sweat going cold turkey from her addiction. Very pretty; not very real. In a breakthrough for Canadian movies, the bad guy has an English accent, and he gets killed in the end. Just like American movies. Yay. But the film finally lost me as Paul Gross did the Stations of the Cross through the mud of Flanders, wound in his side and everything. What on earth was he thinking as he wrote this? I dunno, but "All Quiet On The Western Front" made a much better job of capturing the pathos of war, and that was 78 years ago. Colour me very, very disappointed.

• At last...

  rps-22008-10-31

  At last a genuine Canadian movie... Calgary is Calgary... The Americans didn't win the battle, didn't even turn up anywhere... There were no Stars and Stripes in every office. Okay, the plot --- a sort of WW1 Saving Private Ryan effort set against the bloody Belgian battle --- is a little far fetched. But the scenes --- both in 1916 Calgary and in the mud and horror of the battlefield --- are as good as those in any WW1 movie I've seen. There are believable characters well portrayed both in the script and by the actors. The effects are superb. The lighting and cinematography are sensitive and creative. And how very impressive that Paul Gross was a triple threat man. He wrote it, he directed it and he starred in it. That totals 300% This is as good as they come.