Passchendaele

In 1917, in the World War I, the veteran Sergeant Michael Dunne (Paul Gross) is wounded in the front and is nursed by Nurse Sarah Mann (Caroline Dhavernas). He is diagnosed neurasthenic and returns to his hometown Calgary to work in the recruitment. Michael fall in love for Sarah, but is not corresponded. When Sarah's asthmatic brother David (Joe Dinicol) forces his enlistment to be recognized by the father of his girlfriend Cassie Walker (Meredith Bailey), Sarah believes Michael is the responsible and blames him for the engagement of her brother in the army. Michael enlists using his mother last name to protect David and they are sent to the no man's land in the front of the Battle of Passchendaele.

"Passchendaele" is a good romance in times of war. The marketing is totally wrong since the romance prevails over the war genre. The cinematography is extremely beautiful, highlighting the magnificent landscapes and scenarios. The gorgeous and sweet Caroline Dhavernas recalls Lara Flynn Boyle and has a great performance. The characters could be better developed and there are some parts that do not work well, like the annoying David Mann, who does not deserve the sacrifice of Michael; the last scene with the analogy to Jesus Christ is awful and unnecessary. But in general, "Passchendaele" is an above average movie. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "A Batalha de Passchendaele" ("The Battle of Passchendaele")

Sergeant Michael Dunne (Paul Gross) survives a brutal vicious assault and finds himself in a Calgary hospital being treated by nurse Sarah Mann (Caroline Dhavernas). She and her brother David (Joe Dinicol) face problems arising from their German father who died for the German army. David's asthma keeps him out of the war which is looked down upon by his girlfriend Cassie Walker's father. Michael is facing desertion charges and possible execution back at the front despite winning a medal from the fight. The three of them eventually find themselves back in the war.

There are compelling bits of scenes here and there. It's kinda daring to have the protagonist bayonet a helpless German boy in the forehead. The shaming of the men who haven't enlisted is interesting. The story back home is way too messy encompassing too many elements. It's trying to do too much. Paul Gross is not gritty enough for this role. The first half becomes a sincere melodrama. The second half is more or less a big muddy WWI trench war movie. The production is not as high as Hollywood. The sincerity does keep it from being truly bad.

War movies are not exactly a typical Canadian genre, and so I've been wanting to see "Passchendaele" for some time. As a war movie, this is very well done. Both the opening - depicting Sgt. Dunne's role in an unnamed battle - and the closing - which follows Dunne and Mann through a portion of the Battle of Passchendaele - are graphic and believable representations of battle, and they provide a sobering view of war, which may be necessary (that's another debate for another time) but is certainly neither glorious nor noble, although the individual soldiers who fight may well be both. The subtle (or perhaps not so subtle if one has ever read the Gospel accounts of Jesus' crucifixion) religious overtone to the closing scenes of the battle as Dunne effectively carries his cross across the battlefield (it's necessary to watch the movie to understand that) is also powerful. The soldiers who lived through this insanity would also be carrying their own crosses for the rest of their lives.

The weakness of the movie is found in the middle hour, between the battle scenes. The portion of the movie set in Calgary raised significant questions about patriotism, loyalty, duty, etc., but is also rather slowly paced. Dunne, having returned home suffering from shell- shock after the opening battle is assigned to recruitment duty. Falling in love with the nurse who treated him, he discovers that her brother is anxious to sign up, in order to win the respect of the father of the girl he loves but more to regain his family's honour, which he feels was tainted by his father, who was born in Germany and returned home to fight for Germany, eventually dying in battle against Canadian troops at the Battle of Vimy Ridge. That story is interesting, but it's slow pace is quite a contrast to the chaos of the battle scenes - perhaps appropriately so - and makes this part of the movie seem perhaps even slower than it really is.

The performances from the two main leads (Paul Gross as Dunne, and Caroline Dhavernas as Sarah, the nurse he falls in love with) were excellent. I was a bit put off by the tear-jerker ending of the movie, but that turned out to be key to the last and haunting shot of the Canadian war cemetery, with rows upon rows of crosses (to paraphrase Lt. Col. John McCrae's famous poem) and a riderless horse in the background. An extremely well-done movie, indeed. 7/10

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.

Passchendaele is a decent World War One film, one of the best out there and there's not too many it has minor flaws but does the job brilliantly. Paul Gross has done a great job acting in and directing this film. Some may be put off by the love story but for me this just reinforces and shows the losses of many people during this time period and era. Passchendaele shows how many people who once lived to together as neighbors are divided by stupid things like family nationality and false loyalty and bad promises of adventure and glory.

The love story isn't for everyone but wow many girlfriends and wives lost partners and how many young men never came home to true love or had a chance to live full lives? This film does get you thinking!

Of course this is no Band Of Brothers in terms of scale (I know that's World War Two) but Paul Gross has done extremely well acting and directly. I find this film to be a good tribute to his Grandfather and to those who lost something because of World War One.

The film is low budget however this doesn't really show to be honest and this is a fitting tribute and good story! With regards to the low budget the battle scenes could have been bigger and better but this is by no means a bad film.

The acting and casting is spot on and this film really does show the stupid ill placed passion and faulted logic of young people in this era and, it shows the pressure many had to go through and be forced to fight for freedom not knowing what the loses and costs would be. World War One was a slaughter and waste of millions of lives and the deaths of certain characters and the gruesome way they die shows this war was not the fairy tale adventures many painted it to be at the start.

Among all the blood and slaughter there is a story and the film does well to reflect and show not everyone fighting was a murderer or cold blooded killer and many just wanted it to end.

We need more World War One films like this to teach young people the truths and to keep history alive so we don't make the same mistakes again.