Passchendaele (2008)

The Age of Commercialism

Absolutely the worst movie.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

One of the film's great tricks is that, for a time, you think it will go down a rabbit hole of unrealistic glorification.

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.

Paul Gross wrote, directed and stars in this ambitious (yet still very CBC feeling) epic, following the exploits of the Canadian soldiers who fought in one of the key battles of World War 1 in 1917. The story follows Gross as a troubled veteran, his nurse girlfriend and a naïve boy who intersect first in Alberta and then through the bloody battle of Passchendaele.You can just tell that Paul Gross put his heart and soul into this and I really, really wanted to be impressed, finally getting the Canadian side of events after so many WW1 movies that just deal with the American or British. Unfortunately though its not great.Yeah it has its moments, it's visually impressive, the battle scenes are very well done, the trench warfare, the mud, the rain, the carnage and I got very caught up in the ending despite myself but this is also melodramatic at times, kinda choppy and (as I said) has a made for TV feel despite the big budget. Guys will be disappointed too because for the most part this is a love story.Still I am haunted by the ending, that final shot of the wooden cross in Calgary with the Bow river in the background infused with the white stone graves in France, beautiful. 11/16/14

The DVD of this had been staring at me every time I ventured into my local HMV branch, vying for my '2 for £10' cash. It looked promising, until it was shown, just now on BBC1.Radio Times, rather shockingly awarded this Canadian WWI movie a cursory one star. Their renowned and respected critic David Parkinson had derided it - How - and what - could make it so utterly bad?On a surface level, it's not a bad looking film, so the deficiencies are more than skin deep and they seep up and slowly overwhelm its audience. The bland, uninspiring characters, who we just can't warm to or rally around, the boring romantic tangents that help waste up to an hour of its lengthy near two hour runtime.Those who might celebrate a war film that's not all about guns and blowing people up, still might find that the entire run seems set on half-speed. The Canadian mountainous landscapes help offset an air of grimy doom, that binds the whole project like constricting barbed wire on the Front. Many reviewers have carped on about the menial dialogue; we don't expect Shakespearian dialogue amongst frightened squaddies on battlefront, but a believable one would have helped.It was the religious symbolism in the final frames that really got David Parkinson's goat - played out totally for melodramatic effect. I'm not religious, so it did not offend me - I cannot begin to imagine the feelings that those that are, might have.In a way, I'm glad that I watched Passchendale and I did so for free and that I won't have to see it again. It's a name of a place that is steeped in History and as fewer WWI veterans remain with us, it's even more important that their memories - and that they fought so bravely for the freedom that we enjoy - and take for granted now, are kept alive. Unfortunately, this film doesn't do that, but fortunately, because it is pretty poor, few people will ever get to see it.

I consider myself an admirer of Paul Gross, the actor. His 'Slings and Arrows' is one of the all-time best television series and he's very good in 'Due South' and 'Eastwick'. But good actors don't always make great directors. I went ahead and got 'Passchendaele' on a whim trusting that I'd like it. I wanted to like it. However, it failed to deliver. Starting with the good, it does try to tell a side of World War story that hasn't been told. WW1 has hardly been used in films and the involvement of Canada is even less known. The film moves back and forth from war to romance. Sadly, with the exception of some graphic scenes, there isn't much about Passchendaele that is explored.The script is one cliché after another and very melodramatic (at times it's as bad as a soap opera). The characters are poorly written, especially that of the brother (who also happens to be one of the most annoying characters in cinema). As stated earlier, the battle scenes are fairly graphic (some of them are shot or situated so poorly that it's laughable). There are plenty of unintentionally funny moments because of the poor execution. In the earlier portions of the film there are some nice glimpses of Canada (especially the breathtaking fields and mountains).Paul Gross does an adequate job where acting is concerned. Joe Dinicol appears too whiny at times and he gives a lacklustre performance. Caroline Davernas is the only one who manages to rise above her ill-written character. The rest of the cast try to meet up the requirements of the formula.Overall, 'Passchendaele' is a major disappointment. 'Hope Gross does much better next time or just stick to acting.