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Passchendaele movie

Just came back from it in Winnipeg, and it was about half-full (on cheap night, no less!)  As with everyone else, I was very impressed with the movie, but the one scene that made me get goosebumps was the pan out from the last scene, just prior to the final narrative.  I won't spoil it, but it made at least a few people in the audience sniffle.

And as much as I would love to see Vimy being made into a movie, I would make the Liberation of Holland in WWII my first choice.
 
Fortunately the First World War Diaries are available on line at the Libraries and Archives Canada site. I decided to take a look at the reports of both the 8th and 10th Battalions of the relief in place depicted in the film.

This is the reference from the 10th Battalion War Diary referring to its relief in place of the 8th Battalion at Passchendaele: http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e044/e001085532.jpg, while this is the reference from the 8th Battalion’s War Diary regarding the same even:
http://data2.collectionscanada.ca/e/e044/e001081413.jpg

It appears that there is some basis in fact for the scene as depicted in the film, although some artistic licence has been taken. The page following the 8th Battalion reference indicates that the Little Black Devils had an average strength in its rifle companies of about forty all ranks when the handover took place.
 
Any one know the name of the song  that played during the Credits at the end? Found it!! never mind .
 
Paul Gross And David Keeley After The War Lyrics

After the guns are silent
And after my wounds have healed
And after all these crosses
Have been planted in all these fields
And after that long boat ride
All the way across the sea
And after this train carries me
Chorus:
I will love you after the war
Love you for always and forever more
I will love you after the war
For always forever and more
After my boots dry
and my tobacco's all but gone
And after these
postcards I been
carrying
under my arm
And after I remember
all the words I couldn't say
And after this long night fades away
And after this blackbird
lifts up from off my chest
And after my soul takes its rest
My love, forgive me
I never planned to die
and love, put two pennies on my eyes


http://www.myplaylist.biz/Paul-Gross-And-David-Keeley/After-The-War/122708
 
Though Paul Gross wrote that song it was preformed by Sarah Slean on the credits and modified slightly to be from the woman's perspective. It has not been released yet, or at least not widely enough to be on Net that I or 9'er can find and she is usually pretty good at finding stuff like that.
 
This is all  I could find and I googled alot  , found her site but it's not there yet... a very haunting song the way she sang it.
 
Damn straight it was.  The whole theater was dead quiet at the end, with the credits playng and the final video.

Something about it, the song, stopped people from leaving, and the ones that started to, stopped moving and ended up standing in the aisle.
 
Saw it Sat evening in Ottawa. Same thing at the end. A few got up, no one left.

As for the movie itself, I thought it was a great story. Unfortunately the end, I felt was a bit too cliche. I bow to the soldier/actors who played the battle scenes. While I am sure they did not suffer the same cold wetness as those who fought in Nov 1917, but gee, that just looked bloody miserable...and they did a great job making it seem real. I really like that Paul Gross takes his characters personality and perceptions from the real Micheal Dunne, and the letters he wrote during the war. That in itself takes all the "hollywood" out of the film and made it more authentic. I also like the historical view from the "home front" (including newly immigrated German Canadians going back to fight for the home country), although the threat of conscription was not mentioned at all.

In all, just as someone above mentioned, too much romance, not enough battle.

Now lets see if someone can bring on Vimy.
 
Saw it on Saturday myself, and was impressed that the light for previous showing alternatively blinked 7:15/soldout. It surprised myself and my father moreso. The late showing was about half capacity, but the crowd was youthful and stuck around afterwards to watch the credits (in fact, many stayed to the very end), which impressed me to no end. The movie itself was very good - and the special effects were - surprisingly - very good. In fact, better than in movies with 10 times the budget - computer effects not overdone and very subtle (until perhaps the end). It was also really cool seeing places just feet from my house on the screen...
 
Just saw it last night. Must have been some pollen or dust in the theatre, because something got in my eyes at that last scene.
 
Lil_T said:
i haven't seen it yet - please don't ruin it :(
Click to expand...

I didn't think I was...I thought there was enough "veiled speech" in that post that it wouldn't give anything away.

If you want the movie to be a total surprise...why are you following this thread?  8)
 
Man, I don't know what movie you guys saw, but I didn't leave the theatre with the same feeling and I had such high hopes. It was boring, full of cliches, overly melodramatic, wrought with bad dialogue and over-the-top acting.

The characters were shallow, cartoonish, embarrassing and annoying. Just when you thought you escaped from the nurse, she shows up on the same battlefield in Europe! Did Paul Gross not see Pearl Harbour and learn how not to make a serious movie? At least Pearl Harbour had a riveting battle scene.

The movie might as well have been titled "Calgary" or "Before Passchendaele" because you only get a sense of the battle as though you were watching it through a toilet paper tube for fifteen minutes. You get no real sense of who was involved, where they were or what led up to the battle. I imagined people in my theatre were so quiet at the end because they wished they could have that two hours of their lives back. I know I sure did. I was in shock that Canada cannot ever seem to produce anything of quality when it comes to its history.

I really wanted this film to be good. I like Paul Gross, and I admire his desire to honour the memory of Passchendaele and its Canadian historical identity. However, by the end, I felt manipulated by a sappy romance story rather than moved by an important and turbulent Canadian event.
 
Blindspot said:
Man, I don't know what movie you guys saw, but I didn't leave the theatre with the same feeling and I had such high hopes. It was boring, full of cliches, overly melodramatic, wrought with bad dialogue and over-the-top acting.

The characters were shallow, cartoonish, embarrassing and annoying.
Click to expand...

I totally disagree with that statement. I thought the Micheal Dunne chraracter excellent. Sarah and her bother were good as well.

I can agree with the remainder of your comment though.
 
Blindspot said:
Man, I don't know what movie you guys saw, but I didn't leave the theatre with the same feeling and I had such high hopes. It was boring, full of cliches, overly melodramatic, wrought with bad dialogue and over-the-top acting.

The characters were shallow, cartoonish, embarrassing and annoying. Just when you thought you escaped from the nurse, she shows up on the same battlefield in Europe! Did Paul Gross not see Pearl Harbour and learn how not to make a serious movie? At least Pearl Harbour had a riveting battle scene.

The movie might as well have been titled "Calgary" or "Before Passchendaele" because you only get a sense of the battle as though you were watching it through a toilet paper tube for fifteen minutes. You get no real sense of who was involved, where they were or what led up to the battle. I imagined people in my theatre were so quiet at the end because they wished they could have that two hours of their lives back. I know I sure did. I was in shock that Canada cannot ever seem to produce anything of quality when it comes to its history.

I really wanted this film to be good. I like Paul Gross, and I admire his desire to honour the memory of Passchendaele and its Canadian historical identity. However, by the end, I felt manipulated by a sappy romance story rather than moved by an important and turbulent Canadian event.
Click to expand...

I have to agree.

I saw the film with 2 guys who are vets of recent wars, as well as students of history. We were pretty disappointed in general. The battle scenes had some merit, and the overall squalor echoed some of the many miseries implied by some of my grandafather's few stories about the battle but, overall, this was not the 'Canadian Saving Private Ryan' experience I was led to expect. The original 'All's Quiet on the Western Front' and the incomparable 'Paths of Glory' both did a better job of bringing home the horrors of the First World War experience to a movie audience. Even the fairly corny 'Sgt York' featured some very realistic battle scenes. I wonder if Gross took those in before he decided to make this film?

I mean, come on folks, these guys seldom saw a fresh egg let alone a pretty nurse!

The last 15 or 20 minutes were pretty much the best part of the film.
 
My only beef with the movie was the whole Jesus thing at the end, what was the point, it just looks stupid, overglorification IMO.
 
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