Passchendaele movie

[leroi]

I guess there's a fine line sometimes between accuracy and symbolism. It just didn't work for me (maybe that the realist coming out). Everyone sees things differently right?Thanks...I do my best.
I'm still thinking about when and how much to show. I normally show all of All Quiet on the Western Front (the 1979 version), which I think is really good at showing trench warfare and the loss of innocence. I also show the last bit of Gallipoli, which once again shows trench warfare but also the slaughter of WWI as well as the mistakes and miscalculations that can occur in war. I think it will replace the episode of Norm Christie's King and Empire on Passchendaele. We'll see how it works.

ex-Sup,

I'm civilian throwing in my two cents even though I have no military training--and maybe I'm out of my lane but wanted to add some thoughts. I dont think you're wrong in your opinion about the movie. It may not be a good training tool WRT strategy, tactics, Canadian military history and the nuts n' bolts of actually being on the front lines of a war. I'd imagine it might not appeal to the very young in training, either.

However, if Passchendaele was incorporated into curiculum as a teaching tool under the theme Social Impact of War (or something to that effect), it might be of greater value. Students would then know not to expect a FMJ-style movie. I think the movie has merit in it's analysis of how war impacts culture, nationalism and relationships--onlyMHO!

Full Metal jacket is still one of my favorites! :cowboy:

(leroi is going back to her own lane now ;D)

 

[ex-Sup]

However, if Passchendaele was incorporated into curiculum as a teaching tool under the theme Social Impact of War (or something to that effect), it might be of greater value. Students would then know not to expect a FMJ-style movie. I think the movie has merit in it's analysis of how war impacts culture, nationalism and relationships--onlyMHO!

A very valid point.
I guess the problem that we have in the education system (especially in history, where there is so much information) is where to draw the line. Unfortunately we only have 90 days (minus distractions) to get through a century of Canadian history. I spend at the most 3-4 weeks on WWI; I could spend the whole semester!
In terms of the social aspects, I already show an "educational" video called Sam's Army (which is narrated by Paul Gross). It deals with Canada's entry into WWI, the recruiting, Sam Hughes' influence, technology (Ross Rifle), etc. I'll have to figure it out...starting WWI tomorrow  ;D

 

[Infanteer]

I watched this the other night and can honestly say that I've saw it before and Hemingway's "Farewell to Arms" was a much better story.  It looks like Gross tried to take the old "Soldier and Nurse" cliche and wind it into a fine testement to Canadian History.  Unfortunately, it didn't leave the story to tell the history.  The only actual Passchendaele scene was somewhat ruined by the silly march across No-Man's Land (for which the German's kindly quit firing).

I feel like I was duped into watching Pearl Harbour all over again.... 

 

[1feral1]

Well, firstly this movie does have special meaning to me with my Great Uncle, 267104 Pte Robert F Allen, late of the 28th NW Battalion CEF, dying of wounds on 07 Nov 1917. He was right in the taking of the Vill itself on 06 Nov 1917, when he was serverly wounded.

A very generous member on here had recently sent me a DVD of the movie as a gift.  So I screened it alone. Waited til dark, took the phone of the hook, turned all the lights out, and settled in to the film with a big glass of CC and coke and some home made fresh popcorn.

I had no idea who Paul Gross was, being away from Canada for so long, but he did look familiar, and I realised later he was the Mountie in the Going South TV series which also aired here in Australia.

I find any movie WRT Canadian military history quite enticing and has naturally drawn my interest. I have been waiting since the movie's making was first announced.

So I watched it, infact twice, and I have it a VG grade, and a A+ for effort. The battle scenes to me gave me some type of the insight of what it must have been like to some degree, and that opening scene taken from a WW1 photo of Passchendaele was very well done, and set the tone for the battle scenes. These battlefields are 180 degrees differnent from my Iraq experience, and different from WW2 and Korea. However I did identify with many things.

I then watched all the special features, which to my suprise seen an interview with Gen Greg Gillespie. I have know Greg since he was an aspiring PL Comd, a 2LT in the Regina Rifles, where my Military life had begun back in Jan of 1976. Always had a lot of time for him, and I am happy to see him end up where he is, and kind of makes me feel old in some way.

So, for Paul Gross, good on him for this venture of Canadian film, and a western Canadian to boot, which will be around for decades to come.

So thanks to Paul Gross for enlightening Canadians especially its younger generations in a fine Alberta film which not only can entertain, but educate.

Regards from the tropics,

Wes
OWDU

 

[Lil_T]

It was ok... I saw it the other night.  Hubby warned me that I may need tissues or whatever... but nope.  It was a nice story, but I expected more.  I'm not sure what exactly I expected - but it seemed, I don't know - hollow.

 

[kratz]

It's a cold and rainy night....Ooops, that's the start to a bad book.

Today is cold and rainy and and good reason to rent some DVDs. After a couple years of reading 11 pages of comments about this movie, it stood out when we were selecting titles. My 9er thinks the movie is long, drawn out and boring. I have to agree with those statements, I also add there is some useful educational insight in the movie from a Canadian perspective. Overall, I'm glad it was made and that it is out there.

 

[ex-Sup]

I will be showing the battle segment of the movie to my two classes tomorrow (approx 20 min). We just finished taking about the battle on Friday, so this is their opportunity to see what it might have been like to be there. Unfortunately I don't have time to show the whole movie, but I'll report back on their reactions.

 

[DirtyDog]

I've boycotted theatres for 15 years (for a lot of reasons) and finally gave in to my girlfriend and said if I have to go see a movie, we'll go see Passchendale.

Needless to say, I doubt I'll be going back to a movie theatre anytime soon.  I thought it was a horrible movie.  Sure, I could point out some small redeeming points in the otherwise giant turd pile, but overall I found it painful to watch.  Very dissapointed.

 

[daftandbarmy]

I've boycotted theatres for 15 years (for a lot of reasons) and finally gave in to my girlfriend and said if I have to go see a movie, we'll go see Passchendale.

Needless to say, I doubt I'll be going back to a movie theatre anytime soon.  I thought it was a horrible movie.  Sure, I could point out some small redeeming points in the otherwise giant turd pile, but overall I found it painful to watch.  Very dissapointed.

Yup, that pretty much sums it up....

AND I'm sure you're glad to see that it has won an award recently:

Passchendaele honoured with Golden Reel Award


Writer, director and actor Paul Gross wades through a shell crater on the battlefield set of his film Passchendaele, which was filmed near Calgary in 2007. ((Jeff McIntosh/Canadian Press)
Passchendaele, the First World War drama directed by Paul Gross, is the winner of the Golden Reel Award, one of three special prizes to be handed out by the Academy of Canadian Cinema & Television (ACCT).
The ACCT also announced two other special trophies Monday evening that will be given out at the 29th annual Genie Awards on April 4 in Ottawa.

The Golden Reel is handed to the Canadian film with the highest domestic box office receipts. Passchendaele brought in more than $4.4 million.

Passchendaele recounts an epic battle by Canadian soldiers, who drove back the German army in a brutal 12-day offensive across marshland to take the Belgian village of Passchendaele.
Some 16,000 Canadians were killed or wounded.

Gross, known for his acting role in the TV series Due South as well as the movie Men With Brooms, produced the feature along with Niv Fichman, Frank Siracusa and Francis Damberger.
The other major award announced was the Claude Jutra prize for a directorial debut. The winner of the 16th annual award is Yves-Christian Fournier for Tout Est Parfait (Everything is Fine ).
The prize is named in honour of the renowned late Quebec director Claude Jutra.
Fournier's dark movie delves into the world of a teen living in a suburb whose friends have killed themselves.
The last prize is for outstanding achievement in makeup design.
Bruno Gatien, Marie-France Guy and Adrien Morot will share the accolade for their work in Cruising Bar2, directed by Robert Ménard and Michel Côté.

The trio created prosthetics and tattoo work for Côté, who played four characters in the movie.

http://www.cbc.ca/arts/film/story/2009/03/17/genie-awards-passchendaele.html

 

[Teflon]

The Golden Reel is handed to the Canadian film with the highest domestic box office receipts.

No real way to argue that, Canadian film with the highest domestic box office receipts wins it, about the quantity of people who go see it not the quality of the film.

For me the movie was a victem of it's own hype more then anything, before I saw it I was was constantly exposed to ads and stories that refered to it as EPIC and how it was a movie the likes of which Canada has never seen etc, etc, so when I went to see it I expected alot more then it had to offer

 

[Shrek1985]

I've heard alot of Flak about this movie, but I saw it with my unit and while most of us really liked it, there were some compliaints; chiefly that there was so much of it, which was not a war movie.

The romantic and recovery back stories mainly.

I feel rather that they did not detract overly, would give a girlfriend something to watch between fire fights.

Mainly i think we should be greatful to get any kind of a mainstream war movie out of the canadian film industry. especially one as balanced and well-made as Passchendaele. Is it my wish-fulfilment movie? No, still holding out for canadian version of The Big Red One (Italy-France-Northwest Europe, Germany)

 

[DirtyDog]

I've heard alot of Flak about this movie, but I saw it with my unit and while most of us really liked it, there were some compliaints; chiefly that there was so much of it, which was not a war movie.

The romantic and recovery back stories mainly.

I feel rather that they did not detract overly, would give a girlfriend something to watch between fire fights.

Mainly i think we should be greatful to get any kind of a mainstream war movie out of the canadian film industry. especially one as balanced and well-made as Passchendaele. Is it my wish-fulfilment movie? No, still holding out for canadian version of The Big Red One (Italy-France-Northwest Europe, Germany)

Grateful?

Maybe in the sense that I'm grateful that they made an attempt at the subject matter and that if seemed to do somewhat well at the box office.  But I'm not grateful for what was in my opinion a terrible film that showed no promise and set no precedence for bringing Canadian military history to the big screen in a succesful manner.  It failed as a movie (again, in my opinion) and failed, miserably, to live up to the hype.  During all the lead up to this film, it seemed like we were led to beleive that the big guns were brought out for it and we (as in the sense of Canada and our film industry) were going to pull out of the stops and put in the best effort possible to ensure this movie was a success.  That it turned out less then stellar leads me to feel that maybe "we" aren't capable of producing anything worthwhile and that maybe we would have been better off not to have had this film made in the first place.

 

[Shrek1985]

DirtyDog...This is the CANADIAN FILM INDUSTRY for cryin out loud, I'm glad they had real guns and not some oranage-tipped airsofts.

What was the last war movie we turned out? I don't even know, couldn't find another semi-recent one. Up until now, i thought all we could turn out was that peculiarily Canadian genre, the English-Language (sometimes) Foriegn Film.

My expectation was for it to be wildly inaccurate in terms of story and equipment and to have some kind of 'message'. The thing with the cross at the end was out of place yes, if it was me making the movie, I might have thrown in a back-up about a giant marauding dog terrorizing the trenches, that is as long as we have to include some tidbit of Great War urban legend. I was a little confused by the ending, but thats not the first time for me. The Sgt is supposed to be the actor's Grandfather (it was the Sergeant right?). But he dies at the end of the movie and the nurse is not pregnant...so...theatrics?

The only equipment foul-up was in the first scen when one of the guys has an American M1918 trench knife, but as these were mostly made in France, even that might have been in-character if i knew more about it.

Message? Hell nothing worse than I expected, but the whole First World War is a mess in that reguard, just explaining the situation could serve as a German Propaganda message. Don't know why your here? Canadians fighting the Germans in France on behalf of the English because the Arch-Duke of Austria was assassinated in Serbia.

 

[Smirnoff123]

During all the lead up to this film, it seemed like we were led to beleive that the big guns were brought out for it and we (as in the sense of Canada and our film industry) were going to pull out of the stops and put in the best effort possible to ensure this movie was a success.

I think I read that it had the highest film budget in Canadian film history.