Customer Reviews

Passchendaele

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(12)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

I'm still waiting for someone to do a "great" WWI movie, and bought Passchendaele thinking this might finally be it. In short, it's far better than most movies on WWI, but this still isn't the "great" movie that desperately needs to be done.

The combat scenes and authenticity in this movie are BY FAR the best done thus far on trench warfare. Even more impressive, this film was written by and produced by, the main "star" or character in the movie. This man did an outstanding job! The story, or at least the opening scene, is based on the experiences of his grandfather in WWI. The extra features are fantastic and you get a great idea of the pains they went through to get the look of Passchendaele correct. As a fanatic on authenticity, the uniforms, weapons, and the battlefields are top-drawer - I didn't see any mistakes and that seriously impressed me. The "major" battle scene at the end of the flick is superb, a bit campy right at the end, but over all, it's the best and most graphic WWI battle sequence yet filmed.

On the down side, as always, it seems film makers find it necessary to implant some type of love story into a movie which doesn't need one. In this case, the main character falls in love with a nurse and therein lies the problem I had with the film. The love story only serves to slow the movie down and adds a bit of unrealistic puffery which wasn't needed. The love story comes off a little too much like something you'd expect to see in a 1940's era flick and because of this, you can pretty much figure out who's gonna' die and who's gonna' make it through. This movie would've been much better if they had stuck to telling the story of the Canadian troops and their German opponents and left the soap opera out of it.

If it weren't for the love story, I would've easily given this movie 5 stars, but for that, I have to knock one off. Still, I HIGHLY RECOMEND this movie to any fan of excellent war movies or those interested in WWI history. This is an extremely well-done movie and it deserves a lot more credit and attention than it's getting.

While this is more of a genuine love store it is also a very good war movie. I thought the love interest plot was well done and was an integral part of setting the stage for the incredible war scenes. I visited the actual battlefield area last year. It is remarkable to see when you are there just how compact the actual battlefield really was. While the war scenes were very realistic I was not a big fan of ending which was a bit contrived, yet the writer needed some kind of story line so I will let it go at that. The lead and supporting actors were excellent. If you are looking for a 120 minute action packed war movie then watch When Trumpets Fade by HBO or the tremendous Black Hawk Down. But if you are interested in a overall great WWI genre movie with a great love story interwoven with first rate battle scenes then definitely get Passchendaele. Note that I actually bought my copy as no local video stores have in stock. As as side note, in the city of Ypres, Belgium they have a ceremony to honor the WWI dead EVERY NIGHT of the year in the town square. I wonder if we do that anywhere in the States?

Like many of the reviewers, I hope to someday see a comprehensive WWI movie. This is not it.

I felt like I spent two hours watching a Hallmark Movie set in Canada that just happened to be during the WWI time period, only to watch 20 minutes of tepid combat footage.

The "making-of" documentary said this was going to be shown to Canadian school kids. That's too bad. The only thing they'll learn about combat is that it is muddy, bloody and one must keep his matches dry. The latter was actually a good detail thrown into the film. If the whole movie had been about trench life, then there would have been more such insights.

The main character and his love were trite and hackneyed. A bitter, anti-hero falls deeply in love with Florence Nightengale, who happens to have a dark secret that makes her a black sheep.

The combat would have been well done if it wasn't so subservient to the greater love story. I thought that the love story would end at the front lines, but inexplicably, and quite implausibly, it follows to the end. The love making scene was laughable (bombs going off in the distance ala Linda Lovelace?). Why do modern war films try and insert sexual content into the grimiest, dirtiest context (as in Rachel Weisz and "Enemy at the Gates")? The prostitute scene in the original "All Quiet on the Western Front" was more realistic.

I'll keep waiting for a better film that is actually about WWI. Don't waste your money on this one.

I've read the reviews with one star and as far as this movie being a 'rip off' of Private Ryan then first they should be aware that this movie was every bit as true. Even if not completely accurate it was certainly as accurate as Private Ryan, as the star, was the director and the grandson of the person he was playing. This movie had nowhere near the resources a Steven Speilberg movie would. Secondly, I don't think someone should be able to review a movie because the seller didn't send it. I can't for the life of me understand how a seller reflects on the movie itself. If anything this movie gave a much too horrible picture of war while including some beautiful images. But, it was war at it's worst, the acting was wonderful and the non-war scenery was lovely.

This is nearly a good film and I was actually liking it at one point, but at every opportunity to be better, it decides stubbornly to be worse. The plot is that a sergeant gets blown up, gets a medal and gets to go home (Canada) to be nursed by a quite lovely Nurse played beautifully by Caroline Dhavernas. He falls in love, she gets outed as a German (her dad is `stained by the cloud of Germany'). In a pique of patriotic zeal and anti Bosh fervour - her asthmatic brother gets a rather horrid Doctor to forge his health forms and he flies off to Passchendaele. Our hero then follows to protect him.

Let me say up front this is not a war film per se. There are some battle scenes and as ever they have tried to emulate the efforts of `Saving Private Ryan' realism. It is a love story that uses WW 1 as a backdrop and does address some of the issues from around that time. As one of Canada's most expensive films to date, it wants to remind us that of the 600,000 Canadians that fought one in ten did not come home. There is a central theme around the `crucified soldier', an incident that was supposed to have happened after Ypres in 1915. To this day controversy still surrounds this alleged incident, but the movie turns it into a piece of contrived artifice, that turns the schmaltz up to levels where one would expect feedback.

This is also a nice advert for the Canadian Tourist Board, as the scenes in rural Alberta are truly stunning, but whether they add to the lot is very subjective. There are some nice touches, the blackmailing of young men/boys to join up, the use of carrier pigeons, soldiers sleeping on floors as the beds were too soft after being in trenches etc. All of that should be incidental and is, the plot is where this film falls down and the reason, as one other reviewer has said, is this is an ego trip for Paul Gross (lovable Mountie from `Due South'); he wrote, co-produced, directed, starred and even wrote the song at the end - sorry the incredibly sentimental song at the end.

As a one man effort it ain't bad but could have done with a guiding hand of objectivity - the biggest allegation is that there is nothing new here, it is not the worse war film ever but it is so far from being a good one. If you like a love story with a plot so contrived that belief will require complete suspension, then you have found your celluloid Nirvana. If on the other hand you think the memory of the men who fought from the Commonwealth, deserves a better memorial, then you would be better advised to seek out `Beneath Hill 60'Beneath Hill 60.

This movie is great, but there's little mention behind what is "exactly" behind the scenes of Passchendaele. It is a small Belgian town near the Ypres Salient in the Flanders area, where hundreds of thousands of British and Canadian soldiers met their fate from 1914-1918. Ypres was wrecked completely during the war and Passchendaele was blasted to oblivion by artillery and close fighting on both sides of the military armies that wrecked against each other there. Entire battalions ceased to exist in the fighting there, and this movie is dedicated to the soldiers of the Canadian army that fought and died there. Their casualties in that area are rated as well over 60,000 Canadian dead, and all from a country that had less than 10 million in the population.
In the movie, one particular Canadian sergeant, who is wounded and forever haunted by the gory scenes of war he had experienced, is sent to Calgary, Alberta, Canada for a recruiting assignment under a no-nonsense Major who goes by the rules. He is attracted to a Canadian nurse, who not only happened to lose her father in an earlier battle that he participated in, but the hidden secret that her father had fought for the wrong side, which is soon brought to the public and making her lose her job for the accusation that she is a foreign spy. The nurse's brother, who suffers from asthma, is in love with a girl and feels shamed that he is not doing his part for the war effort, and has his patriotism questioned by the girl's father. With the public shame of who his father fought for, he seeks to enlist in any way he can and somehow worms his way over to a trench in the front lines.
The sergeant then does what he can to get back to the war in order to protect the nurse's brother, just in time to participate in the bloody finale of the battles that rage around Passchendaele. The casualties there are unpredictable, and quite bloody, as a warning to those that think that this is just a romantic drama. The ending is quite surprising and very dramatic to great effect. I only watched the movie once, but what I saw was all I needed as a reason to order the movie myself. There are few WW1 movies like this one. Watch it for yourself!

OK, let me preface this by saying that, I would pay to watch Paul Gross read phone books, so I would buy this DVD regardless of how good or bad the movie is.
Setting aside my obsession with the writer/director/star, and keeping in mind I almost never give five stars, I can only give this film three.
Paul Gross is, in my opinion, a stage writer. His plots can be too over the top for film. This story is certainly touching and beautiful, but the end is, unfortunately, a cheese fest. Gross does much better with humor (see Men With Brooms).
Also, Paul Gross is just too old to be the star. I mean, he's aged like a fine wine, but the character is supposed to be, what, 20? Paul Gross is a *great* actor but it's a bit of a stretch.
Although the writing is over the top, the directing is great. Beautifully done scenes, great settings, gritty warfare, etc etc. And all this on a Canadian budget. The years of thought and dedication in this film really show when you compare it to the cookie-cutter movie machines in Hollywood.

This is certainly a well-made film, with excellent acting and very realistic looking sets. But if you want a vivid account of the true horrors of trench warfare in the Ypres Salient, this movie may not be for you. It's actually more of a love story than war story - good for attracting a more female audience perhaps, but a bit "lite" on history.

Bearing in mind it is has been made for entertainment, not historical fact, it was a realistic interpretation of the horrors of trench warfare, and in particular Passchendaele. The New Zealand and Australians (ANZACS) took the brunt of the offensive, with the Canadians only coming in after the lessons of the first few days had been learnt. The DVD gives the impression that it was all down to the Canadians, when fact they were given three stages and several weeks to achieve what the ANZACS were asked to do in one offensive over a few days. However a good story line.

The title is misleading in that I was hoping for a film about Passchendaele, the battle the Canadians fought so gallantly in. What I got was a good beginning and ending and a lot of a Hallmark card in the middle. If they wanted to show homefront, then do it in flashbacks or a montage.