- Since that synopsis is lacking, please have something from Wikipedia: The 1917 Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres or simply Third Ypres, was one of the major battles of World War I, in which British, Canadian, South African and ANZAC units engaged the Imperial German Army. The battle was fought for control of the village of Passchendaele (Passendale in modern Dutch spelling, now part of the community of Zonnebeke) near the town of Ypres (Ieper in Dutch) in West Flanders, Belgium. [...] The Germans were well-entrenched, with mutually-supporting pillboxes which the initial bombardment had not destroyed. After three months of fierce fighting, the Canadian Corps took Passchendaele on 6 November 1917, ending the battle. In the course of battle, however, the Allied Powers had sustained almost half a million casualties and the Germans just over a quarter of a million. The Allies had captured a mere five miles (8 km) of new front at a cost of 140,000 lives, a ratio of roughly 2 inches, or about 5 cm, gained per dead soldier.
- I think they forgot to include the war in this war movie. It’s about an hour and forty minutes of love story and twenty minutes of battle. It’s like what Titanic would be if they cut the sinking portion to twenty minutes: an overwrought and sentimental romance with a little bit of action tacked onto the end to justify making the film. This is completely unacceptable. For one, there aren’t a lot of modern World War I films that have depicted battle with the kind of gruelling realism we got to see in something like Saving Private Ryan, and so here’s an opportunity to really do something fantastic with this war. Clearly, this being a Canadian production and all, the budget for this film probably only allowed for a maximum of twenty minutes of war footage, but still. Disappointment.
The other thing is that WWI is very important in Canadian history in general, especially battles like Vimy Ridge and Passchendaele, and to make the war a backdrop to a boring and clichéd romance instead of putting it front and centre on screen sort of diminishes the whole project. WWI signifies a key turning point in Canadian history in terms of nation building and independence — you’d never get that impression from watching this movie. I feel like those Canadian Heritage Minutes do more in sixty seconds to convey this than this movie is capable of doing in two hours. I find this upsetting.
- That said, the action sequences were really good and pretty effing graphic. The thing that’s fantastic about WWI is the bayonet and I was very happy to see bayonet-to-bayonet action going on once they had run out of bullets. Awesome. I’ll give them full points for this. Also, when the German kid got bayoneted through the SKULL at the start of the movie… woah.
- The thing about the romance, it’s lameness aside, is that I’m not looking for romance in my war movies. I’m looking for brotherhood. (Bands of brotherhood, you might say.) I’m looking for those familiar character types that invariably show up in each company and I’m looking for at least two of them to die over the course of the movie, with the C.O. dying predictably at the end while attempting to save some young whippersnapper. I like a girl you can write home, but I’m not interested in that girl you can write home to being the focus of 80% of the movie.
- Oh, also, completely unnecessary and inappropriate sex scene on the edge of the battlefield. WTF.
- The pompous windbag recruiter who served in the Boer War was pretty fantastic. I love guys like him in movies.
- I kind of lost it when Paul Gross inexplicably depicted himself as Jesus when he was dragging his girlfriend’s brother back through No Man’s Land on the makeshift crucifix the Germans had strung him up on. I mean… really? What kind of symbolism is this, besides the obvious? I was aghast and confused.
- We play a game in my family called Top Five Favourite Things About World War I. This list changes from person to person and from day to day, but for the most part it includes things like trench foot, mustard gas, bayonets, spiked German helmets, hard tack, fourteen year-olds lying about their age to join up, etc. I think they managed to cover all these things at some point in the film, with the exception of the spiked German helmets since apparently the Germans had stopped using them by then.
- Needs more Colm Feore.
- In short, I want an American studio that can actually afford to make a proper battle epic to take the battle scenes in this movie and run with it. We need more WWI movies! I suppose WWI is less interesting to American filmmakers because the U.S. wasn’t in the war all that long, but still.
Passchendaele
I am unimpressed by war movies without war in them.
IMDB Plot Synopsis Sergeant Michael Dunne fights in the 10th Battalion, AKA The "Fighting Tenth" with the 1st Canadian Division and participated in all major Canadian battles of the war, and set the record for highest number of individual bravery awards for a single battle.
The kid got hit by a mortar and got flung up the germans didnt do it
Screw you learn a little more about us canadians and the friggen storyline, this movie isn’t about the war entirely it is also about the love story of Paul gross’s grandfather and us canadians can make a better god damn war movie than you expect we made it to be the love story that occured. Now I will admit the sex scene was not in the right place at the right time but, your still trashing the country whom is renowowned for it’s talented soldiers and guess who the hell took vimy and won the third ypres, we did. Then you trash us about the film making, give us some credit we don’t have Hollywood. I am just a sensitive and aware Canadian who honestly disagrees with you..
PS look at how many stars the movie got in Canada!
This will obviously come as a surprise to you, but I’m Canadian too. You seem to be confusing being prideful of our country’s military history with this being a good film, things that are entirely separate matters.