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Passchendaele (2009)

Director: Paul Gross

Time Out rating

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6 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

British audiences will best remember Paul Gross as gentleman Mountie Benton Fraser in hokey ’90s TV serial ‘Due South’. Here, he writes, directs, produces and stars in this cloyingly earnest/refreshingly unpretentious (delete as applicable) labour-of-love retelling of the Canadian Corps’ involvement in the Battle of Passchendaele (1917), and should henceforth be known as Canada’s answer to Kevin Costner… No, scrap that: Mel Gibson.

Gross plays the handsome, rebellious and coolly pessimistic Major Dunn, wounded in battle and shipped back to his hometown of Calgary, where he regales budding troops with horror stories from the front. He falls in love with a German-born nursemaid, and takes a shine to her asthmatic brother, who is keen to fight in order to earn the respect of his girlfriend’s father. The big battle is rendered in revolting detail for the film’s finale – including barbed-wire crucifixion and latex gore. As a director, Gross paints in big, emotive strokes, and though his dialogue often feels too tied to historical fact, this old-fashioned, patriotic war movie has its heart in the right place.

Author: David Jenkins

Time Out London Issue 2037: 3 - 9 September, 2009

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User reviews of this film

Greg Saville said...

Posted on Apr 26 2011 09:19 This film presents a real moment in Canadian military history. Like all fictional films, it builds a human story around a tragic WW1 battle. It just so happens the story comes out of the mind of Canadian actor Paul Gross who recounts a real story that his grandfather told him about fighting that same battle. For Canadians, it is a must see. The film also counters head-in-the-sand Canadian intellectuals in who fabricate theories of Canadian peacekeeping from windowless rooms. Canadian peacekeeping is noble. But it is dead. Prior to the noble experiment in UN PeaceKeeping there truly was a Canadian military history that has been hidden by politically correct claptrap. This film redresses that injustice. Go see it.

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Alan Smart said...

Posted on Oct 25 2010 23:31 embarasingly bad

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elliot sills said...

Posted on Jun 16 2010 01:34 Great movie! loved the story, acting and the battles. joe dinicol is great and so is the whole movie.must see!

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Gavin G said...

Posted on Jun 16 2010 01:32 A fantastic film in everyway, great story, stunning battle sences and good acting. best movie all year.

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Clio said...

Posted on Apr 01 2010 11:52 Cliche ridden Mills and Boon level entertainment. Historically risible. Gross=Dross

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Amy Foley said...

Posted on Sep 04 2009 18:31 I found "Passchendaele" to be epic and thought provoking showing clearly that soldiers are first and foremost human beings who are loved and mourned back home. And Paul Gross is a better actor than Kevin Costner and Mel Gibson combined.

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