Ryan McNeil
Now PASSCHENDAELE steps up to the mic to try to tell audiences something they need to remember. The question is – can it possibly have anything new to say?
PASSCHENDAELE begins on the front lines of WWI in France. Sgt. Michael Dunne (Paul Gross) survives a close-contact firefight in a French town, but is left shell shocked by what he has seen and what he has done.He is sent home to Calgary where he is treated in a medical hospital by a comely young nurse named Sarah (Caroline Dhavernas). She eases him back to health, and seems to be one of the very few that understand what post traumatic stress disorder is many years before it will be given such a name. The two enter a timid friendship, with the seargent forming starry eyed dreams of something more.
One thing that makes this difficult, is the fact that the Canadian Forces see his mental condition as nothing more than cowardice. Such fragile resolve is not an excuse to escape one’s duty to Queen and Country. This is the time where every man must enlist…is expected to ship off and fight in the great war. This leads to the second difficulty, which is Sarah’s younger brother David (Joe Dinicol). Not only is he battling athsma – a similarly poorly regarded excuse for exemption – but he is in love with a young lady himself. It just so happens that this young lady’s father won’t allow her to court such a coward, and the only way David can enlist is to get Sgt. Dunne to overlook his athsma and sign him up.
Through a deceitful channel, David gets enlisted. This humiliates Dunne and enfuriates Sarah. The only action Dunne can think of to atone, is to re-enlist himself, and watch over David. Both men are assigned to 1st Canadian Division’s 10th Battalion – a group that is getting called “The Stormtroopers” by the enemy. Together they are dispatched to Passchendaele, to fight in one of the messiest, bloodiest battles in Canada’s history, and both of them are trying to survive for the women they love.
The movie is an ambitious project for Canadian film making. World War One isn’t a popular film subject anymore, and in fact is in danger of fading from the collective memory. It was a war vastly unlike the wars fought now, and for those horrific differences, it’s a fight that deserves to be remembered. In this respect, the movie has created some gritty, rattling sequenecs that are among the best I’ve ever watched. Unfortunately though, there is a thin red line between honouring and over-selling, and PASSCHENDAELE finds itself on the wrong side a few too many times including one very poorly thought-out visual metaphor.
Where the movie frustrates the most, is the amount of time it stays in Calgary. This stretch on the homefront provides for some of the best moments in the script. For instance, while taking part in a medical symposium on the effects of shrapnel fire, Sgt. Dunne is asked to concur with the theory that being aware of what shell fire can do is a soldier’s foremost concern on the front lines. Dunne disagrees – he puts forth that a soldier’s foremost concern is keeping his matches dry. It’s a great line, and a great moment that sums things up rather nicely. Unfortunately, PASSCHENDAELE can’t leave it there, and feels the need to spell out that response later on.
Moments like these keep coming, so they make it difficult to look past the made-for-tv photography and the drippy love story that is nothing new and zero in on the heroism and sacrifice that this WWI story wants you to zero in on. The movie is a passion project for Paul Gross. Along with starring in it, he directed it, produced it, wrote it, and probably served salad at the craft table in between takes. While his acting is engaging, he might have been better to get a few more cooks in the kitchen to balance things out.
PASSCHENDAELE comes so close so often, but ultimately becomes yet another casualty of the well-intended. It isn’t nearly as good as the sum of its parts, and misses a wonderful chance to become an epic unlike any canadian film before it. It is a thoughtful tribute to those who fought for our freedom, but much like the battlefield Passchendaele was fought on, it is a muddy mess.
Ryan, thank you for your comments. Yes, this is quite a bit more compelling than just the .jpg, which confused me. Was it supposed to be a review of the picture? Yours is an excellent review! I’d like to suggest something to a fellow film-watcher, and see what you think.
(I’m trying very hard not to reveal a spoiler.) During the “poorly thought-out visual metaphor” scene, turn off the music track and imagine the movie as just having the silence, sounds of labored breathing and footsteps in the mud. I think having the soaring music took that scene over the top.
Now, imagine the penultimate scene in the triage unit with the same soundtrack which was eliminated from the previous scene. Slash the dialogue to only the last line by the female character. Cut to the ultimate scene, with the soundtrack still over and you have essentially the same movie but toned down. What do you think?
Welcome to The Matinee, Lynn.
Your ideas on little changes are interesting for certain, but the problem is that they lean on the audience to become the director, instead of (of course) the director being the director. As I think back on it (notice the date on this review is four years old), it wasn’t the soaring melodramatic score that had me antsy about the metaphor…it was that the sacrifice of our soldiers was literally being shown as one having a cross to bear.
Have Dunne rescuing Mann from any other form of torture, and it doesn’t feel so blunt.
Ultimately I thought the film was “good” – but a few changes like that could have made into something “great”.
Thanks for the comment and for reminding me of this watch – hopefully you’ll keep coming back and looking in on some of my newer work.