fajrdrako | Passchendaele... (Reply)

You don't see a lot of movies about Canadian history. No one sees a lot of movies about Canadian history. And here is one: a war story, a love story, and a bit of Canadian history all in one. Passchendaele, a new movie starring Paul Gross, directed by Paul Gross, and - famously - financed and made because Paul Gross went cap in hand to everyone in the country who has significant money, and begged.

It paid off. It's good.

The basic plot: Michael Dunn (played by Gross) was a Canadian soldier in World War I, and a good one. He went through horrors at Vimy Ridge and, in a horrific bit of fighting that we see at the beginning of the movie, was sent home to Calgary, a wounded hero. In the hospital, he fell in love with his nurse, Sarah Mann - but Sarah has a few dark secrets, and she doesn't want her brother David to go to war. On recovery, Michael was classisfied "neurasthenic" or shell-shocked, and made a recruiter, dedicated to keeping David out of the war. And he fails; and both he and David end up at the Battle of Passchendaele.

When the movie ended, a teen-aged girl in the row behind me said loudly to her friends, "Paul Gross is so beautiful." And he is. Even covered in mud and blood and rain and bad lighting.

There's an old-fashioned flavour to the movie. It's character-rich and story-rich. It's romantic. We see Passchendale - the whole war, in fact - from the tight viewpoint of the two protagonists.
Like all war stories, it's an anti-war story.
The sex scene was incredibly hot. Hottest thing I've seen in years. All the more so because it's underplayed. Fans who want to see Paul Gross nakedness will be disappointed; I think we see more skin on Benton Fraser.
I loved the motif of the references to matches. I'm not going to describe it; It would be like revealing a joke's punchline, though it isn't a joke. See the movie, you'll understand. The scene in which Michael Dunn explains that it isn't a joke was one of my favourites in the whole movie. (Second only to the sex scene.)
The rest of the movie was not underplayed. Not subtle. The climax is totally over the top. And yet, it's strongly and thematically set up. I don't think they quite get away with it, but they come very close. It's well structured, beautifully written, and only occasionally fouls up the pacing or the smoothness of the dialogue. I loved the way lines or themes repeated, gaining significance as they went: "only one rule", the matches, the (debunked) story of Germans crucifying a Canadian soldier. It's one of those movies where everything has significance, nothing is random. I love that.
A good bit: In Calgary, Michael Dunn is trying to romance the beautiful Sarah Mann.
Michael: Might I accompany you to a dance?
Sarah: I don't dance with soldiers.
Michael: I could lose the uniform.
Sarah: I don't dance with naked soldiers.
I cried in some scenes. Not the ones that were blatant tear-jerkers: they were too unsubtle. But some truly moving moments caught me by surprise.
I liked the female lead, Caroline Dhavernas, very much. She was so... so very Canadian. I was reminded of Chronicles of Avonlea, even though it was Alberta, not Prince Edward Island.
Despite being set in 1917, there was a wonderful national familiarity about the whole movie. The way they talked, the things they said, the attitudes. My culture, my people, in both obvious and undefinable ways. I kept thinking that actors in the cast reminded me of people I know - specific people.
That being said, the opening scenes made me think of the oh-so-very-American comic Sgt. Fury and His Howlin' Commandos. This is not a bad thing.
I very, very much liked Michael Greyeyes as Highway - I wish we'd got to know him better. I also liked the dialogue of the French-Canadian.
I thought it would have been a better movie with a slightly different ending. commodorified and auriaephiala agreed.
Afterwards, in Tim Horton's, I was moved to buy a poppy for Remembrance Day - a direct influence of the movie. Not something I usually do. Sadly, I lost it by the time I got home. That's okay. I'll get another.