I just got back from the Calgary premiere of the Passchendaele movie. Before I offer an opinion on the film, I need to point out that I am biased in favour of the film for many reasons: it's a Canadian movie, filmed in my backyard, about the Great War, featuring the 10th Battn CEF (ancestor of my former regiment, the Calgary Highlanders), and so on. It probably didn't help that half the audience were cast and crew, half the rest were current or former CF and the balance were sponsors of the film (except me, I just kinda snuck in quietly).
I found myself seated next to a veteran who had toured France, Belgium and Holland back in 1944-45. He had some good stories and was great company. He's never been back to Europe, only place he said he wanted to see was Caen, because he wanted to see what it was supposed to look like, not how it looked after he was done with it!
After a brief entertainment from the spit and dribble gang from HMCS Tecumseh and the KOCR, a couple of proper musicians piped in the stars of the show. We then had an hour of speeches (politicians, sponsors, producers, director, blah blah blah). Finally, the show began.
Not sure how far I should go into describing the movie. Action starts on the Western Front, where our hero gets himself wounded and sent home to Calgary to recuperate. We then have a nice romantic movie as the relationships between the major characters are established, and then the action moves back to Flanders just in time for the attack on Passchendaele.
This is an epic scale movie, like they used to make in the 60s and 70s. It looked great to me - the filmmakers did their homework and got things as accurate as they could. I noticed lots of little things that stood out, like the division patches on all the soldiers, the proper use of C10 collar badges on the enlisted men (and correct 10th Battn collar badges for the officers). Tactics looked correct to me, especially the importance of artillery. I suppose that the attempts to slip information into the dialogue sometimes gets a bit thick, but they try to do it with a sense of humour.
It is definitely a Canadian production, and takes pride in that. I don't think they go over the top with jingoism - Canadians are shown and described doing bad things (eg, executing prisoners), but of course I am biased. The Canadian Corps pride is pretty much what you would expect of any highly motivated troops - and they had good reason for being proud.
My only complaint is right at the end. It was almost like they didn't know how to end the story - I wish they could have found another way to close things up. But that's a minor quibble for an otherwise smashing good flick.
I'll recommend Passchendale to all Canadians and to all who are interested in the Great War.
Regards
w
07 March 2011, 12:17:23 AM