Who is the Audience for This Movie?

People who like war themed movies.

What I Liked About This Movie

Paul Grosse did a solid job both behind and in front of the camera. As an actor he does seem like a leading man role but if I had to choose between Grosse the actor and Grosse the director I would choose Director. I live in the province this movie was shot (Alberta) and every time a beautiful landscape was on display it made me want to start planning a photo taking trip. My expectations for the acting side of things were fairly low so when only one or two actors were not good (like the nurses brother) I was pleasantly surprised.

Once the war scenes started I was all eyes. After finishing the movie I viewed a bit of the lengthy documentary that accompanied it and the war scenes look almost identical to what the actual battlefield looked like. There are plenty of those intense moments you expect to see when watching a war movie. The later half of the movie delivered the exact experience I was hoping the entire movie would. I may been totally on board with the direction they ended up going with to conclude the movie but the final shot is incredible. Shortly after the last shot you are treated to real footage of Canadian soldiers which I thought was a really nice touch. If you are a Canadian you will definitely want to watch the credits.

What Didn’t Work For Me

You can tell by how the movie is structured that it was not nearly as heavily funded as many of the American war movies are. A very long time is spent on building the characters relationships. I was getting incredibly frustrated because the movie had so few “RA RA Canada” moments. Off the top of my head I cannot remember the last time I watched a war movie that centered on the Canadians participation in WWI or WWII.

Before watching Passchendaele I was really looking forward to finally seeing a movie that does justice to our heritage but instead what you are subjected to is a drawn out love story with war elements.

Should You Watch This Movie?

If you are a Canadian I would.

My Rating (Out of 13)

Share This Review With Others!!