Canadian Movie Review: Passchendaele

Since I haven't been able to think of anything cool to write in here for a bit, how about a movie review? I'll start it up as a regular thing. Canadian Movie Review, because I like Canadian movies.

Let's start things off with a bang, and review the first large-scale Canadian war movie ever made. It came out on Friday, and I went to see it (at full price) this afternoon, because it took Paul Gross ten years to make it, and I thought he deserved $12.50 for that.

I just saw Passchendaele. Paul Gross wrote, directed, starred in, and produced it, and he also wrote the song at the end. He's like a one-man artistic machine. The only thing I haven't seen him do is paint.

It was very good. I liked it, and I don't often like war movies. It was patriotic without denying that the war was a useless slaughter. And most importantly to me:  the enemies were portrayed as humans, even though they never had dialog longer than a word. The fighting scenes were really well done. They were gory, without dwelling on or glorifying the carnage, and every once in a while there would be a well placed still shot that emphasized the main theme, which from what I understood was "this is complete madness."

I also liked how he contrasted the beauty of the Alberta foothills with the absolutely destroyed landscape of the Western Front...and the fact that anyone living in such a pretty place would probably find it very hard to imagine the horror of the front.

He hits you over the head a little bit with the imagery and symbolism at the end, but war movies often do, so I don't hold it against him.

It's nice because it is all Canadian, and you get to see how many cool people we have in our country, even though, all things considered, the main cast isn't really that big. The only two well-known actors are Paul Gross and Gil Bellows (who most may know from the Shawshank Redemption or Ally McBeal). Michael Greyeyes plays a small role in the film too. He is not that well known, but a really cool guy.

There were some great lines in the film. I think it really suited, because, even in the most horrible of circumstances, there were these really funny lines and hilarious moments. Since one of Canada's main exports is comedians, I found it very fitting. The comedy never detracted, it just reaffirmed that yes - these guys are Canadian. It was also nice that even given the small main cast, Gross made sure to include representatives of all three of the founding nations of Canada.

A couple note-worthy things:

There is a guy at the beginning of the film with the most amazing blue-eyes. I am not sure if they were contacts or not, but they were simply amazing. Paul Gross did a really good job in making that guy's eyes one of the most beautiful things you will ever see.

The song at the end, which is written by Paul Gross and David Keeley (his long-time songwriting partner) is sung by Sarah Slean, and it is very very pretty. I think it is called "After the War" but I could be wrong.

Don Ross was thanked as a contributer. Man, Don Ross is awesome.

At the end of the film as the credits roll, there are all these really old restored movies from the war that play at the side. I thought that was a really really good way to end off the film. So, you don't forget that although the main characters were fictional, the soldiers in the old restored war films were real people who died senseless deaths for no real reason whatsoever - mostly, just because they were considered unpatriotic (at the time, to the British Empire) if they didn't.

So, there's my movie review. It's a war movie, so it's not a barrel of laughs, but it's a Canadian war movie, so you'll chuckle, cry, and then walk away thinking.