Passchendaele

Paul Gross

BY Hannah GuyPublished Sep 9, 2008

Six years after his homage to the eccentricities of Canada and curling (Men With Brooms), Paul Gross aims his pen and lens at a brief and emblematic snapshot of Canadian history — World War I.

The third Battle of Ypres is both a cautionary and proud tale. On one end, there is a long list of casualties during Sir Douglas Haig’s controversial push for Passchendaele through the mud, the rain and the painful advance of only a few short kilometres bathed in the blood of hundreds of thousands. On the other side is the story of a young soldier, barely tested, courage unshaken, facing the greatest of horrors. But this untried soldier is not Paul Gross, nor any of the actors in this film.

Passchendaele is a love story, true. But while lovers Michael and Sarah (Paul Gross and Caroline Dhavernas, respectively) do pull most of the screen time, with their oh-so-human flaws and subsequently believable amour, the love story that emerges is the one between director and country. This is the story of how a country grew up amongst the mud, rain and blood.

Amongst not-so-subtle thematic touches — horses, kestrels and weather shaped to mirror the journey of a man and his country — Gross manages to convincingly weave a tale that travels from fresh-faced Alberta to the grim and unending battlefields of France. Yet there is something of a Passchendaele principle that runs through the film. Whether through love, relationships, politics or life itself, there is always a sense of the futile: how the smallest, tiniest steps always take their payment in blood.

This is Canada’s ultimate coming-of-age story — a youth violated while still remaining steadfast under the onslaught of shells and death. And this, more so than the marketable romance in the film, makes Passchendaele a true love story.
(Alliance)

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