Passchendaele

Posted By Thomas E. Ricks Monday, March 23, 2009 - 6:27 PM Share


I see where Passchendaele was the top grossing Canadian-made film in Canada last year. Anyone know whether it is any good? Or should I delete it from my Netflix queue?

EXPLORE:CANADA, CULTURE, FUN STUFF
 

YALECANUCK

6:58 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Passchendaele

Not that bad a flick for a rainy Sunday afternoon. Compelling 'action' footage and historically accurate, but the cast and acting are a bit wooden. Worth a 3/5 I think.

 

YALECANUCK

7:00 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Passchendaele

Not quite Letters from Iwo Jima, but much better than that horrid WWI AAF movie that was out a couple of years ago.

 

GUY

7:07 PM ET

March 23, 2009

Not Bad

Its no 'Come and See'. It suffers from most of the usual things WW1 movies do, reconciling history (particularly recent revisionist history) with what an audience expects. However it does it fairly well.

It also has something of a 'Gallipoli' vibe with the Canadians presented as an elite but it doesn't press it too far. Perhaps most relevant is that this is a war-rom and the romance is pretty hefty so be aware of that.

And it does have Paul Gross so you can always just pretend that this is ''Due South' the WW1 years.'

 

ABURRELL30

11:47 AM ET

March 24, 2009

It also has something of a

It also has something of a 'Gallipoli' vibe with the Canadians presented as an elite . . .

A widely held view, in both cases.

 

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military for the Washington Post from 2000 through 2008.

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