On a scale of 1 to 10 I would give this film a –9. The themes are trite, hackneyed, and, frankly, an insult to the memory of all those who served or died at Passchendaele. To begin with, the film has very little to do with that battle. So why call it Passchendaele? The director would have been more accurate to call the film Passion in Dale or Sex on the Battlefield or Something Silly in Passchendaele. If the battle is only a backdrop to the plot, then don't mislead by calling it by the name that immediately invokes the battle. At least the English Patient had the good sense not to be titled El Alamein! I mention the English Patient, which I also disliked, but it is quantum leaps better than this film, which seems a very weak copy. Nurse meets soldier; nurse falls in love with soldier; soldier dies before nurse. Mr. Gross have you every heard of, read, or seen War and Peace? Perhaps the film should have been called Mr. Gross Goes to War since the director is front and center of this film. Of course sergeant Gross, a.k.a. Michael Dunne the protagonist is a hero, but not just any hero. Rather, he is a Canadian hero, heck no, not just Canadian, but an Albertan hero! You know what I mean, the silent cowboy type, man of action and integrity, but heck, no hick here, he can also wax poetic when talking about the land before his girl. And oh yes, you have to have horses here, even at the end, the riderless horse, no doubt about to carry our hero's soul to heaven. We see his noble side: helping his girl kick the drug habit, after all, got to make the film relevant you know, and it seems he does it all in one night, because if the scene was meant to portray several nights or weeks I sure didn't get it. Besides, since the evil English major already had his eye on the good sergeant, don't you think he would have known? Oh yes, clichés. The spit and polish bombastic English major, the pukka, pukka type who will be shown up as incompetent and a coward. He stands in total contrast to our down-to-earth Hoser true-man-of-action hero. We had the same representation in the film about the Canadian ascent of Everest: spit and polish but all hot air. Well, guys give it a break. When you repeat the same path in literature or film you become guilty of thinking in clichés! But let's get back to our hero, Mr. Gross, a.k.a. sergeant what's-his-name. He can't be perfect now, can he? He has to have a flaw. You know the old story about heroes having a fatal flaw. Well the good sergeant's flaw is that he shoved a bayonet through the head of a young German asking for mercy. Oops, you know he will have to pay for that. The clichés in this film are nothing compared to the idiocy of the plot. Boy meets girl. Girl says No. Then Maybe. Then Yes. But there is a hitch; she has a brother, who in his mixed up passion of lust-love, hatred and patriotism is tricked into signing up by his scheming future father-in-law. So off he goes and our good sergeant goes off to look after him as he had promised his girl. Well you know what is going to happen. He will save the boy's life and die. Yes die, because that is how that clichéd story goes. But wonder of wonders, it's not just the sergeant who turns up by the side of the boy; the baddie English major also turns up at the front in the same battalion because he wants to get back at the sergeant! At this point, ladies and gentlemen, we have flown the realm of common sense and entered the never-never coo-coo land! An over-aged major who served in the Boer War 18 years earlier, he decides to give up the comfort of his recruiting job to get back at our hero! But wait, it gets even better. The nurse also turns up at the battle. What incredible coincidence! Well, you know what's going to happen next. They just have to have sex, and of course, it's the nurse who initiates it because, after all, our upright, ethical, cowboy is above such things. Director Gross seems to like flying bodies, so the typical battle scene is one of bodies flying about like men on a trapeze. But that is nothing compared to the tour de force: the wounded brother hanging like a Christ on the cross on the German line, and, of course, our hero has to get to the boy to save him. But just to make sure that the audience understands the scale of justice and the stupidity of war, Director Gross has to hit us over the head with the symbol: shell shocked or wounded young Germans, kids in fact; remember, the good sergeant killed one in the heat of battle. So now we are primed for his death, but not before he heroically carries the boy back on his makeshift cross. Our hero is not only a man of integrity and tough, but he is super strong! He's been shot – serious enough to die from his wound but he still manages to carry the wounded boy back through the mud, the German officer in charge having given the nod – ah yes, we must also have nobility in the battle front. I forgot to add, my friend mentioned that in the midst of trench warfare, mud, rain and blood, Sergeant Gross had wonderfully white teeth! But then, he is an Albertan super hero.
Review of Passchendaele
