The people at Passchendaele

November 12, 2008

I saw the film, Passchendaele this week. It’s a Canadian made film, actually one of the most expensive ever made. It was written and directed by Calgary born Paul Gross, who also plays the lead.
It’s an incredible film, shot mostly in Canada. It follows Gross’ character Michael Dunne from the battle to a hospital in Calgary then back to the fighting again. Dunne was Gross’ grandfather, and the story is based on his own.
Gross told Now Magazine almost ten years ago about his grandfather’s confession before he died.
“He went completely out of his mind at the end. He started telling me about a hideous event that happened during a skirmish …He’d killed someone in a miserable horrible way and that had obviously haunted him throughout the rest of his life, “ said Gross. “It really affected me and I’ve not been able to get it out of my head.”
Gross ends the film at the battle of Passchendaele, with his characters fighting chest deep in shell craters filled with brown water in an endless field of grey unforgiving mud.
The Canadian troops were called to the battle when others had failed to win. They won the fight at a cost of nearly 16,000 men and a battle that lasted months, gaining the Allies about nine kilometers of ground. Five months later, the Germans re-took the ground they lost.
Intertwined in the war story is a love story.
Gross does a brilliant job of conveying Canadian courage and spirit in the film. He reminded me of the importance of Remembrance Day.
Gross’ film was not inspired by the muddy battle of Passchendaele, but by his brave, tortured grandfather who survived The Great War.
It’s not about remembering all the battles that were fought, but about the Canadians, and others who fought in them, who made sacrifices and showed courage.
We wear a poppy today because one Canadian medical officer looked up one day to see the red blooms amidst a grey field of dead, and thought, “we’re going to have to remember these people somehow.“