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Passchendaele [Blu-ray] [2008]

Paul Gross , Caroline Dhavernas , Paul Gross    Suitable for 15 years and over   Blu-ray
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
Price: £5.75 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Passchendaele [Blu-ray] [2008] + Beneath Hill 60 [DVD] + My Boy Jack [DVD]
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Product details

  • Actors: Paul Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Joe Dinicol, Meredith Bailey, Jim Mezon
  • Directors: Paul Gross
  • Format: PAL
  • Region: Region B/2 (Read more about DVD/Blu-ray formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9 - 1.78:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 15
  • Studio: High Fliers
  • DVD Release Date: 25 Jan 2010
  • Run Time: 110 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (103 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B002MGJT0C
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 47,474 in Film & TV (See Top 100 in Film & TV)

Reviews

Product Description

A shell shocked veteran Michael Dunne returns home to Canada where he is assigned to help the on-going recruitment drive needed to feed the war machine. As he recovers from his experiences he falls for Sarah a war nurse whose younger brother cannot enlist due to a medical condition. Desperate to serve his country David uses a fraudulent medical certificate and joins the army. Michael feels he has no option but to follow him back to the Western Front and protect him from harm. Both men are dispatched to the front line of Passchendaele a battle that became synonymous with the misery of the First World War and claimed over 600,000 casualties. Special Features: Making of Passchendaele

Product Description

Paul Gross, Caroline Dhavernas, Joe Dinicol, Meredith Bailey, Jim MezonDirector: Paul Gross


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
72 of 80 people found the following review helpful
By Trevor Willsmer HALL OF FAME TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:DVD
The Third Battle of Ypres was fought in the most nightmarish conditions of any campaign on the Western Front, going from initial unexploited victory to muddy, bloody stalemate, yet despite the impossible conditions, the Canadian troops who fought there, like the Australians, distinguished themselves on a remarkably regular basis, inadvertently providing endless material for a truly great film. Unfortunately Passchendaele, Canada's most expensive film to date (but still mostly unreleased outside its borders), is not that film. Even more unfortunately, it has the feel of a vanity project, with Due South's Mountie Paul Gross writing, co-producing, directing, providing the end title song and giving himself a leading role with all the things actors love to do as a heroic/cynical/tragic/shellshocked Canadian soldier who falls in love with a nurse back home (Caroline Dhavernas, an appealing actress who delivers the film's most convincing performance) before being thrown back into the fray to keep an eye on her screwed up brother. Looking like Patrick Wayne and often sounding like the Duke - "Bring on the Hell!" - he's rendered as too much of a stock WW2 movie character despite being based on a real person, which keeps you from taking him or the movie seriously.

Nor do the opening heroics convince - like much of the film, too many of the attitudes ring false, from its far too modern hero to the designer cynicism. For all the sporadic faux-Saving Private Ryan combat sequences, these are always stock movie characters in stock movie situations saying stock movie dialogue like "You're looking for romance, kid, you're not going to find it in a trench." The latter might be one reason why it spends most of its running time away from the hellholes and mud of Flanders and in the gloriously photographed scenic grandeur of smalltown Alberta instead. Some occasional details are right, like the soldiers sleeping on the hospital floor because after months of trench life ordinary beds are agony for them, others are wrong (it places nurses much closer to the frontline than they were allowed to provide a romantic reunion), but while it recreates period details it often completely misses the feeling of being set in another time. Only the brashly enthusiastic British recruiting officer seems a spot on characterisation, and he's there primarily to further the melodrama, which this film has in spades. It's at its best when evoking Frank Hurley's iconic photographs of the battlefield (though Hurley's portraits were mainly of Australian soldiers), but even these are ultimately undermined by an ending that takes allegory into utter absurdity as our wounded hero carries a crucified soldier through Flanders mud as all the guns fall silent, a scene that's hard to watch without hearing John Wayne's voice in your head saying "Aw, truly this man wuz tha son of God."

Thankfully this is a lot better than Canada's last shot in the blockbuster stakes, the woeful and risible Battle of the Brave/Nouvelle France, and it's not the total misfire of Joyeaux Noel or the utter disaster of The Trench, but it is ultimately just a common-or-garden war movie: okay if you're in a undemanding mood, but constantly failing every chance to be more. For all the clichés it does work in fits and starts, but it's very much an old-fashioned war movie of the kind that would have been made in the 50s rather than the great film it at times seems to think it is. It's very easy to see it being made with the cast of D-Day: The 6th of June - Dana Andrews in the Gross role, Dana Wynter in the Dhavernas one, Edmond O'Brien as the jaded Canadian commander, Richard Todd as the British recruiting officer... But even in 1956 they'd have baled at that scene with the cross.

Unlike the Canadian and Asian DVDs, this UK release is also presented in the wrong ratio - near 1.85:1 rather than the original 2.35:1 - giving you just one more reason to wait until it turns up on TV.
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21 of 24 people found the following review helpful
2.0 out of 5 stars another WW1 disappointment 25 Feb 2010
Format:DVD
This is a Canadian film set during the WW1 battle at Passchendaele in 1917. Paul Gross from Due South, wrote, directed and starred in an accurate recreation of the battle scenes. For Gross it's a personal film, his grandfather fought there and the opening scenes describe what he did that haunted him for the rest of his life.

The plot is the Gross character is wounded and sent home to Canada with shell shock. He falls in love with a nurse, who initially can't reciprocate because she's trained not to care too much about the thousands of patients she has to treat. So Gross invalided of the army is sent home to recruit.

In Canada he meets a young man who wants to fight but because of asthma isn't allowed to join up. The veteran can't reason with him there is nothing noble or glorious in war and having befriended him is horrified when he tricks his way into the army and straight to the mud and slaughter of Passchendaele. Gross returns to the fray to protect the young soldier.

This film accurately shows the horror of fighting in the incessant rain and mud at Passchandaele. Most of the film is a slow build up to this climax. The first hour is boring, wallowing in melodrama. Gross isn't a Hollywood A-lister and it shows here as he can't carry the film. We have a token baddy who happens to be British (no surprise there).

The budget was limited and it shows. We are hard to shock today after seeing Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers, both productions miles better. As for Passchendaele, don't waste your time.
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62 of 76 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars crass 10 Feb 2010
Format:DVD
I was told about this film during the summer. i was on a trip to the battlefields of the Western front with a mate. We visited Newfoundland park and Passchendaele and met a few Canadians. i was told what a great film it was and eagerly awaited the DVD release and Oh what a disappointment. i think this was just about the most pretentious, crass war film I have ever seen. The acting was risible, so much so i thought it was a comedy at first. the characters had no depth, it used stereotypes and the battle scenes were cartoonish. It was so obvious. The first half of the film was a boring waste of my time and the second half laugh out loud bad. take the shot of our hero walking alone down a plank road through the desolation of the wet Flanders plain. cue the director shouting "and action" and all of a sudden on walk the actors, hilarious. The final reel where our hero carries his girlfriends brothers body back on his crucifix a la Christ on the Via Dolorosa was so bad I cringed. "my men, my modern Christs, your bloody agony confronts the world" hardly, it was an insult to the brave Canadians who martyred themselves in Flanders. Don't watch this film, it is dreadful.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
2.0 out of 5 stars Shame about the script (and the director/writer/lead ego trip)
This film had very authentic costume and sets, well filmed and technially good. The problem is the massive ego of the writer director and lead who manages to ruin the piece with a... Read more
Published 14 days ago by Robert A. H. Smith
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent DVD
Excellent. I would recommend this firm to any of my family and friends. Quick posting, and cheap at the price.
Published 3 months ago by Mr G. D. Pash
4.0 out of 5 stars The Mission
I generally enjoyed it. My reservation was probably unfair but the determination of our hero to do right and put right his wrong seemed just a little cloying. Only reservation.
Published 4 months ago by T G James
5.0 out of 5 stars great film, moving story but sadly no subtitles
enjoyed the film apart from the lack of subtitles, being hard of hearing and wearing 2 hearing aids i need subtitles and cannot believe that any film nowadays is issued on dvd or... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Andy R. Wilson
3.0 out of 5 stars Tweee
Seeing as how this film is depicting the story of 1 man at Ypres and concentrates on the 3rd battle of Ypres, as well as telling a true story I had high hopes for this movie. Read more
Published 4 months ago by JimmyG
1.0 out of 5 stars Utter Rubbish..
If you enjoy typical Hollywood story lines then this may suit otherwise avoid at all costs. Utterly boring relegated to one star solely for good sets.
Published 6 months ago by Michael Byrne
3.0 out of 5 stars A HISTORICAL BATTLE GIVEN INACCURATE TREATMENT!
Perhaps due to the stagnant trench warfare and horrific slaughter associated with the First World War, land battles are usually neglected by film makers. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Napoleon
5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant
Brilliant, enjoyable story, excellently acted and directed with some of the best production values I have seen for years. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Gnome
1.0 out of 5 stars Utter Rubbish...
Simply the worst film i have ever seen the acting is appaling and the story line is plain boring.....
How anybody can like this tripe is totally beyond me. Read more
Published 8 months ago by AndrewW
2.0 out of 5 stars A FILM ABOUT ROMANCE AT WARTIME.
The first ten minutes are really shocking ones, almost as good as you can expect from any other film focus in a just a battle (like 'Saving private Ryan'). Read more
Published 9 months ago by Alexander1746
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