Passchendaele is one of my favorite war movies. The setting is WWI. The dialogue is what I picture would be close to the truth if you were to talk to a person from the front lines. The main character is dealing with a lot of guilt in which he is looking for a way to tone for his sins from his part of being in the war. He is full of guilt over killing an enemy solider boy who he did not have to and then he feels responsible for the death of his mother. Because of his up bringing he cannot just go and put a bullet into his head so he finds away to get back to the fight where the odds is in his favor of dying in battle. The main character Paul Gross had neurasthenic, which is also known as shell shock or today as PTSD. I believe this is one of Paul's Gross best performance as an actor. The movie goes as far as demonstrating to the audience how there was a huge difference between the people who were behind the lines and safe living in Canada and the people who actually were fighting in the front lines or should I say the men and boys who were fighting in the front lines as women and girls did not. A well worth movie to watch even a second time.

Passchendaele is an excellent movie that has never really gotten the type of coverage it deserves. Whether this is because it is focused on a Canadian troop instead of the USA or because it doesn't glorify war I don't know but it is unfortunate.

Passchendaele is a movie set in World War One, as history enthusiasts may know. It is one of the few movies that showcase the battles Canadians fought in World War One. Michael Dunne returns home from battle as he has a psychological disorder. His girlfriend’s brother, who has asthma, decides to enlist in the war to gain acknowledgement from his girlfriend’s father, and Dunne is blamed for his choice to enlist by his girlfriend. Dunne returns to war in order to protect David (his girlfriend’s brother). This movie has a lot of emotions and the ending will stick.
Rating: 3.5/5
- @JuiceboxZ of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library

Torturous to complete, this film is filled with horrible dialogue and painful acting amidst an awful plot and sloppy set design. Paul Gross does a mildly passable job at acting but his writing and direction are clearly not his strong suits. The action is filmed decently but make up less than 10% of the runtime. A promising idea but terrible execution, and the ham-fisted ending is laughable rather than the emotional intent. Do not watch.

This is a 2008 Canadian First World War film written, co-produced and directed by Paul Gross, who also plays Sergeant Michael Dunne.
Sergean Dunne is brutally wounded in France and returns to Calgary emotionally and physically scarred.
But he again joins the army and faces the Battle of Passchendaele, also known as the Third Battle of Ypres.
On October 26, 1917 the Canadian corps entered the battle of Passchendaele.
Within a week they captured the ruined village at a cost of 5,000 lives.
The entire campaign lasted four months and claimed 600,000 casualties on both sides.
An enemy offensive the following spring, however, recaptured the hard-won ground in less than a week.
The story was inspired by the director's relationship with his maternal grandfather, Michael Joseph Dunne, who served in the 56th, 5th, 14th and 23rd Reserve Battalions.
Like many veterans, he was reticent about sharing his experiences with his family.
In a rare conversation on a fishing trip, the elder Dunne told the story of bayonetting a young German soldier, who had eyes like water, through the head and killing him during a battle.
A long time later, as the elder Dunne lay in a hospital bed in the last days of his life, his family was mystified by his behaviour of asking for forgiveness, over and over.
Only the director knew that he was speaking about the young German he had killed.
Although the last part of the story is apparently fictional, it is a heart-wrenching and unbelievable tale with love, courage and dedication.

I loved it! David especially. Worth watching and incredibly well done

A movie that matures a person about the realities of war. The battle scenes were replicas of the original battles based on photographs and much research. An extraordinary view of the sacrifice many people (on both sides) made for their countries. A must see film especially for anyone considering entering a war zone (including the special feature "making of the movie"). Unforgettable!

A very sentimental and mushy movie. Highly over dramatic and predictable. There are a lot of better war/romance movies.

Worth watching. More of a romance than a war movie, it is generally well done.

A++ DVD