Passchendaele (2008)

Excellent, graphic action spoiled by a pointless love interest? Short answer? Yup.The attention to detail, sets and action are all commendable. The 'horror' of war well communicated. A few factoids thrown in to give the 'event' scale. All good.But......unexplained gaps in time, a plain Jane love interest, clichéd old time British officer, terrible incidental music, the unlikeliest bunk up in history and a field hospital in the middle of the battle field (or how else could they witness 'the crucifiction'?) spoiled an otherwise enjoyable film.However the cherry on top for me was the cleanest, shortest heroin withdrawal ever. One night was all it took. A few cramps, shakes and slight sweat was all that needed to be endured. No long days of vomit, lying in your own urine, dry retching, explosive diarrhea, abusive insults, begging for one last hit, desperate promises or attempted sexual bribes were seen. Maybe things were just better 'back in the day'? Watch the first 20 minutes, spool forward an hour, watch the last 20 minutes, avoid the awful 'funeral' final scene and you'll have an excellent short. That's it.

What a missed opportunity. This could have been a great anti war film but it turns out to be a Canadian Pearl Harbor (Michael Bay's that is) drama with an overblown love story and sometimes terrible dialogs. I could not identify with or care about any of the characters. The battle scenes try to evoke a Saving Private Ryan feeling but they look terribly staged. Thank God it ends after about 2 hours and does not drag on for another hour. If you really want to watch an interesting and compelling movie about the horrors of the Great War I do recommend "All Quiet on the Western Front" (the original as well as the remake) or the Australian production "Gallipoli".

Passchendaele is the biggest pile or fantasy ridden rubbish to have ever spun round in my blue-ray player. I would rather eat a slice of ham that has been festering in one of chunks fat flaps that have my retinas assaulted with this abortion of a film again..This film has produced one of the most comical battle scenes I have ever seen. The main guys young comrade falls into a German trench and was just about to be shot when an artillery shell lands in the trench blowing him and the duck-boards he was lying on out into no mans land...after the smoke clears the young soldier is crucified to the duck boards, facing his comrades, spread out like Jesus....stuck upright in the mud...I half expected to hear someone shout HE'S NOT THE MESSIAH, HE'S A VERY NAUGHTY BOY....however, as I watched the main guy run through no mans land, dodging bullets, cries of COVERING FIRE bellowing out the mouths of his comrades I did not expect what was about to follow...He then, with the help of the Germans who have all stopped firing, takes down the cross and starts dragging it back to his side.. all that was missing was a crown of thorns...I turned the turgid mess off after that...I was tempted to watch for comedy value but my soul had already suffered...How on earth this movie won any type of award is beyond me...Please never buy this film, its terrible, rent it...laugh...then thank the lord that you read my review

The DVD of this had been staring at me every time I ventured into my local HMV branch, vying for my '2 for £10' cash. It looked promising, until it was shown, just now on BBC1.Radio Times, rather shockingly awarded this Canadian WWI movie a cursory one star. Their renowned and respected critic David Parkinson had derided it - How - and what - could make it so utterly bad?On a surface level, it's not a bad looking film, so the deficiencies are more than skin deep and they seep up and slowly overwhelm its audience. The bland, uninspiring characters, who we just can't warm to or rally around, the boring romantic tangents that help waste up to an hour of its lengthy near two hour runtime.Those who might celebrate a war film that's not all about guns and blowing people up, still might find that the entire run seems set on half-speed. The Canadian mountainous landscapes help offset an air of grimy doom, that binds the whole project like constricting barbed wire on the Front. Many reviewers have carped on about the menial dialogue; we don't expect Shakespearian dialogue amongst frightened squaddies on battlefront, but a believable one would have helped.It was the religious symbolism in the final frames that really got David Parkinson's goat - played out totally for melodramatic effect. I'm not religious, so it did not offend me - I cannot begin to imagine the feelings that those that are, might have.In a way, I'm glad that I watched Passchendale and I did so for free and that I won't have to see it again. It's a name of a place that is steeped in History and as fewer WWI veterans remain with us, it's even more important that their memories - and that they fought so bravely for the freedom that we enjoy - and take for granted now, are kept alive. Unfortunately, this film doesn't do that, but fortunately, because it is pretty poor, few people will ever get to see it.