They even made their own mud
After an evening of home cinema, a quote is necessary. “Once more into the breech, dear friends”. Although I’ve always believed that the best reason for watching a movie at home was the freedom to pause, consult the food stores, relieve the pressure and hit play, tonight proved an exception. I didn’t leave my seat, not once, because the newest Canadian battle story kept me in place. Put it down to fear of the incessant rain, or the chance of a stray mortar hit, but Passchendaele is one of those movies that actually works.
The story is not as linear as the actor/producer/director/writer may have planned, but all is forgiven, now that the war is over, and the rains have ceased. Yes, there’s a love story, and there’s some biting political commentary, and the oxymoron of military intelligence is in your face for the full two hours (assuming that you watch the credits and wait for the lights to come back up). For my part, the real story is told in the special extra footage about how the movie was made.
I have a clearer idea about how you can have rain on demand. Ditto for dead, bombed out forests. The basics of the bayonet attack haven’t changed in centuries. Mud is mud. So is triage in a hospital. The parallels with our current involvement in a foreign war are easy to make; nobody knew why our army was up to its butt in boggy fields over in Belgium, either. Paul Gross wants to send a message to the youth of Canada, and if they take the time to sit down and follow the story line (two hours, in a living room near you), he may manage to get the word out to our generation. As I mentioned, the old adage of “Into the breech” is still relevant.
